[Buddha-l] FW: CONF Symposium: Gender, Sex, Pollution in Buddhist Discourse, Los Angeles, USC, February 3-4, 2012

[Jo]

On Behalf Of Alex Wilding
Sent: Thursday, February 02, 2012 12:55 AM
Angeles, USC, February 3-4, 2012

Jo K wrote:
> Finally--research and reports on a topic long neglected and one that 
> has bothered my sensibilities for some time: the _female blood libel_ 
> (my construction) in east Asia ...
Call this a niggle, but amongst the superabundance of silly things for which
Sarah Palin got into trouble was misuse of the term "blood libel". This is
generally used to refer to a once widespread calumny of, usually, the Jews,
to the effect that they murder children in order to make ritual use of their
blood.
Are you saying that buddhist texts or teachings levelled this accusation at
women? I rather assume not, and in that case I'd urge you to choose a
different phrase. Otherwise your quite probably valid arguments may be torn
down for spurious reasons. In politics that's part of the territory, but in
the search for truth - a very different field - it wouldn't be helpful.
All the best
Alex Wilding

__________________________

Alex, 
I'm surprised that you think citing something that Sarah Palin said is
appropriate here.   

As for broadening the application of the term blood libel, which in my view
perfectly suits this example, you apparently aren't aware that the women
doomed to the blood pond in hell are women who died during childbirth. They
are, in effect, being punished, as it were, for murdering  infants (and
their fertility).  Thus, these women are socially (and spiritually) tainted
by an essential guilt, just as the Jews were tainted in the spurious blood
libel lore.  This specious view of women under the cultural circumstances
outlined in my post, I think, closely resembles --if it is not precisely
identical to-- the older ethnic calumny of Europe. Spurious and destructive
labeling is involved in both instances, child murder also--just as both
instances of this had extremely negative social consequences. In addition,
the very fact that women bled profusely during birth, even if they produced
a live child, was taken to be a sign of their essential moral and spiritual
impurity both in ancient China and in Japan, which received such ideas via
Chinese agency. 

AW: " Are you saying that Buddhist texts or teachings levelled this
accusation at women?"

Yes, that is not only what I am saying, but it is what in effect was being
done for several centuries of Buddhism in East Asia.  The data are out
there. Sorry,  I don't have the time to gather them for you. If you research
the "blood bowl sutra" (not only online), you will learn more about this
calumny on women that became part of Buddhist teachings. You could start
with the book I cited, _Escape from Blood Pond Hell: The Tales of Mulian and
Woman Huang_ by Beata Grant and Wilt L. Idema (translators). Univ. of
Washington Press, 2011. 

Joanna