Jezebel! The very name conjures up images of the manipulative and evil character, whose destruction in the Hebrew Bible by Jehu, helped shaped the image of womankind for generations to come not only in the lands of the Ancient Near East but into the modern world. Jezebel has been a label for any woman who has dared to deviate from the status quo, who refused to succumb to the societal pressures designed by patriarchal systems. Jezebel’s image has not been a positive one by any stretch of the imagination and, indeed, she holds an important place in biblical history as an example of what a proper woman should not do. How might someone read Jezebel through a lens other than the traditional approach, for example, how might one view her through a “queer eye” or simply examining her experiences through non-Hebrew/Christian lens. This paper will examine the story presented in the Hebrew Bible as a point of departure in looking at Jezebel’s actions through the lens of the “other.” She was the “other,” as she was “alien” to Hebrew culture and life, she was Phoenician after all. Moreover, the paper will also look at the use of “Jezebel” in U.S. popular culture and focus on how Hollywood has capitalized on that negative image of womanhood to perpetuate American societal attitudes about women, thus relegating them to a secondary (at best) place.
About the presenterJerra Jenrette
Jerra Jenrette is Professor of History in the Department of History, Politics, Languages, and Cultures at Edinboro University. Her areas of expertise include US women’s history, labor, Christianity, popular culture, and Latin America. Most recently she has been researching women and war and anticipates a chapter in a forthcoming book on North Carolina During WWWI; Her chapter focuses on women on the warfront. The expected publication date is 2018 from the University of Tennessee Press.