Shame

Passages

Every passage tagged with this emotion in the Vela corpus. Search the body text, narrow by source or register, click through to a book’s profile to see how the passage sits with the rest of the work.

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• From Understanding the Old Testament (2019)

  l e Ct Ure 3 | What g od i ntended for a dam and e ve 17 Final Verses of Genesis 2 Verse 23 goes on: “Then the man said, ‘This one at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. This one shall be called woman, for from man. She was taken.’” This reveals a pun in Hebrew. The word for man is Ish and the word for woman is Isha, which also is how you would pronounce “her man.” Verse 24 continues: “Therefore a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, so that they become one flesh.” The image here is of monogamy, even though polygamy was legal in ancient Israel. Regardless, the author of Genesis 2 holds that monogamy is the default relationship. The small problem in this verse is that in ancient Israel, men didn’t leave their fathers and mothers. A woman left her father and mother and moved in with a man and his parents. It is possible that the leaving here is psychological rather than residential. Next, the reader comes to verse 25: “But the two of them were naked, the man and his wife, yet they felt no shame.” To a certain extent, this is not meant to sound as ominous as it does, because nakedness in Israelite culture always meant shame. Every time nakedness is used in the Old Testament, it is symbolic of poverty. If the characters are naked, the audience would assume they were ashamed unless told otherwise. Despite their lack of shame, the lurking threat that there is one tree they shouldn’t eat, that they might die, and that perhaps they ought to be ashamed underscores a philosophic argument: The nature of the universe as it has been described in Genesis 2 is meant in the Israelite mind as what ought to be, not what really is. This is interesting, because in no other ancient Near Eastern creation myth was humanity once living in a different state than now. Every other creation myth explains how the world came to be, and that it is as intended. Genesis 2 is saying the way things are now is not the way God would really have wanted it to be, and it’s our fault that it’s not. Understanding the o ld testament 18 Questions to Consider Y If the human was created to work in the Garden of Eden, how is this any different from ancient Near Eastern creation myths, where the purpose of humanity is to farm for and feed the gods? Y Is woman being made from man in itself suggesting a subordinate creature, regardless of whether he names her or not? Suggested Reading Blenkinsopp, Un-creation, and Re-creation . LaCoque, The Trial of Innocence.

• From The Incendiaries (2018)

  Since I had Julian as a guide, I started meeting the Edwards students admitted into this pinnacle of learning with the single purpose, from what I could see, of having fun. To flaunt the privilege. In thrift-store ballgowns, they splashed through off-limits fountains. Champagne foamed like gold dissolving. Open up, like a good girl, Julian said, a white pill glinting in his palm. I tipped back my head. The pills split time. I flopped on the wet lawn to cool down. Light spilled from open doors. Drunks lurched, spun. Silhouettes flared into detail, then fizzled out again. I woke late, head muddled. Lunch lasted hours. I piled up invitations. I switched roles with Julian, taking him places. He followed along, gleeful. Don’t forget, though, he said. I’ve called dibs on you. Hands off, I tell them. She’s all mine. – Oh, but I wasn’t. Before Will, I had, for instance, the squash recruit who liked sucking toes. The poet who kept a ball pit in his suite’s living room. Girl bait, he said. The jazz flautist. Phil, who pissed in the hall closet because, late at night, he believed it to be a bathroom stall, and Tim, who lined his room with emptied wine bottles, like trophies. But no, I don’t mean to be glib. I got in the habit, with friends, Julian, of turning one-night flings into stories. The truth is, I wince if I think of that first month at Edwards. I recall it in pieces: ill-lit body parts, spit-glossed penises. Pinched nipples. Elbows and bad aim. They’d wheeze, then mild pain. Is that all right? they’d ask. I lied, to be kind. I drank a lot. In bars, I left full drinks unattended. Then, I gulped them down. If I failed to be careful, she might notice. She’d have to come back. One night, I put on the shortest dress I owned, and then I sat on a low wall on the edge of campus, legs dangling. Red lights spotted the intersection. I watched the crowd pass, thinking, Pick me up, until someone did. He didn’t have protection. It’s fine, I said. Go ahead. Downtown, in a split-level dive called Levi’s, I fell into conversation with Greg, a local, a high-school dropout in his thirties. I’d first met him because he sold Julian drugs. I went home with Greg, then I let him tie me to his bed. He fucked me through a hole he razored open in my tights. I shared a bottle of gin with him; I felt light-headed, ill, until I woke in a hospital bed. I was brought in throwing up, a nurse explained. No, I’d come in an ambulance. I had a little too much alcohol, but I’d be all right. The hospital had given me fluids. Hush, doll, she said. You’ll be fine.

