Teaching Sexual Violence in the Bible with Graybill’s “Fuzzy, Messy, Icky”

By Christy Cobb.

In the United States, female undergraduate students are twice as likely to experience rape than to be robbed. Approximately 13% of all students—male and female; graduate and undergraduate—experience sexual assault or rape. These statistics are likely not a surprise to those of us who regularly teach undergraduate students, like myself. What might be a surprise to some is how often the subject of rape surfaces in biblical studies courses. Because of this, I have started addressing the topic on the first day of class and I include a note on my syllabus. In person and on paper, I encourage students to step out of the classroom whenever they need to (no excuses or notification required) if a topic that surfaces is triggering for them.

Consider the book of Genesis, the text with which many biblical studies classes begin. Just after Abram is called by God, his wife Sarai is forced to live in the house of the Pharaoh in Egypt where it seems likely that she is raped (Gen. 12:10-20). Then, Sarai requests that Abram have sex with her enslaved worker, Hagar, whose voice or consent is never given in the text (Gen. 16:1-6). While scholars offer other possible interpretations on sexual violence in the Bible, most agree these are difficult passages. It is my belief that it is important to guide students to read biblical passages that include sexual violence with care and compassion.

One class that I teach at the University of Denver where this topic regularly surfaces is an undergraduate course entitled “Women, Gender, and the Bible.” This course is designed as an introductory biblical studies course with a focus on female characters and passages that address issues of gender. The students read primary texts alongside articles and commentary from feminist and womanist scholars. One article that I have found to be extremely helpful for this course is Rhiannon Graybill’s “Fuzzy, Messy, Icky: The Edges of Consent in Hebrew Bible Rape Narratives and Rape Culture” which was published in The Bible and Critical Theory (an open access journal) in 2019. I assign this article early in the course, when we are reading Genesis, and then recall the terms throughout the course.

In this accessible article, Graybill offers three terms for identifying stories of sexual violence and rape that are also friendly to undergraduate stories: fuzzy, messy, and icky. As she notes, these are “non-technical terms, which are familiar from everyday speech. This is intentional: I am interested in the ways that sexual violence, including rape, is talked about and experienced in ordinary life” (pg 2). Fuzzy can be used in situations when the survivor is not clear about what happened perhaps due to trauma or when the survivor was under the influence of alcohol (pg 2). Messy describes the “aftermath of sexual violence” as a survivor of an assault may not follow what is viewed as a typical response (which is, actually, common in these situations; pg 3). When a college, university, or organization fails to respond to the fuzziness of rape, things can get messy. Finally, Graybill’s icky describes the feeling (or, affect) one gets in certain situations that could lead to sexual violence (and even when situations do not lead to rape but still just do not feel right).

After students read and discuss this article, we continue to use the terms throughout the remainder of the class. Students are all too familiar with sexual harassment and sexual violence in all of its fuzzy, messy, and icky forms. They recognize it in biblical texts as they recognize it in their own lives. These terms also provide vocabulary for students to address what they feel; this applies to their readings of the biblical texts for the day as well as in the connections they make to the own experiences.

For example, we read the text of Susanna from the Apocrypha and when the elders are introduced students immediately note that these men appear “icky” (Sus. 7-12). When we move to the New Testament and read several passages written by Paul about women and sexual regulations, students observe the “fuzziness” of the instructions (i.e. 1 Cor. 7). At the end of class, we read the “Acts of Thecla” together and students are quick to observe the attempted rape that Thecla experiences which result in a “messy” aftermath (Acts of Thecla, 26-27). These terms help the students to identify places in biblical texts which include scenes of sexual violence and contribute to rape culture.

Concerning their personal lives, students will often connect their own experiences and stories to the biblical text using Graybill’s “fuzzy, messy, icky” concepts. During the class session on Susanna, I put the students into groups and instructed them to find an artistic representation of Susanna (there are many) and observe the way the artist depicts her. Students are always astonished at numerous paintings of Susanna naked in the garden, her body on full display. They are quick to note the ways in which women and survivors are often blamed by media and others for sexual violence based on their clothes. Also, students bring up enforced dress codes that some experienced during middle or high school and note the icky way they felt when realizing that these regulations focus on female bodies more than male bodies.

It is often difficult to find academic articles that are as accessible and useful for teaching undergraduates as Graybill’s “Fuzzy, Messy, Icky.” I highly suggest it, especially for teaching undergraduate students in Bible courses; but I also think an article like this one could be useful for high school students, graduate students, and other interested feminist readers.

Christy Cobb is assistant professor of Christianity at University of Denver. Cobb is the author of Slavery, Gender, Truth, and Power in Luke-Acts and Other Ancient Narratives (2019) and co-edited a volume entitled Sex, Violence, and Early Christian Texts (2022). She is also the co-editor of a forthcoming volume to be published by Eerdmans entitled Ancient Slavery in New Testament Contexts. A member of the editorial board for the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, Cobb’s research and teaching interests include slavery, gender, sexuality, early Christian families, Acts, and the Apocryphal Acts.