The feminist prophetic imagination is one that engages in the prophetic task of denunciation and annunciation – naming, critiquing, and resisting the patriarchal social imaginary and proposing a new and more just way of being in the world. Taking the lives of adolescent girls seriously, the feminist prophetic imagination is both employed on behalf of the girls in our communities and can become a characteristic of the
community to which girls belong, forming them as participants in a feminist prophetic imagination. In other words, communities that are living out this prophetic imagination in relation to adolescent girls seek to imagine a better future for their girls and to help girls imagine their own futures. In this section, this dynamic of the feminist prophetic imagination is explored in relation to how it undergirds a critique of patriarchal social imaginary as it is experienced by girls in the triple bind, how it provides a foundation for practices of resistance, and how it encourages the formation of communities of hesed.
First, the feminist prophetic imagination provides the tools for confronting the aspect of the social imaginary identified as the triple bind. As was explored in chapter two, Stephen Hinshaw’s concept of the triple bind is a useful way of understanding the pernicious and harmful ways in which the modern social imaginary is impacting girls and women in the contemporary United States. This aspect of the social imaginary insists that girls must conform (1) to the expectations of behavior and character traditionally put on girls (being nice, good at relationships, nurturing, and accommodating) as well as (2) to the expectations traditionally associated with boys (being assertive, successful, and driven). And they are expected to perfectly accomplish both of these while conforming (3) to a narrow definition of feminine beauty. The three aspects of the triple bind put
many adolescent girls in a position of near-constant anxiety as they struggle to meet these contradictory demands. And, because perfection is expected in all three areas, even girls who are largely successful feel like they are failures or letting someone down if they are not absolutely accomplished in all three aspects.60
One of the reasons that the triple bind is such a danger to adolescent girls is that it has become embedded in the social imaginary of contemporary Western culture. It is largely un-reflected-upon, but it shapes the way that girls and women understand themselves and their relationships with others. Most girls do not realize why they feel exhausted, conflicted, imperfect, and unlovable61 because they do not realize the ways that their experience of the world is being shaped by these unspoken expectations. And, because the triple bind has become such a ubiquitous part of how people, including girls and women, expect the world to be, it becomes that much more difficult to dislodge. In fact, despite the best efforts of scholars, teachers, and activists to denounce it, the triple bind has proved remarkably resistant to denunciation and re-imagination. Resisting the triple bind, therefore, is not simply about recognizing it and telling girls to ignore it; rather it means fighting one of the underlying assumptions of our culture – the assumption that governs the ways that girls and women are to be in the world.
In response to the triple bind and the contradictory expectations it places on adolescent girls, a community that is shaped by a feminist prophetic imagination has the tools to identify and critique this aspect of the social imaginary. The feminist prophetic imagination, as a part of the prophetic task of denouncing the injustices of the dominant consciousness, can name the triple bind for the community and for the adolescent girls
60 Hinshaw, The Triple Bind, 64-67.
61 Martha B. Straus, Adolescent Girls in Crisis: Intervention and Hope (New York: Norton and Company,
who are a part of that community. Because the triple bind has become embedded in our social imaginary, its un-reflected-upon character must be challenged; and the first step in encouraging reflection is the naming of its existence. A feminist prophetic imagination, as a characteristic of a community, calls that community to name the ways in which any member of that community is being marginalized or oppressed. As members of a community characterized by a feminist prophetic imagination, this means that the
community has the opportunity to educate itself about the dangers of aspects of the social imaginary, like the triple bind, that have a harmful effect on its adolescent girls. When the community engages in this kind of educational effort – recognizing and reflecting upon what had, until then, been un-reflected-upon, it is also forming its adolescent girls in the practices of seeing and critiquing the social imaginary. Girls, like most people, are not going to be able to see the ways that they are being influenced or shaped by the triple bind or any other aspect of the social imaginary until they are helped to see it. So, the act of naming the triple bind and its pernicious effects on adolescent girls helps to form them in practices of critical reflection on their own lives. This can happen in a variety of ways, including direct instruction; but the sharing of narratives among adult and adolescent members of the community is most effective. In the sharing of stories of how women and girls are impacted by the triple bind, adolescent girls can see that they are not alone in their experiences of being held to impossible to meet expectations.62
Second, the feminist prophetic imagination provides the foundation for the second part of the prophetic task of denunciation – the impetus to resist injustice. The call to
62 HaeRan Kim-Cragg, “A Theology of Resistance in Conversation with Religious Education in the
Unmaking of Violence,” Religious Education 110, no.4 (July-September 2015): 423-425. Kim-Cragg names this as the practice of remembrance, which lays the groundwork for practices of resistance. “Remembrance is, thus, not simply a commemorative act that marks the past but also a transgressive and
resist injustice is an act of the prophetic imagination; the biblical prophets persistently called the people of Israel to live out God’s justice in their lives and communities. For prophets like Micah, the call to justice is clear: “[God] has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). Modern-day prophets continue to call communities to live more fully the kind of justice that is identified with God’s actions in history. As dissident intellectuals, the prophets and their prophetic communities, shaped by this prophetic imagination, have become awakened to the presence of injustices in the community and they cannot continue to act in support of a dominant consciousness that is oppressing people.
