Power of Denial
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A01=Bernard Faure
Amaterasu
Ambivalence
Apotheosis
Arhat
Asceticism
Author_Bernard Faure
Bhikkhu
Bodhisattva
Buddhahood
Buddhism
Buddhist texts
Category=JBSF1
Category=QRF
Chastity
Christian monasticism
Concubinage
Confucianism
Courtesan
Deity
Devadatta
Early Buddhism
Edo period
Egalitarianism
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eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
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Exclusion
Femininity
Gender equality
Gender role
Genshin
Glorification
Gongen
Guanyin
Hagiography
Heian period
Hongaku
Ideology
Izumi Shikibu
Keizan
Literature
Miko
Monastery
Mother
Muromachi period
Nichiren
Nun
Obstacle
Ono no Komachi
Oppression
Ordination
Patriarchy
Poetry
Power of Women
Reincarnation
Religion
Rite
Ritual purification
Sexism
Shamanism
Shinran
Spouse
Stepmother
Superiority (short story)
Tantra
Taoism
Tendai
The Monastery
The Other Hand
The Various
Tonsure
Toran
Vagina
Vinaya
Yin and yang
Zen master
Product details
- ISBN 9780691091716
- Weight: 680g
- Dimensions: 152 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 02 Mar 2003
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Innumerable studies have appeared in recent decades about practically every aspect of women's lives in Western societies. The few such works on Buddhism have been quite limited in scope. In The Power of Denial, Bernard Faure takes an important step toward redressing this situation by boldly asking: does Buddhism offer women liberation or limitation? Continuing the innovative exploration of sexuality in Buddhism he began in The Red Thread, here he moves from his earlier focus on male monastic sexuality to Buddhist conceptions of women and constructions of gender. Faure argues that Buddhism is neither as sexist nor as egalitarian as is usually thought. Above all, he asserts, the study of Buddhism through the gender lens leads us to question what we uncritically call Buddhism, in the singular. Faure challenges the conventional view that the history of women in Buddhism is a linear narrative of progress from oppression to liberation. Examining Buddhist discourse on gender in traditions such as that of Japan, he shows that patriarchy--indeed, misogyny--has long been central to Buddhism. But women were not always silent, passive victims.
Faure points to the central role not only of nuns and mothers (and wives) of monks but of female mediums and courtesans, whose colorful relations with Buddhist monks he considers in particular. Ultimately, Faure concludes that while Buddhism is, in practice, relentlessly misogynist, as far as misogynist discourses go it is one of the most flexible and open to contradiction. And, he suggests, unyielding in-depth examination can help revitalize Buddhism's deeper, more ancient egalitarianism and thus subvert its existing gender hierarchy. This groundbreaking book offers a fresh, comprehensive understanding of what Buddhism has to say about gender, and of what this really says about Buddhism, singular or plural.
Bernard Faure is George Edwin Burnell Professor of Religious Studies at Stanford University. He is the author of "Visions of Power", "The Red Thread", "Chan Insights and Oversights", and "The Rhetoric of Immediacy," (all Princeton).
