Dismantling Gender

Abstract

While it may seem at first that a vast chasm separates ancient gnostics, those “heretical” early Christians active in the Greco-Roman world of the first centuries CE, and modern queer BDSM practitioners, one should note that what these two groups have in common is crucial: both believe gender to be oppressive and both act upon this belief in strikingly similar ways. This article presents a comparative study of the rituals employed by both groups, which were and are constructed in order to prescribe a way to gradually undermine the normative process of gendering. The comparison focuses on three interrelated issues: the motivation in each case to take part in the ritual, the transcendence towards which each ritual aspires, and the positioning of the subject performing the ritual in relation to the ritual objectives and efficaciousness. This comparison is meant to shed more light on these two extremely complex phenomena.