Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
E. M. HillOctober 18, 2019
iStock

The Russian feminist protest punk rock group Pussy Riot bellowed their “Punk Prayer” on the altar at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow in early 2012, aware that the lyrics juxtaposed with the location would invigorate the fight against sexism prolific in patriarchal religious societies. But a majority of feminists—myself included—do not have the chutzpah to be a Pussy Riot and so must advocate for feminism in other ways. This is My Body, by Cameron Dezen Hammon, is a warning about how a feminist can fall prey to and rationalize the pervasiveness of misogyny, despite his or her best intentions.

This Is My Bodyby Cameron Dezen Hammon

Lookout. 224p $17.95

Hammon opens her memoir with her baptism. Born in a New Jersey suburb to a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother, she has a crisis of faith when she is pressured into having sex and subsequently contracts HPV. Her physician finds precancerous lesions, and she settles on becoming a Christian, not so much from internal reflection culminating in belief but because Christianity offered the best option for an afterlife. Hammon chooses the denomination that is readily available and starts her tumultuous relationship with evangelical Christianity.

This is My Body, by Cameron Dezen Hammon, is a warning about how a feminist can fall prey to and rationalize the pervasiveness of misogyny, despite his or her best intentions.

Her autobiography wrestles with the dichotomy between being a woman of faith and a woman of feminism, with the former forcing her to live as a shadow of the woman and artist she could be. After repeated attempts to become an ordained minister, her value is consistently diminished. Hammon eventually comes to the conclusion that “my female body was an issue, would always be an issue. I saw it clearly for the first, but definitely not the last, time.” She realizes that any success she would have in ministry would be attributed to her husband, a standard that is common among evangelical Christians and one that she subliminally encourages herself.

True to her musical roots, Hammon’s book reads like an album, with each chapter a song. This structure works both for and against her, as it allows the reader to have a neatly packaged cathartic experience that begins and ends with the chapter, but at times it disorients the reader in regard to the timeline of the series of events.

The book’s true power lies in Hammon’s awareness of her own moral weakness, and she willingly shares these regrets. Although the piece primarily focuses on the insidious nature of misogyny in many strands of Christianity, her work demands that we deeply reflect on our complacency—and more frighteningly, our inadvertent participation—in all matters of injustice.

The latest from america

Anna Gazmarian's 'Devout' is an emotional, vulnerable portrait of a woman who was failed by two institutions, both science and religion, that she rightfully believed would help her.
Christine LenahanOctober 10, 2024
In 'Citizens Yet Strangers,' Kenneth Craycraft argues that the American political order presupposes the goodness of the Fall, rather than our original created goodness.
Bill McCormick, S.J.October 10, 2024
A major takeaway from 'Saving Michelangelo’s Dome' is that it is a miracle any pre-modern church is still standing.
Greta GaffinOctober 10, 2024
Bolstered by extensive research and passionate prose, 'In the Shadow of Freedom' makes a compelling argument for Catholics in particular to pay more heed to reconciliation and healing for the racist history of the United States.
Mike MastromatteoOctober 04, 2024