• From Amplified Holy Bible (2015)

  And from man, from every man’s brother [that is, anyone who murders] I will require the life of man. [Ex 21:28 , 29 ] 6 “Whoever sheds man’s blood [unlawfully], By man (judicial government) shall his blood be shed, For in the image of God He made man. [Rom 13:4 ] 7 “As for you, be fruitful and multiply; Populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it.” 8 Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, 9 “Now behold, I am establishing My covenant (binding agreement, solemn promise) with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that is with you—the birds, the livestock, and the wild animals of the earth along with you, of everything that comes out of the ark—every living creature of the earth. 11 “I will establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the water of a flood, nor shall there ever again be a flood to destroy and ruin the earth.” 12 And God said, “This is the token (visible symbol, memorial) of the [solemn] covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations; 13 I set My rainbow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. 14 “It shall come about, when I bring clouds over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the clouds, 15 and I will [compassionately] remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again will the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 “When the rainbow is in the clouds and I look at it, I will [solemnly] remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17 And God said to Noah, “This [rainbow] is the sign of the covenant (solemn pledge, binding agreement) which I have established between Me and all living things on the earth.” 18 The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem and Ham and Japheth. Ham would become the father of Canaan. 19 These are the three sons of Noah, and from these [men] the whole earth was populated and scattered with inhabitants. 20 And Noah began to farm and cultivate the ground and he planted a vineyard. 21 He drank some of the wine and became drunk, and he was uncovered and lay exposed inside his tent. 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw [by accident] the nakedness of his father, and [to his father’s shame] told his two brothers outside. 23 So Shem and Japheth took a robe and put it on both their shoulders, and walked backwards and covered the nakedness of their father; their faces were turned away so that they did not see their father’s nakedness.

• From Amplified Holy Bible (2015)

  20 Then the king commanded Hilkiah, Ahikam the son of Shaphan, Abdon the son of Micah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah a servant of the king, saying, 21 “Go, inquire of the LORD for me and for those who are left in Israel and in Judah in regard to the words of the book which has been found; for great is the wrath of the LORD which has been poured out on us because our fathers have not kept and obeyed the word of the LORD , to act in accordance with everything that is written in this book.” Huldah, the Prophetess, Speaks 22 So Hilkiah and those whom the king had told went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe (now she lived in Jerusalem, in the Second Quarter); and they spoke to her about this. 23 And she answered them, “Thus says the LORD , the God of Israel: ‘Tell the man who sent you to me, 24 thus says the LORD : “Behold, I am bringing evil on this place and on its inhabitants, all the curses that are written in the book which they have read in the presence of the king of Judah. 25 “Because they have abandoned (rejected) Me and have burned incense to other gods, in order to provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands, a My wrath will be poured out on this place and it will not be extinguished.” ’ 26 “But you shall say the following to King Josiah of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD : ‘Thus says the LORD God of Israel, concerning the words which you have heard, 27 “Because your heart was gentle and penitent and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and its inhabitants, and humbled yourself before Me, and tore your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you,” declares the LORD . 28 “Behold, I will gather you to your fathers [in death], and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the evil which I am going to bring on this place and on its inhabitants.” ’ ” So they brought back word to the king. 29 Then the king sent word and gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. 30 And the king went up to the house of the LORD with all the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests, the Levites, and all the people, from the greatest to the least; and he read aloud so they could hear all the words of the Book of the Covenant which was found in the house of the LORD .

• From Unbought and Unbossed: Transgressive Black Women, Sexuality, and Representation (2014)

  This attack on black women, their bodies, and character has long-standing historical underpinnings; and it has long been an issue with varying consequences for and responses from black women. To assert their subjectivity and contest pathologized sexual infamy, African American women of the early black women's club movement, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, embraced dissemblance and propriety with regard to sexuality. In response to having been marked as morally/sexually depraved and outside the realm of womanhood-and the protection and attendant characteristics this designation provided-black women, mostly from the middle class, adopted respectability, propriety, and a politics of silence surrounding sexuality as a means to challenge their stigmatization as the quintessence of deviance. This cult of secrecy became deeply entrenched within various segments of the black community, manifesting especially, and assuming its most institutionalized form, in the black women's club movement.30 The efforts of these clubs, which joined together to form the National Association of Colored Women (NACW), were concomitantly subversive and recuperative. They not only actively challenged racism and sexism, but also sought to rescue black women and the larger black community from sexual and moral infamy by creating "positive" images and adopting conventional bourgeois propriety in regards to sexuality, morality, and domesticity. To this end, late-nineteenth - and earlytwentieth-century African American women writers, some of whom belonged to the National Association of Colored Women or other professional organizations and literary societies, were invested in portraying black people, specifically African American women, in accordance with a politics of respectability and the attendant strictures of the racial uplift paradigm. Frances Harper and Nella Larsen, for instance, created characters in compliance with respectability and the norms of their times, as examinations of Iola Leroy in Harper's Iola Leroy (1892) and Helga Crane in Larsen's Quicksand (1928) clearly demonstrate. Harper avoids representing Iola as a woman with sexual desire or longings. Moral and respectable, Iola glorifies motherhood and domesticity, all the while exuding "saintliness" and sexual repression. Helga, though appearing in literature nearly thirty-six years after Iola, is not much more progressive in terms of sexual empowerment, expression, or desire. Running from her sexuality and never confronting it or her sexual repression, Helga marries a fundamentalist preacher spontaneously and "prematurely"-with marriage being an institution in which sex is sanctioned and legitimated-not only confining herself to domesticity and motherhood, but becoming even more repressed and despondent.

