LE3 .A278 2020

2020

Seamone, Donna

Acadia University

Bachelor of Arts

Honours

Women’s & Gender Studies

Women's & Gender Studies

In this thesis, I represent the life histories and acts of resistance among three queer, feminist Christian women to understand how they persist as modern practitioners of Christianity. In a moment of time where Christianity, in the West, has become largely synonymous with conservativism, I assert that young, queer, feminist women remain in Christianity as a direct act of resistance—they stay because they belong and refuse to be excluded from Christian practice by structural barriers or by individuals who seek to oust them from the religion on the basis of gender, sexuality, or sociopolitical values. To do so, I first present the life histories of three young women and convey how the predominant themes of their life histories—stories of resistance, devotion, hardship, and courage—manifest as acts of resistance to exclusionary structures within the Christian tradition. This use of life history as an ethnographic method prioritizes the voices of the three women involved in the study. I then analyze their experience and present the various acts of resistance they perform. This analysis provides insight into how these women: engage with sociopolitical matters in the church; undertake the process of identity management while moving between secular and non-secular spaces; navigate media’s portrayal of Christianity; address ultra-conservativism in their communities; and, how one consultant seeks to revitalize her relationship with Christianity, in response to these barriers and challenges leading her to question her Christian identity. These stories represent the larger movement of revitalization occurring within Christianity, with queer, feminist women petitioning for their right to be included in a religion they maintain has always been a welcoming, accepting tradition to which they naturally belong.

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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:3440