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Speaking “religion” through a gender code: The discursive power and gendered-racial implications of the religious label

Khan, RM (2021) Speaking “religion” through a gender code: The discursive power and gendered-racial implications of the religious label. Critical Research on Religion, 10 (2). pp. 153-169. ISSN 2050-3032

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Open Access URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/20503032211015302 (Published version)

Abstract

Drawing on the scholarship of Critical Religion, this article shows how the modern category “religion” operates through a gender code which upholds its discursive power and enables the production of religious—and therefore racial—hierarchies. Specifically, it argues that mentioning religion automatically makes gender present in discourse. Acknowledging religion as an inherently gendered category in this way gives further insight into the discursive power and functioning of the religious label. With the example of the Westphalian production of the “myth of religious violence” and the employment of “religion” in colonial contexts, I demonstrate how a gender code upholds and enables the discursive power of religion. Religion is both gendered (as part of the Western public/private binary) and gendering (in colonial contexts vis-à-vis non-Christian, non-White religions). Acknowledging the multiple ways in which religion is gendered and gendering, then, has important bearings on the analysis of religion’s racializing function which is upheld and aided by the gender code through which religion is spoken.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: 2204 Religion and Religious Studies
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BL Religion
H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Divisions: Humanities & Social Science
Publisher: SAGE Publications
SWORD Depositor: A Symplectic
Date Deposited: 25 Jan 2023 09:58
Last Modified: 24 Feb 2023 12:41
DOI or ID number: 10.1177/20503032211015302
URI: https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/18728
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