• From Amplified Holy Bible (2015)

  Isaiah 30 Judah Warned against Egyptian Alliance 1 “W OE (JUDGMENT is coming) to the rebellious children,” declares the LORD , “Who carry out a plan, but not Mine, And make an alliance [by pouring out a libation], but not of My Spirit, In order to add sin to sin; 2 Who proceed down to Egypt Without consulting a Me, To take refuge in the stronghold of Pharaoh And to take shelter in the shadow of Egypt! 3 “Therefore the safety and protection of Pharaoh will be your shame And the refuge in the shadow of Egypt, your humiliation and disgrace. 4 “For his princes are at Zoan And his ambassadors arrive at Hanes [in Egypt]. 5 “All will be ashamed because of a people (the Egyptians) who cannot benefit them, Who are not a help or benefit, but a shame and also a disgrace.” 6 A [mournful, inspired] oracle (b a burden to be carried) concerning the beasts of the Negev (the South): Through a land of trouble and anguish, From c where come lioness and lion, viper and [fiery] flying serpent, They carry their riches on the shoulders of young donkeys And their treasures on the humps of camels, To a people (Egyptians) who cannot benefit them. 7 For Egypt’s help is worthless and good for nothing. Therefore, I have called her “Rahab Who Has Been Exterminated.” 8 Now, go, write it on a tablet before them And inscribe it on a scroll, So that it may serve in the time to come As a witness [against them] forevermore. 9 For this is a rebellious people, lying sons, Sons who refuse to listen to The law and instruction of the LORD ; 10 Who say to the seers, “You must not see visions from God”; And to the prophets, “You must not prophesy to us what is right! Speak to us pleasant things and smooth words, Prophesy [deceitful] illusions [that we will enjoy]. 11 “Get out of the [true] way, turn aside from the path [of God], Stop bothering us with the Holy One of Israel.” 12 Therefore, the Holy One of Israel says this, “Because you have refused and rejected this word [of Mine] And have put your trust in oppression and guile, and have relied on them, 13 Therefore this wickedness [this sin, this injustice, this wrongdoing] will be to you Like a crack [in a wall] about to fall, A bulge in a high wall, Whose collapse comes suddenly in an instant, 14 “Whose collapse is like the smashing of a potter’s jar, Crushed so savagely that there cannot be found among its pieces a potsherd [large enough] To take [coals of] fire from a fireplace, Or to scoop water from a cistern.” 15 For the Lord GOD , the Holy One of Israel has said this, “In returning [to Me] and rest you shall be saved, In quietness and confident trust is your strength.” But you were not willing, 16 And you said, “No!

• From The Decameron (1353)

  But to return to my story, from which a just indignation hath carried me somewhat farther astray than I purposed,--I say that the aforesaid Guglielmo was honoured by all the gentlemen of Genoa and gladly seen of them, and having sojourned some days in the city and hearing many tales of Messer Ermino's avarice and sordidness, he desired to see him. Messer Ermino having already heard how worthy a man was this Guglielmo Borsiere and having yet, all miser as he was, some tincture of gentle breeding, received him with very amicable words and blithe aspect and entered with him into many and various discourses. Devising thus, he carried him, together with other Genoese who were in his company, into a fine new house of his which he had lately built and after having shown it all to him, said, 'Pray, Messer Guglielmo, you who have seen and heard many things, can you tell me of something that was never yet seen, which I may have depictured in the saloon of this my house?' Guglielmo, hearing this his preposterous question, answered, 'Sir, I doubt me I cannot undertake to tell you of aught that was never yet seen, except it were sneezings or the like; but, an it like you, I will tell you of somewhat which me thinketh you never yet beheld.' Quoth Messer Ermino, not looking for such an answer as he got, 'I pray you tell me what it is.' Whereto Guglielmo promptly replied, 'Cause Liberality to be here depictured.' When Messer Ermino heard this speech, there took him incontinent such a shame that it availed in a manner to change his disposition altogether to the contrary of that which it had been and he said, 'Messer Guglielmo, I will have it here depictured after such a fashion that neither you nor any other shall ever again have cause to tell me that I have never seen nor known it.' And from that time forth (such was the virtue of Guglielmo's words) he was the most liberal and the most courteous gentleman of his day in Genoa and he who most hospitably entreated both strangers and citizens." THE NINTH STORY [Day the First] THE KING OF CYPRUS, TOUCHED TO THE QUICK BY A GASCON LADY, FROM A MEAN-SPIRITED PRINCE BECOMETH A MAN OF WORTH AND VALIANCE The Queen's last commandment rested with Elisa, who, without awaiting it, began all blithely, "Young ladies, it hath often chanced that what all manner reproofs and many pains[68] bestowed upon a man have not availed to bring about in him hath been effected by a word more often spoken at hazard than of purpose aforethought. This is very well shown in the story related by Lauretta and I, in my turn, purpose to prove to you the same thing by means of another and a very short one; for that, since good things may still serve, they should be received with a mind attent, whoever be the sayer thereof.

• From Understanding the Old Testament (2019)