As suggested in chapter three, practices of resistance to injustice are built on remembrance and relationship-building in communities that stand in solidarity with those who are marginalized and oppressed.63 These practices bring adolescent girls and the adults who care about them together to discuss the ways that women and girls are marginalized by the expectations of the patriarchal social imaginary and the actions that women engage in – such as protesting advertising that objectifies women or teaching about women role models – to counteract these contradictory expectations. These practices, which build on skills that have traditionally been associated with girls and women and which form a part of the triple bind’s expectations of girls and women, then can become the tools for denouncing and dismantling the patriarchal social imaginary. As communities formed in a feminist prophetic imagination become more and more aware of the ways that the social imaginary is shaping how they experience reality, they become more aware of the need for remembrance and relationship-building as practices
of resistance. Remembering the paradigmatic stories of the theological tradition – stories like the creation of humanity in the image of God – as well as the stories of past
resistance to injustice – such as the civil rights movement or the women’s movement – can shape the imaginations of the community, enabling them to imagine a better world and a path for getting to that more just place. Relationship-building also becomes an act of solidarity as a community shaped by a feminist prophetic imagination seeks to resist injustices. No longer is the individual adolescent girl, for example, abandoned to manage the contradictory expectations and relentless pressures of the triple bind; rather, she is held in a multi-generational community where relationships of care and trust mean that she is taught to resist injustice. This means not only teaching adolescent girls about the injustices they may face – including those related to the expectations of the triple bind as well as the effects of sexism, racism, and ageism. It involves showing them that
resistance to those injustices is allowed, expected, and supported by the community. It also means teaching adolescent girls about the particular practices of resistance that have been used by people of faith in the past and that can be useful in confronting and resisting the pressures of the contemporary patriarchal social imaginary. For example, the stories of women from the suffragette movement and the civil rights movement, as well as stories of women who are fighting for legislation to ensure equal treatment in the workplace, can be told alongside the biblical narratives of God’s call for justice.
Finally, the community shaped by a feminist prophetic imagination is not satisfied with merely identifying and denouncing the patriarchal social imaginary or with resisting the effects of its injustices. The prophetic community is one that proposes a new way of being in the world – a way that is shaped by God’s hesed. As it is described in the
biblical narrative, God acts towards God’s people with hesed – loving-kindness, mercy, and forgiveness – and God’s people are called to act with hesed towards each other. Katherine Sakenfeld reminds us that hesed “involves active concern for the well-being of all the people of God, but particularly for the weak and underprivileged among them – the poor or any whose status offers no ready advocate in the society.”64 The practice of
hesed was a concern of the biblical prophets; again, the words of the prophet Micah make
this clear: “[God] has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). Communities shaped by God’s hesed are communities that are shaped by the values of care, kindness, generosity, hospitality, forgiveness, and mercy that are extended not only to those with whom there is a prior relationship, but also to all those with whom that relationship is more tenuous or does not yet exist.
As with practices of resistance, like remembrance and relationship-building, the formation of communities of hesed draw on characteristics that have traditionally been considered the domain of women and girls – the forming and nurturing of relationships among people. Under the influence of the feminist prophetic imagination, the formation of communities of hesed becomes an act of hope for newness.65 Under the influence of a feminist prophetic imagination, day-to-day tasks like mentoring, advising, and learning all become opportunities for the giving and receiving of care, mercy, forgiveness, and loving-kindness. The task of the prophetic community is to exercise an imagination that cuts through the numbness and self-absorption that characterizes the dominant
consciousness of the patriarchal social imaginary, providing both the language of lament
64 Katharine Doob Sakenfeld, Faithfulness in Action: Loyalty in Biblical Perspective (Philadelphia: Fortress
Press, 1985), 102.
and of new hope.66 For the community shaped by the feminist prophetic imagination, the creation of communities of hesed is the practice of announcing to the community itself and to the world the way that things ought to be, the way that God is calling the
community to be.
This practice of the feminist prophetic imagination on behalf of a community’s adolescent girls not only provides them with a community that is explicitly focused on the flourishing and thriving of girls (and all members of the community); it also works to educate adolescent girls in the practices of God’s hesed and the formation of
communities that practice hesed. As a practice of the community itself, creating communities of hesed is the creation of communities of care where each individual adolescent girl can be nurtured and cared for as she grows to adulthood in a wider social milieu that is often toxic for her. In addition, in the context of a community that practices God’s hesed, adolescent girls can be informed about and guided in a critique of the aspects of the social imaginary that are harmful, aspects such as the triple bind. The practice of God’s hesed in communities of care, through even the day-to-day activities of learning, mentoring, advising, and praying together, also serves to initiate adolescent girls into the community that is committed to imagining a new and more just world; this initiation provides them with the tools to exercise the feminist prophetic imagination as they form other communities of care throughout their lives. Forming communities of
hesed creates space – both physical space and emotional space – where girls can explore
their experiences of the world and work, in solidarity with others, for a more just world. This can happen in classrooms, in extra-curricular activities, and on sports teams – in, for example, the context of a Amnesty International letter writing campaign or the research
for a staging of a dramatic production or a conversation about the unequal treatment of female professional athletes.