On the memoir 'Unorthodox,' a slightly organized rant.

29th July 2012

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On the memoir ‘Unorthodox,’ a slightly organized rant.

Understanding other cultures and being tolerant is important. However, I think being tolerant of the way women (and men) are treated in fanatical religious groups like the one Deborah Feldman’s memoir describes is tantamount to being “tolerant” of slavery. It is essentially the same thing. These people do not grow up having agency over anything in their lives. It took a massive amount of will and bravery for her to leave her culture (and take her son with her). Though the memoir is an incredible story and she is a great writer, I feel mostly infuriated and depressed by the knowledge that such an insanely repressive, misogynist and cruel culture exists so close to me (literally about 10 blocks from the apartment I’m currently writing in).

The end of the book was very inspiring. But though it was amazing to see her personal journey, it drives me insane that there are so many others out there trapped in systems like this, whether they’re Hasids or part of any other fundamentalist religion or cult. It strengthens my opinion that as long as fundamentalist religion teaches men to hate women and women to hate themselves there can not be anything like gender equality for large swaths of even this supposedly liberal country. To be fair, we can’t even achieve gender equality in the totally secular community.

My rage aside, I would recommend this book to everyone. It is certainly making me think and makes me want to not take my freedom for granted.

Who wants to sneak copies into the libraries around South Williamsburg with me?

Tagged: religion judaism feminism misogyny