  leCtUre 3 | What god intended for adam and eve 17 Final Verses of Genesis 2 Verse 23 goes on: “Then the man said, ‘This one at last is bone of my bones and f lesh of my f lesh. This one shall be called woman, for from man. She was taken.’” This reveals a pun in Hebrew. The word for man is Ish and the word for woman is Isha, which also is how you would pronounce “her ma n.” Verse 24 continues: “Therefore a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, so that they become one f lesh.” The image here is of monogamy, even though polygamy was legal in ancient Israel. Regardless, the author of Genesis 2 holds that monogamy is the default relationship. The small problem in this verse is that in ancient Israel, men didn’t leave their fathers and mothers. A woman left her father and mother and moved in with a man and his parents. It is possible that the leaving here is psychological rather than residential. Next, the reader comes to verse 25: “But the two of them were naked, the man and his wife, yet they felt no shame.” To a certain extent, this is not meant to sound as ominous as it does, because nakedness in Israelite culture always meant shame. Every time nakedness is used in the Old Testament, it is symbolic of poverty. If the characters are naked, the audience would assume they were ashamed unless told otherwise. Despite their lack of shame, the lurking threat that there is one tree they shouldn’t eat, that they might die, and that perhaps they ought to be ashamed underscores a philosophic argument: The nature of the universe as it has been described in Genesis 2 is meant in the Israelite mind as what ought to be, not what really is. This is interesting, because in no other ancient Near Eastern creation myth was humanity once living in a different state than now. Every other creation myth explains how the world came to be, and that it is as intended. Genesis 2 is saying the way things are now is not the way God would really have wanted it to be, and it’s our fault that it’s not. Understanding the old testament 18 Questions to Consider YIf the human was created to work in the Garden of Eden, how is this any different from ancient Near Eastern creation myths, where the purpose of humanity is to farm for and feed the gods? YIs woman being made from man in itself suggesting a subordinate creature, regardless of whether he names her or not? Suggested Reading Blenkinsopp, Un-creation, and Re-creation. LaCoque, The Trial of Innocence.

• From Understanding the Old Testament (2019)

  Understanding the old testament 74 When the Philistines go to war with Israel, David is ready to join up. However, the Philistines are not yet completely comfortable with David or his loyalties, and they don’t take him along. Still, the Philistines defeat Saul, who dies at his own hand. Now left to take over Israel himself, David consolidates his rule and wipes out the remainder of Saul’s family. He eventually manages to take the city of Jerusalem, making it his capital. Bathsheba David remains brutal throughout his reign, exemplified by the famous episode with Bathsheba, the wife of a Hittite named Uriah, who is off at war. One evening, as depicted in 2 Samuel 11, David sees Bathsheba bathing and sends people to take her. Though her present-day reputation is that of a seductress, the truth is far from it; Bathsheba is, if anything, a victim of rape. She becomes pregnant. David sends for Uriah from the frontlines, brings him home, gets him drunk, and invites him to return home where he can be with his wife. David’s goal is to give everyone the impression—including the husband himself—that the child will be his. King David Handing the Letter to Uriah, Pieter lastman, 1611. leCtUre 12 | the BooKs of samUel 75 Uriah sleeps on David’s doorstep instead. David’s convenient solution fails. He is forced to compound his rape with the crime of murder. He arranges for Uriah to be placed at the front line of the war, and he has the rest of the army withdraw, leaving Uriah exposed. After Uriah is killed, verse 26 states David sends for Bathsheba and brings her into his house. She has no choice, and “in the sight of the Lord what David has done was evil.” This is followed by the arrival of the prophet Nathan. Nathan is not one of the ecstatic band prophets. However, he is a spokesman for God to David and later to David’s son and successor Solomon. God has something to say to David here about the Bathsheba episode. Nathan makes up a parable about a poor man whose wealthy neighbor steals his only lamb. When David proclaims the man is worthy of death, Nathan famously says, “You are the man!” nathan and david

• From Amplified Holy Bible (2015)

  And his son Hezekiah reigned in his place. 2 Chronicles 29 Hezekiah Succeeds Ahaz in Judah 1 H EZEKIAH BECAME king when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abijah the daughter of Zechariah. 2 He did right in the sight of the LORD , in accordance with everything that David his father (forefather) had done. 3 In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the LORD [which his father had closed] and repaired them [and replaced the gold overlay]. [2 Kin 18:16 ] 4 He brought in the priests and Levites and gathered them into the square on the east. Reforms Begun 5 Then he said to them, “Levites, listen to me! Now consecrate (dedicate) yourselves and consecrate the house of the LORD , the God of your fathers, and get the filth [of idol worship] out of the Holy Place. 6 “For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done evil in the sight of the LORD our God, and they have abandoned Him and have turned their faces away from the dwelling place of the LORD , and have turned their backs [toward Him]. 7 “They have also closed the doors of the [temple] porch and put out the lamps, and they have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the Holy Place to the God of Israel. [2 Kin 16:10–16 ] 8 “Therefore the wrath of the LORD has been against Judah and Jerusalem, and He has made them an object of terror, of horror, and of hissing, just as you see with your own eyes. 9 “For behold, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity because of this. 10 “Now it is in my heart to make a covenant (solemn agreement) with the LORD God of Israel, so that His burning anger will turn away from us. 11 “My sons, do not be negligent and careless now, for the LORD has chosen you to stand in His presence, to attend to His service, and to be His ministers and burn incense.” 12 Then the Levites arose: Mahath the son of Amasai and Joel the son of Azariah, from the sons of the Kohathites; from the sons of Merari: Kish the son of Abdi, Azariah the son of Jehallelel; from the Gershonites: Joah the son of Zimmah and Eden the son of Joah; 13 from the sons of Elizaphan: Shimri and Jeiel; from the sons of Asaph: Zechariah, and Mattaniah; 14 from the sons of Heman: Jehiel and Shimei; and from the sons of Jeduthun: Shemaiah and Uzziel. 15 They gathered their brothers (fellow Levites) together, consecrated themselves, and went in to cleanse the house of the LORD , as the king had commanded by the words of the LORD .

