Learning Subversive Sexuality from Biblical Sex Workers

Day 1 of 6: Tamar

“She took off her widow's garments and covered herself with a veil, wrapping herself up, and sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she had not been given to him in marriage.”
-Genesis 38:14 (ESV)

Because Tamar saw that Shelah was grown, but she was not being given to him as a wife, she cast aside the clothes indicating she was a widow and covered and wrapped herself in a veil and dwelled at the gate of Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah.
-Genesis 38:14, (translation my own)

The story of Tamar is somewhat intriguing to us today because it is counterculture to everything we have come to believe about when and where it is morally proper to have sexual relations. Not only is Tamar twice widowed, but her father-in-law, who is supposed to ensure that she is taken care of by providing another husband for her, decides she is cursed. In an effort to shirk his duties, he tries to ghost her. However, she tricks him into getting her pregnant so he is forced to provide a life for her.

Now, there is a lot in that story that is reprehensible (such as the abandonment by those who were supposed to provide for her and the patriarchal transfer of women as property), but there are still things we can find encouragement in. This story shows us that we are able to reclaim our bodies through subversive action, which, in Tamar's case, ends with Tamar being noted as “more righteous than [Judah].”

We’ve heard the arguments. People say Tamar pretended to be a sex worker because there were “no sex workers in that town.” However, she dressed and lived at the gate, which was a location where sex workers lived. (For the Bible scholars out there, the word is יָשַׁב which is often translated as “sit,” but it also means to settle or live in a place)… Continue Reading Day 1 in the App

Alycea T

Day 1 of 6: Tamar

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