Run From Your Parent’s House: Transfeminism and Abraham’s Blessing
In this essay, Greenberg explores trans and gender-nonconforming ways of being in contemporary Judaism, through a televised version of Abraham, as portrayed in the award-winning Amazon series Transparent. Transparent's challenge to the gender divide is made by citing, referencing, and reimagining the mythological call to the biblical figure of Abraham: “Go forth from your land, your birthplace, your father's house, to the land that I will show you” (Gen 12:1). The interconnection between the text's temporal and spatial gaps allows for a polysemic reading. It not only gives way to a renewed exploration of the two parts of the verse (the divine call to Abraham “Go forth,” and “from your father's house”) but also adds another possible transfeminist reading of the conclusion to Abraham's story: “Return to your parent's house, to care for your community,” urging action and spiritual leadership.
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/jfemistudreli.37.2.03