• From Hot Rods: Gay Erotic Stories (2011)

  “Really?” He squeezed Teddy’s skull for a moment. “How do I know you’re not lying to me?” “I’m not, sir.” “Oh, I think you’re probably not. So, what is it? You saw my bike and you just lost all sense of control?” The tank was entirely clean of cum at that point, but Howard didn’t let him lift his head. The tongue bath continued, and the smell of gasoline filled his head. Would he always link gasoline to that moment? Would he be able to fill up his car without getting a hard-on? Teddy suspected the answer to that question was no, especially since he wanted to beg Howard to never let go of him. “I couldn’t…I couldn’t help myself, sir.” “Is that a fact?” “Yes, sir.” “Because it’s my bike?” “Yes, sir.” The words were barely out of his mouth before he cried out with shock and pain. Howard’s fingers were closed around his balls like a vise, squeezing him through the denim of his shorts. He didn’t try to twist away—but only because he didn’t want to risk tipping the bike. “You like this, too?” “I…” “Don’t lie to me, boy.” “Yes, sir.” “Get down off that bike. It’s not yours.” As soon as Howard released him, Teddy scrambled off the bike. A hard hand on his shoulder forced him to the dirty floor. It put him eye-level with Howard’s cock, and his erection seemed even more massive from that vantage. Every muscle in his body strained forward, and he wanted to close his mouth over the hard line and bite him through the thick denim. “Get down on your hands and knees. Like a dog.” Teddy dropped forward without protest. His cock hung between his legs, poking out through his open fly. He wished he could tuck himself back in his pants. Or take off his shorts completely. “You like the taste of dirt and oil so much? Lick my boots.” “Sir?” “Lick them.” Teddy looked up through his lashes, staring at Howard’s face, looking for any sort of sign. The man’s features were impassive, his eyes small and impossible to read. Teddy lowered his head slowly, giving Howard ample time to tell him to stop, that he was just kidding, that this was ridiculous. But Howard didn’t speak. He didn’t move—not even a twitch. And Teddy had no choice but to lick the tip, wincing at the strong taste of the road—asphalt, and exhaust, and oil, and leather, and heat. “Again. Lick the other one.”

• From Amplified Holy Bible (2015)

  29 For you will be ashamed [of the degradation] of the oaks in which you took [idolatrous] pleasure, And you will be ashamed of the gardens [of passion] which you have chosen [for pagan worship]. 30 For you will be like an oak whose leaf withers and dies And like a garden that has no water. 31 The strong man will become tinder, And his work a spark. So both will burn together And there will be none to quench them. Isaiah 2 God’s Universal Reign 1 T HE WORD [from God] which Isaiah son of Amoz saw [in a vision] concerning [the nation of] Judah and [its capital city] Jerusalem. 2 Now it will come to pass that In the last days The mountain of the house of the LORD Will be [firmly] established as the a highest of the mountains, And will be exalted above the hills; And all the nations will stream to it. 3 And many peoples shall come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD , To the house (temple) of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us His ways And that we may walk in His paths.” For the law will go out from Zion And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 4 And He will judge between the nations, And will mediate [disputes] for many peoples; And they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up the sword against nation, And never again will they learn war. [Mic 4:1–3 ] 5 O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD . 6 Most certainly [LORD ] You have abandoned your people, the house of Jacob, Because they are filled with influences from the east, And they are soothsayers [who foretell] like the Philistines; Also they strike bargains with the children of foreigners (pagans). [Deut 18:9–12 ] 7 Their land has also been filled with silver and gold And there is no end to their treasures; Their land has also been filled with horses And there is no end to their chariots. [Deut 17:14–17 ] 8 Their land has also been filled with idols; They worship the work of their hands, That which their own fingers have made. 9 So the common man has been humbled [before idols] And the man of importance has been degraded, Therefore do not forgive them [O LORD ]. 10 Go among the rocks and hide in the dust From the terror of the LORD and from the splendor of His majesty. 11 The proud look of man will be degraded And the arrogance of men will be humbled, And the LORD alone will be exalted in that day. A Day of Reckoning Coming 12 For the LORD of hosts will have a day of reckoning Against all who are proud and arrogant And against all who are lifted up, That they may be degraded.

• From Amplified Holy Bible (2015)

  12 “This I will do to this place,” says the LORD , “and to its inhabitants; and I will even make this city like Topheth. 13 “The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled like this place, Topheth, all the houses on whose rooftops incense has been burned to all the host of heaven (sun, moon, stars), and where drink offerings have been poured out to other gods.” ’ ” [Acts 7:42 , 43 ] 14 Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD ’s house and said to all the people: 15 “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am going to bring on this city and on all its towns, all the devastation that I have declared against it, because they have become stiff-necked and refused to hear and obey My words.’ ” Jeremiah 20 Pashhur Persecutes Jeremiah 1 N OW PASHHUR the son of Immer, the priest, who was [also] chief officer in the house of the LORD , heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. 2 Then Pashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks that were at the upper Benjamin Gate by the house of the LORD . [Jer 1:19 ; 15:15 ] 3 And the next day Pashhur brought Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him, “The LORD does not call your name Pashhur, but Magor-missabib (terror on every side). 4 “For thus says the LORD , ‘Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; they will fall by the sword of their enemies while you look on. And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon; he will carry them away to Babylon as captives and will slaughter them with the sword. 5 ‘Moreover, I will hand over all the riches of this city, all the result of its labor, all its precious things; even all the treasures of the kings of Judah I will hand over to their enemies, and they will plunder them, and take them away and carry them to Babylon. 6 ‘And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house will go into captivity; you will go to Babylon, and there you will die and be buried, you and all your friends to whom you have falsely prophesied.’ ” Jeremiah’s Complaint 7 [Jeremiah said,] O LORD , You have persuaded me and I was deceived; You are stronger than I and You have prevailed. I am a laughingstock all day long; Everyone mocks me. 8 For whenever I speak, I must shout out; I shout violence and destruction, Because the word of the LORD has become to me A reprimand and a mockery and has brought me insult all day long.

