Women Talking: Pacifism, Foot-washing, Men, and Racial Diversity (Part 3)
This is part of a four-part series. Read Part 1. Read Part 2. Read Part 3. Read Part 4.
Pacifism
One of the better-known features of the Mennonite faith is pacifism - the belief that violence of any kind is forbidden. In Women Talking the idea of pacifism comes up a lot. We hear lines like, “Pacifism is good. Any violence is unjustifiable” and it seems like a predictable set of words for a Mennonite character. The problem is that while pacifism might be an oft-mentioned ideal in modern more liberal Mennonite circles, generally, the more conservative the Mennonite group, the less they will talk about pacifism.
And yet in the book and movie, there is a relentless emphasis on pacifism as both a theological concept and the ideal way of life. As the women discuss what they will do, they constantly appeal to pacifism as the defining point of their faith in a way that would not come up in everyday conversation.
And not only is it rarely spoken of but the opposite is often practiced. Violence is not uncommon in the colonies. I have heard first-hand stories of people who were violently abducted when they tried to leave the colony and of missionaries who were tied to poles and whipped for trying to lead people in the colonies away from their oppression. For one rather gruesome example of violence in these environments, see this story from a colony in Belize.
According to one person I know in Bolivia, a missionary who works among the Old Colony Mennonites, “They would usually revert to it [pacifism] in the sense that they are not to avenge themselves, let God repay,” he told me, but, “it is certainly not practiced in how they raise their children, how they work in church discipline or how they deal with issues that come up in daily life.”
A Dead/Dying Language?
It is an interesting, although probably not accidental, irony that in the novel, a character asks, “Why is there no word in our dying language for salvation?” There are, in fact, at least two words for salvation in Low German: “Radunk” and “seelichkjeit”. And yet it’s “pacifism” - a central focus for Toews - for which there is no specific Low German word.
The language these people speak is also not unwritten. There is a Low German Bible and an online Low German dictionary. In light of all this, the comment that there is no word in Low German for salvation seems like a theological cheap shot.
Singing and Foot Washing
How about singing? We see in the movie that the women pause to sing hymns. Do Old Colony people sing some of the same hymns we do? No, they sing their own songs which are considered to be at least as sacred as the Bible itself.
The sound of this singing is unique. If you’ve ever been to an Old Colony worship service you know that the music they sing is monodic and nasal, closer to ancient chants than popular hymns. Here is some audio of Old Colony singing:
Along with the singing, we also see a beautiful scene of foot washing, a ritual in the movie that also includes the women kissing each other’s feet. It is a touching scene, and foot washing is a Christian tradition, even an ordinance among some groups, but it is neither among Old Colony Mennonites.
Men in the Movie
The only man in the movie whose face we see who has any speaking lines is August. The only other adult Mennonite male that appears in the movie is shown only briefly with care taken to obscure his face in shadow.
Yesterday I found myself agreeing with much of what I read in a piece written by a female feminist writer. In her words:
“He [August] is the only man the women trust, possibly because he behaves more like a beaten dog than a man… It seems that the film is more invested in humiliating its one male character than adhering to its own psychological sense.
What does it say about the ‘female imagination’ if in it the only good man is a doggishly subservient one? Is a crude dominant-submissive role reversal the best that imagination can come up with? This seems to me both a moral and an artistic error; August is a cartoon of a p****-whipped man—but a cartoon we are meant to take seriously and even find admirable.”
I noticed this as well. The only good males in this movie are August (described above), the younger boys who are not yet men, and a female character who identifies as male. In a scene that people in the theatre I was in seemed to find humorous, one woman sprays her own son in the face with the same knock-out drug that was used on the women and takes him against his will out of the colony along with the women.
Racial Diversity
I came across one interesting criticism that the movie lacked racial diversity. The podcast host defended the movie on the grounds that the movie-makers were limited in what they could do because they wanted to stay true to the Old Colony culture. See meme below.
Racial diversity might as well have been inserted into the movie as it would be just as accurate as some of the other elements that are portrayed.
I mean, when you’ve already strayed so far from the true story, obliterated naming conventions, fabricated dialogue, inserted theological concepts, lied about language, invented a musical landscape, and expanded their sexual diversity - WHY NOT ALSO GO FOR RACIAL DIVERSITY IN THE CAST? Suddenly THIS is too much of a stretch?
This is part of a four-part series. Read Part 1. Read Part 2. Read Part 3. Read Part 4.
There will be one or two more parts where I will tell you where to find more truthful source material about the events in the Manitoba Colony and make an appeal to those who want to help the real-life victims of the true story.