Despite the fact that violation of chastity requires male participation, chastity is a burden borne almost exclusively by the female. The Judeo-Christian Patriarchal moral code (an exhaustive set of standards originally intended to segregate the Jewish community from the Goddess-worshippers who surrounded them on all sides (Stone) defines chastity as sexual purity – to be chaste is to only have sex with one’s lawful partner for the purpose of procreation. The male is conspicuously absent from stories of sexual misconduct, both as character and as storyteller. This may be due to a common belief that women are beneath the notice of men unless they have in some way violated the Judeo-Christian Patriarchal moral code and must be punished. This is also linked to the practical concern of identifying the trespassing male.
Females bear the physical consequences of the chastity violation on and in their bodies, from bruises to babies. The Judeo-Christian Patriarchal system’s moral code shifts the responsibility of chastity solely on the female’s shoulders by identifying her carnal desire as the source of sexual temptation. Thus, she is charged by God Himself to submit to the male and desire only him. Women teach girls, through story and living examples, the dangers of chastity violation and how to avoid it. This reinforces the belief that females are responsible for maintaining chastity and excuses males from accountability for sexual transgressions (although, if identified, they can be held accountable for theft of or damage to another man’s property).
Judeo-Christian Patriarchy is founded on the idea that woman exists to serve man. Man must be the source of life and woman merely the receptacle. According to this rationale, the male God created Adam in His own image to have dominion over all other creations, and then created Eve as a helper/companion/pet. Eve was not deemed worthy of God’s companionship; when God and Adam walked off together, she was left with only the snake as company. Eve was merely an afterthought, as women often are in patriarchal systems, until she is out of her proper place (modestly waiting for Adam, right where he left her).
Before Judeo-Christian Patriarchy took root, woman was considered the source of life. Women had babies; men did not. Prior to the agricultural megarevolution, the link between sex and procreation was hazy; men were needed to ‘open’ women, prepare them to bring forth life, but generation of life was exclusive to females. Female deities were the norm, as were fertility rituals (Stone). Family lines were matrilineal and matrilocal, although males were still dominant. Men and women had separate but equal spheres when men hunted and women foraged. Once agriculture became the primary means of food production and men had to work the fields, they noticed that seeds planted in the earth grew into plants. This lead to the theory that was only disproved within the past century; the male seed contained the new life and the female womb was merely the soil that housed it.
When farmers find weeds among the wheat, they do not blame the soil. This is where the analogy breaks down. The Garden of Eden story illustrates the rationale that Eve (woman) is responsible for sexual awareness and the temptations that arise from that awareness. The Eden story is also the first story that features the absent male. Adam is off communing with God (Eve is not invited) when Eve starts talking to the snake, we must assume. Nowhere in the conversation between Eve and the snake is Adam even mentioned in any way; the snake points out that eating the fruit will make Eve like God and convinces her to take a bite. After she does, Eve calls Adam and offers him a bite. Despite his close relationship with God and his inherent superiority over every other creature, apparently Adam is easily influenced. The shame of nakedness emerges only after Adam takes his bite (there is no way of knowing how much time passed between her bite and his but it cannot have been too long if the shame came to them at the same time). Adam now has to work for his food, the snake has to slither and be trampled by feet, and Eve must suffer the pain of childbirth while she submits to Adam and desires only him.
This link between desire and temptation doesn’t make a lot of sense under close scrutiny. Although it is never stated outright, the implication is that males desire females because females desire males. This is probably based on another set of observations by men learning to grow and raise their food. Female herd animals have periods during which they are ‘in heat’, causing them to excrete pheromones that lure every male of their species to mate with them. No male is turned away by a female in heat. So if a human male wants to mate with a human female, then it must be because she is luring him. The system of Judeo-Christian Patriarchy is designed in part to contain human females ‘in heat’ in order to breed her with the designated male.
Of course the males in question cannot be presumed to control themselves any more than the farm animals. Males, supposedly closest to divinity, are still excused when they violate chastity because the codes are formed by men, who understand that sometimes the penis has a will of its own. This understanding and compassion is denied to women. The unstated implication is that women, being higher life forms than bitches, have some way of controlling when they are in heat. The narrator of Kinkaid’s “Girl” frequently inserts this refrain – “like the slut you are so bent on becoming” – into her pragmatic instructions, implying that the girl is making an effort to lure the sexual attention of males. Women’s desires can be concealed, which makes them easier for men to ignore and/or believe in their nonexistence. It also makes men feel better if they have someone else to blame for their transgressions.
This leaves the female in an untenable position. She must protect herself from the lusts of men because she will bear the burden of the physical consequences, from bruises to babies, if she is unsuccessful. If she is damaged by the chastity violation, then she is less valuable to the man who owns her. Prior to the 18th century, it was perfectly legal for a man to beat a woman to death if she belonged to him. So it didn’t matter if she was raped or consented – she was the one who was punished. She might be killed or banished or shunned. What could she do?
Her mother and other women of the earlier generations instruct young girls, through story and example, how to live within this strict hypocritical code. The narrator of “Girl” warns “you mustn’t speak to the wharf-rat boys, not even to give directions” (2335). The young girl is taught how to make sure to go nowhere alone, how to smile at different people, how to avoid men who look too long, and how to blame herself when they do (2335). The shame code is instilled in the young girls by the older women to protect them. Young girls learn to fear strange men. They develop conflicting feelings about their desires and desirability.
Young girls are charged to be attractive, but only to certain specific males. The code mothers teach young girls is any desire they feel is that of a bitch in heat. This desire is wrong and must be kept contained. If any of it is loosed, it is an invitation to violate chastity. Her desire is powerful and dangerous. In the stories men tell, males are overwhelmed by the allure of females. In the stories women tell, men are animals, ruled by their appetites.
Stories like the Hebrew Bible’s “Garden of Eden” and Jamaica Kinkaid’s “Girl” reinforce the belief that females are responsible for maintaining chastity and excuse male from any accountability for sexual transgressions. Women teach girls, through story and modeling, how to navigate the murky waters of this double standard. The Judeo-Christian Patriarchal system’s moral code shifts the responsibility of chastity solely on the female’s shoulders by subliminally identifying her as a bitch in heat, her carnal desire as the fuel of male sex drives. Thus, she is charged by God Himself to desire only the male who owns her, in order to contain the power of her allure. Females bear the physical consequences of the chastity violation on and in their bodies, from bruises to babies to torture and death. Males have no part in stories of chastity violation until it is time for the woman to be punished, as it is difficult to identify the male if they are not caught in the act. Despite the fact that such a violation cannot occur without male participation, chastity is a burden borne almost exclusively by the female.
Works Consulted
Kinkaid, Jamaica. "Girl." The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women. Ed. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.
Stone, Merlin. When God Was a Woman. 1st. Unknown: Packet, 2006