• From Girls & Sex (2016)

  Book smarts won’t necessarily help in those fight-or-flight moments, especially, perhaps, for girls. “I talk to a hundred girls a month who are superassertive, feminist, who can correct their teachers about the symbolism of a novel in class,” she said. “Then they’re at a party and some dude’s hand is on their leg—or between their legs—and they feel like duct tape is over their mouths. They literally can’t say, ‘Can you move your hand?’ Superassertive, but not in that situation, because they’re using a different part of themselves. And then there’s regret and shame. And that’s just because we need to practice.” Once again, the room has fallen silent, the kind of hush that occurs when a teacher has truly touched a nerve. Denison asked for a volunteer, and Jackson, a lanky boy in a Chicago Bulls T-shirt, stood up. “People talk about ‘assertive’ all the time,” Denison said. “And ‘aggressive’ and ‘passive-aggressive.’ Those are ways to think about how we react in the real world, especially when we are uncomfortable.” She pulled out her cell phone. “So, let’s say I borrowed Jackson’s phone and said I’d have it back in a day. But it’s been three days. Also, I’ve cracked the screen. Now I’m going to return it to him, and he’s going to show us what a passive response would be.” She sauntered over and dumped the device in his hand. “Thanks for the phone, Jackson. It’s awesome.” She casually gestured to the imaginary crack, adding, “There’s just, like, that little thing here.” “No problem,” Jackson said. “Really?” Denison took a step toward him. “Can I borrow it again, then?” “No, um . . .” She took another step. “Oh. Well, do you have a car?” “Yeah, it’s over there.” “Can I have the keys?” Jackson pretended to toss them to her, and the scene was over. Denison turned to the class. “So his fallback was ‘I’m uncomfortable, this is unpleasant, I want it to end, and agreeing with her is the fastest way.’ But did you see how when I stepped forward and he backed away I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ve got this. I do not have to be accountable in any way. I can take advantage.’ So the bummer of that response is ‘Am I going to come back?’ Oh, hell yeah. He’s got a Post-it on his forehead with a bull’s-eye now. But if he could get to a place of thinking, ‘How do I feel right now? What do I think? And what do I want to have happen?’ Maybe it would be worth thirty seconds of doing something different so that this obnoxious girl will not come back.” A thin boy in a red-and-white striped shirt raised his hand. “So what exactly is an aggressive fallback?” “Pushing back against someone before they can go after you,” another boy said. “Or saying someone’s an asshole.” “Or, like, yelling back if your parents start yelling at you,” said one of the girls.

• From Girls & Sex (2016)

  Over the next hour or so, they discussed their feelings about virginity (“In our group, we didn’t like the connotation of ‘clean’ and ‘pure,’” said one of the girls) and abstinence (comments on that had included “sad,” “a choice,” and “anal”). A boy wearing a basketball jersey sparked a cacophony of responses to the question, “But what is abstinence anyway? Is it doing anything but intercourse or is it no contact at all, or what?” The group presenting on sex and alcohol initially suggested, sanctimoniously, that mixing the two was a bad idea. But when Denison asked who knew someone who had hooked up sober, not a single hand went up. Not one. “I’m hearing more and more that nobody gets sexual with someone unless they’re in an altered state,” she said. “And that can really feed into that regret factor.” “I think in some ways it’s easier, though,” a girl said. “You can be like, ‘Oh, I wasn’t thinking. I was drinking.’” “That’s what I call a setup,” Denison responded. “Especially for girls: if you’re a prude for setting limits and you’re a slut if you decide to have sex, then you’re screwed no matter what. At least if you get drunk, you can say, ‘Well, yeah, I didn’t know what I was doing.’ So it’s a way to not be accountable. And you have to have some empathy around that. It’s pretty seductive to be able to have an out of some kind if you’re going to be shamed or feel regret either way. So what are you supposed to do? We have to look at that more closely. We’ll be talking more about that next time.” In the final moments, as she did every session, Denison answered anonymous questions. Here is a smattering from the classes I observed: What if I pee during intercourse? How do you get STDs from oral sex? Is it true that when girls come, they can squirt fluid halfway across the room? How big is a normal penis? How many calories are in sperm? Does your hymen always break when you lose your virginity? Do you need lube to give a hand job? How can I make anal sex feel better to my partner?

