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'Uncovering Her Wickedness'

An Inter(Con)Textual Reading of Revelation 17 From a Postcolonial Feminist Perspective

10055 Kingston Street Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91737

This essay challenges the androcentric bias embedded in Revelation 17 by employ ing inter(con)textual reading from a postcolonial feminist perspective. The whore metaphor in Revelation 17 is associated with the feminization of cities in the Hebrew prophetic tradition, which had been performed when Israel was under the control of foreign powers. The metaphorical feminization of cities implies a mascu line domination of colonizer over colonized, which includes destroying land as well as exploiting women. The colonized men who are unable to protect their women are to feel shame at not being real men, and then sexual invasion of their women by foreign men becomes an assault on male/national honor; as a result of this, women can be threats to their men. In Revelation 17, the fear of imperialism and fear of contempt are infused into the stereotypical metaphor, 'the whore', whose sexual power over men is to destroy the homogeneity of their patriarchal society. The whores who are identified with the city of Rome thus reveal the double jeopardy of the colonized women, who are not only invaded by the foreign men but also aban doned by their own men. Since traditional biblical interpretation has been the accomplice of the ideology in the text by closing the text, however, this sexually abusive metaphor has not been questioned. In order to release women from the neg ative impact of this sexual metaphor, we need to open the text by employing a deconstructive reading which uses women's marginality as another text.

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