Knowledge of Good & Evil
Acrylic, print transfer, mixed media, collage.
8x8”
This piece is about the story of the garden of Eden. To summarize it goes like this: God created Adam, Adam is lonely, God creates Eve. Then God puts them both in a lush garden and tells them they can eat ANYTHING except from one tree; the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God tells them if they eat from that tree, they will die.
A crafty snake, widely interpreted to be Satan, but never specified as such,, comes along one day and tells Eve she should try the forbidden tree fruit. If she does, she’ll be like God understanding good from evil. Eve does, and she shares the fruit with Adam, and immediately they are cast out of the garden, and they and all their children for the rest of time, are cursed with various pains and problems. Including original sin, the stain from birth, making hell the default eternal destination for every man, woman, and child.
Adam and Eve did not die after eating the fruit, unless we assume that they were previously immortal--which is a big leap. What does happen is exactly what the serpent said: their eyes are opened. They understand good and evil. They become, in a way, god-like. So the serpent was telling the truth.
This story has been used for centuries to blame women for humanity's downfall. I was told during my life (especially during times I was being abused by men in the church or questioning the status quo) that women were more susceptible to spiritual deception, and thus unfit to teach or lead without male oversight. After all, Eve was the one who listened to the serpent.
But I’ve come to ask: who benefits from that reading of the story? It’s a handy question to ask frequently: who benefits?
What if the real problem here is that women became gods before men did. Eve, seeking knowledge and divinity, reached for it and attained it first. A fact, that could upend the entire so-called “natural order”.
Many men fear a strong, capable woman that sees clearly and doesn’t need them. In order to be worthy of that kind of god-like woman’s company they would have to be likeable.
It’s easier, instead, to convince a woman that she was created to be subservient to man, is naturally intellectually and morally deficient, and then hammer it home with centuries of domination, abuse, and oppression.
Questions to ask:
"Who benefits from this?"
How has this idea/text/law been used?
By whom?
To what ends?