• From Girls & Sex (2016)

  Christina and Ethan were together for about six months. She never regretted losing her virginity with him, but once they broke up, she wondered, what now? “Am I going to be a person who only sleeps with people if I’m in a serious relationship? Do I want to make a rule that I’ll go on a certain amount of dates with someone before I sleep with him? And if I do sleep with another person, that would bring my number to two. Do I care about that number?” The “number” was a common source of concern among girls. Even those who felt that virginity was a vestige of another time wondered how many sexual partners was too many. (The “number,” like virginity itself, included only intercourse—no one counted boys with whom, say, they’d had oral sex.) Losing their virginity in itself may not have tainted them, but was it possible to go too far? The stigma of the slut, the girl who was overly and overtly sexual, who allowed herself to be used, still held: their character could still be compromised, for themselves as well as others, by their sexual activity. “I guess I would feel icky if my number started to climb into the double digits,” Brooke admitted. She glanced over at Christina, who was counting on her fingers, silently enumerating Brooke’s lovers. “Stop that!” she snapped, laughing, and then grew serious. “I feel that sex is important. I don’t want to have sex with people who don’t mean something to me. And I’m not old enough yet to have had that many partners who do mean something.” Caitlin shook her head and pushed impatiently at her glasses. “I kind of don’t feel that way,” she said. “I feel like I could have sex with someone and it could mean nothing. I remember the first person I had sex with after the guy I’d been with for three years. It was so surprising that it could feel . . . emotionally light, just fun and relaxed and easy. “And what is that, anyway, to ‘mean something’?” she continued. “Does it mean you have to love the person? Could it be about an out-of-body experience? Could it just be that this person was a good person and I appreciated how generous they were? Isn’t that meaningful?” Brooke shrugged, picking at her nail polish. “Maybe it’s my own self-consciousness. For me, saying no is so hard under any circumstances, even to a favor for a friend. So I can see myself accidentally letting things escalate with someone I didn’t want them to escalate with, and that wouldn’t feel good to me. But I guess if I was turned on by someone who I wasn’t into emotionally . . . I can’t really imagine it, but that would be okay.”

• From The Well of Loneliness (1928)

  The walls of the room were hung with mirrors thickly painted with cupids, thickly sullied by flies. A faint blend of odours was wafted from the kitchen which stood in proximity to the toilet. The host rose at once and shook hands with his guests. Every bar had its social customs, it seemed. At the Ideal one must share Monsieur Pujol’s lewd jokes; at Le Narcisse one must gravely shake hands with the Patron . The Patron was tall and exceedingly thin—a clean-shaven man with the mouth of an ascetic. His cheeks were delicately tinted with rouge, his eyelids delicately shaded with kohl; but the eyes themselves were an infantile blue, reproachful and rather surprised in expression. For the good of the house, Dickie ordered champagne; it was warm and sweet and unpleasantly heady. Only Jeanne and Mary and Dickie herself had the courage to sample this curious beverage. Wanda stuck to her brandy and Pat to her beer, while Stephen drank coffee; but Valérie Seymour caused some confusion by gently insisting on a lemon squash—to be made with fresh lemons. Presently the guests began to arrive in couples. Having seated themselves at the tables, they quickly became oblivious to the world, what with the sickly champagne and each other. From a hidden recess there emerged a woman with a basket full of protesting roses. The stout vendeuse wore a wide wedding ring—for was she not a most virtuous person? But her glance was both calculating and shrewd as she pounced upon the more obvious couples; and Stephen watching her progress through the room, felt suddenly ashamed on behalf of the roses. And now at a nod from the host there was music; and now at a bray from the band there was dancing. Dickie and Wanda opened the ball—Dickie stodgy and firm, Wanda rather unsteady. Others followed. Then Mary leant over the table and whispered: ‘Won’t you dance with me, Stephen?’ Stephen hesitated, but only for a moment. Then she got up abruptly and danced with Mary. The handsome young man with the tortured eyebrows was bowing politely before Valérie Seymour. Refused by her, he passed on to Pat, and to Jeanne’s great amusement was promptly accepted. Brockett arrived and sat down at the table. He was in his most prying and cynical humour. He watched Stephen with coldly observant eyes, watched Dickie guiding the swaying Wanda, watched Pat in the arms of the handsome young man, watched the whole bumping, jostling crowd of dancers. The blended odours were becoming more active. Brockett lit a cigarette. ‘Well, Valérie darling? You look like an outraged Elgin marble. Be kind, dear, be kind; you must live and let live, this is life. . . .’ And he waved his soft, white hands. ‘Observe it—it’s very wonderful, darling. This is life, love, defiance, emancipation!’

• From Amplified Holy Bible (2015)

  Let him dress the man whom the king delights to honor [in the royal robe] and lead him on horseback through the open square of the city, and proclaim before him, ‘This is what shall be done for the man whom the king desires to honor.’ ” Haman Must Honor Mordecai 10 Then the king said to Haman, “Quickly take the royal robe and the horse, as you have said, and do this for Mordecai the Jew, who is sitting at the king’s gate. Leave out nothing of all that you have said.” 11 So Haman took the royal robe and the horse and dressed Mordecai, and led him on horseback through the open square of the city, proclaiming before him, “This is what shall be done for the man whom the king desires to honor.” 12 Then Mordecai returned to the king’s gate. But Haman hurried to his [own] house, mourning and with his head covered [in sorrow]. 13 Then Haman told Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him. Then his wise counselors and his wife Zeresh said to him, “If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall in status, is of Jewish heritage, you will not overcome him, but will certainly fall before him.” 14 While they were still speaking with him, the king’s eunuchs (attendants) arrived and hurriedly brought Haman to the banquet which Esther had prepared. Esther 7 Esther’s Plea 1 S O THE king and Haman came to drink wine with Esther the queen. 2 And the king said to Esther on the second day also as they drank their wine, “What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted to you. And what is your request? Even to half of the kingdom, it shall be done.” 3 Then Queen Esther replied, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be spared as my petition, and my people [be spared] as my request; 4 for we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, killed and wiped out of existence. Now if we had only been sold as slaves, men and women, I would have remained silent, for our hardship would not be sufficient to burden the king [by even mentioning it].” 5 Then King Ahasuerus (Xerxes) asked Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who dares to do such a thing?” 6 Esther said, “An adversary and an enemy is Haman, this evil man.” Then Haman became terrified before the king and queen. Haman Is Hanged 7 Then in his fury, the king stood up from drinking wine and went into the palace garden [to decide what he should do]; but Haman stayed to plead for his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that harm had been determined against him by the king.

