Abstract
ABSTRACT The present article discusses the concept of toxic masculinity in the context of African political history, leadership models and feminist biblical interpretation. It explores and problematises the idea of manliness as a key concept of masculinity exhibited in the African context by warrior queens and perpetuated by modern African leaders. The essay will demonstrate that such masculinity is toxic and it uses this backdrop to investigate how feminist biblical scholarship interpret the portrayal of women characters in the Bible. This approach uncovers a tendency by feminist scholars to interpret some biblical women characters (such as Sarah, Hagar, Yael, Rahab, Jezebel, and Abigail) in a toxic way-as strong men, or even better men. As a result, feminist scholarship unwittingly contributes to toxic masculinity by presenting women who outdo men. The goal of this article is to expose the potential for co-optation of feminist biblical interpretation by toxic masculinity. This observation leads to an alternative and contextual reading of women characters in the Bible in a non-toxic way that potentially rehabilitates them. The ramifications of reading biblical women in a non-toxic way have potential implications for reading biblical men in a non-strong-man and non-toxic way. Keywords: Masculinity, Strong-man, Biblical Interpretation, Warrior Queen, African Leadership
Highlights
The present article discusses the concept of toxic masculinity in the context of African political history, leadership models and feminist biblical interpretation
It explores and problematises the idea of manliness as a key concept of masculinity exhibited in the African context by warrior queens and perpetuated by modern African leaders
The essay will demonstrate that such masculinity is toxic and it uses this backdrop to investigate how feminist biblical scholarship interpret the portrayal of women characters in the Bible
Summary
Feminist biblical scholarship tends to portray biblical women as “strongmen” female characters, contributing to and reinforcing toxic masculinity or an obsession with power. This problem exists in African political history, which serves as the cultural context of this analysis. The second section addresses the problem of a strong-man leadership model that exists in feminist biblical interpretations of female characters as strong men or better men. We demonstrate how to read the selected biblical women characters without reinforcing the strong-man leadership model. This part offers feminist biblical scholars an alternative model that helps to avoid the idealisation of strong-man women. The conclusion addresses the implications of reading biblical texts in a non-toxic way for feminist biblical scholarship and the ramifications for androcentric biblical interpretation
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