Jezebel - The Classic Stereotype of The "Bad Woman"

 

So this is the Jezabel of modern times? Well, excuse me, but I thought this was the very competent Vice President of Joe Biden, Kamala Harris. At least so she is to me as well to most of the world, but it seems that to some men of the church she is first and foremost JEZEBEL: "According to reports by Raw Story and Baptist News, at least two white pastors in Texas have referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as a “Jezebel” because, apparently, whichever Jesus they praise is all about that holy misogynoir.
“What if something happens to [President Biden] and Jezebel has to take over?” Swofford asked. “Jezebel Harris, isn’t that her name?”"

To me she looks like a nice, free and bright woman who neither needs nor uses a lot of make-up to make an impact. However, I'm not blind to the fact that Church people may react to those very qualities as they believe a woman's place is in the kitchen or somewhere else (the church???) where she doesn't have to use the brain that was her birth gift. Also: In modern usage, the name of Jezebel is sometimes used as a synonym for sexually promiscuous or controlling women which I think is what earned Kamala Harris the Jezebel-name ....
 

As to the Biblical Jezebel then she was a born princess who married Ahab, King of Israel (1 Kings 16-31). As daughter of Ithobaal I, king of Tyre, she was a born Phoenician and she was used to worship the gods of her home country, Baal and Asherah, and not the Hebrew god Yaweh. In Biblical contexts she is described as a form of priestess or even prophet, but that wasn't unusual for the Phoenicians: High ranking female clerics were customary in the Asherah and Baal religion. Besides, being more than just a subordinate worshipper of her gods was against the subdued roles of Israeli women and something which also made her hated in her new country. As the queen of Ahab she naturally became a power factor in Israel, but people didn't accept her in her new country. When she - and her husband - turned away from Yahweh to worship the gods of her Phoenician home country as the institutionalized deities of her new country it was seen as a grave sin which gained her many enemies. One of these was the prophet Elijah whom she fought for years. However, in a godly duel, so to speak, Baal and Asherab didn't succeed in burning an ox, but Yahew did and that turned the fightings worse and worse. Elijah had to flee, but ended up as the ultimate victor of the ongoing religious wars in Israel.

As to Jezebel she came to a sad ending as her death by being thrown from a window fulfilled a presumably godly prophecy that her corpse was to be devoured by dogs. Those days that was the ultimate in degradation, but then wasn't she a baaad woman who deserved everything that came to her? I don't think so, in my opinion she was a brave and committed person who fought for her believes and her religion, but also for the role of women. One can't call her a feminist, but still what she did was kind of feministic. However, her stereotype signals a demeaning sexualization that turns her from a spiritual and intelligent being into something quite different ....

https://www.theroot.com/we-need-to-talk-about-these-white-texas-pastors-who-ref-1846217141 

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jezebel-queen-of-Israel

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/people-in-the-bible/how-bad-was-jezebel/

Wikipedia