• From Girls & Sex (2016)

  Despite those risks, hypersexualization is ubiquitous, so visible as to be nearly invisible: it is the water in which girls swim, the air they breathe. Whatever else they might be—athletes, artists, scientists, musicians, newscasters, politicians—they learn that they must, as a female, first and foremost project sex appeal. Consider a report released by Princeton University in 2011 exploring the drop over the previous decade in public leadership positions held by female students. Among the reasons these über-elite young women gave for avoiding such roles was that being qualified was not enough. They needed to be “smart, driven, involved in many different activities (as are men), and, in addition, they are supposed to be pretty, sexy, thin, nice, and friendly.” Or, as one alumna put it, women had to “do everything, do it well, and look ‘hot’ while doing it.” A 2013 study at Boston College, meanwhile, found that female students were graduating with lower self-esteem than when they entered the school (boys’ self-esteem rose). They, too, in part blamed “the pressure to look or dress a certain way.” A sophomore in a survey at Duke that reached similar conclusions called the phenomenon “effortless perfection,” the “expectation that one would be smart, accomplished, fit, beautiful, and popular, and that all this would happen without visible effort.” No wonder they faltered. “Hot,” as journalist Ariel Levy wrote in her book, Female Chauvinist Pigs, is different from “beautiful” or “attractive.” It is a commercialized, one-dimensional, infinitely replicated, and, frankly, unimaginative vision of sexiness, one that, when applied to women, can be reduced to two words: “fuckable and saleable.” Levy says that “hotness” is specifically women’s work, and nowhere was that more evident than on the 2015 Vanity Fair cover featuring Caitlyn Jenner, née Bruce. To announce her physical transition from male to female, the sixty-five-year-old appeared in a corset (from a store called Trashy Lingerie), breasts overflowing, lips glossed like an ingénue’s. That image was often juxtaposed in the press with a picture of her as Bruce, hair lank with sweat, arms raised in triumph after winning Olympic gold. As a man, he used his body; as a woman, she displayed it. Certainly, it’s no revelation that girls are held to a punishingly narrow, often surgically or digitally enhanced ideal of “sexy,” and then labeled as “sluts” when they pursue it. What has changed is this: whereas earlier generations of media-literate, feminist-identified women saw their objectification as something to protest, today’s often see it as a personal choice, something that can be taken on intentionally as an expression rather than an imposition of sexuality. And why wouldn’t they, if “hot” has been portrayed as compulsory, a prerequisite to a woman’s relevance, strength, and independence?

• From Girls & Sex (2016)

  Most of the young women I met had shaved or waxed their pubic hair, all of it, since they were about fourteen. When I asked them why, the girls would initially say it wasn’t something they’d ever questioned: they already shaved their legs and armpits, and they’d seen older girls who were bare, so it seemed the thing to do. They said hairlessness made them feel “cleaner” (mistakenly, as it turns out. Though it diminishes the risk of pubic lice, clear cutting creates a festive-sounding “happy culture” for most other STDs: without the shield of protective hair, for instance, the labia can become carpeted with genital warts). As with self-objectification, girls considered depilation a personal choice, something done “for oneself,” for comfort, hygiene, practicality. Invariably, though, they would bring up another motivation: avoiding humiliation. Consider the trajectory of comments by Alexis, a sixteen-year-old at a public high school in Northern California. “I didn’t really think about it,” she began. “One friend had an older sister who was doing it, so she started, and then we all did it. It was like a chain reaction. “But then, I also heard these guys in class one day talking about a girl. Her shorts were low cut and when she’d raised her arms, her shirt had lifted up, and they were like, ‘I could see pubic hair! Man, it was so gross!’” Girls are already self-conscious about their (typically unnamed) pubic region; it doesn’t take much to stoke that insecurity. Ruby, in Chicago, was one of the girls who said shaving made her feel “clean,” especially during her period. But she, too, added, “I remember these boys telling stories about this girl who ‘got around.’ And guys would go down there to finger her, or whatever, and there would be hair, and they were appalled. So I just . . . I mean, guys act like they would be disgusted by it.” Herbenick said that in her college town, chalkboard displays outside local salons offered sales on “back-to-school waxes” in the fall; April brought similar specials on spring break Brazilians. “That’s a pretty public reminder that you better look a certain way,” she said. A few years ago, she had a female student confide that she’d started shaving after a boy announced—during one of Herbenick’s class discussions—that he’d never seen pubic hair on a woman in real life, and if he came across it on a hookup partner, he’d walk out the door.