Review: "Disobedient Women" by Sarah Stankorb

Disobedient Women by Sarah Stankorb (@sarahstankorb)
Published August 2023 via Worthy Books (@worthypub)
★★★★

When girls are taught "Biblical womanhood" equates with purity and submission, they are trained to feel responsible for protecting men from their allegedly God-ordained sexual appetites—dress modestly, avoid front-to-front hugs, vow virginity until marriage—but also obliged to yield to authority figures: their pastors, fathers, men. Through one lens, they are delicate, precious. But through another, easy prey. (loc. 870*)

For decades, the Southern Baptist Convention has been a conservative stronghold in the US, holding firm to a patriarchal view of religion. Think purity culture, think fighting against marriage equality, think forbidding women to preach. And think sexual abuse: for decades, the SBC covered up abuse by leaders and more generally men in the church, blamed women (and girls) for men's crimes, and told survivors over and over again that their voices were not to be heard.

Not all women listened. And it's that story that Stankorb documents in Disobedient Women: sometimes it started with a blog post, and sometimes with a tweet, but over the years a growing number of decided that it was time for something to change. They started sharing their stories, swapping information, and building databases of the men the church had, again and again, protected from the consequences of their crimes.

If you're familiar with the IBLP (think: the Duggar family, Bill Gothard, and the recent docuseries Shiny Happy People) and the way it has contributed to change in the American religious landscape, a lot of this will feel familiar. Stankorb did not grow up directly in it, but she felt the reverberations in her own upbringing, and her research is meticulous. This is not a book about religion or faith—it's about one of the ways that religion has been used to mask grabs for power and to abuse those with less power. I'm fascinated by the points Stankorb makes about blogs and social media doing things that traditional journalism could not:

Wartburg Watch covered the extreme theologies of popular pastors and broke abuse cases journalists couldn't touch. It is immensely difficult for journalists to get editorial approval on a story about sex abuse allegations without charges; it requires deep fact-checking, a willing editor, and a publication taking on potential liability risk. But reporters have more readily covered the fact of a blog post making such claims, and in this way, Parsons helped create an end-around for getting media coverage of the stories she worked to corroborate. (loc. 1160)

Eventually, these voices added up, reaching a critical mass loud enough that they could no longer be ignored. And yet this can only be the beginning: Over the course of these years that started with reporting on the bloggers and then following my sources' advocacy on social media, writes Stankorb, the countermovement for reform has changed shape too. This book, in many ways, represents a snapshot in time. Much as the reckoning begun with those in this book has rocked the church, in other ways, a needed shake-up is only beginning (loc. 3125).

This is one of many recent books that are continuing that shake-up, and it's a good one to have on your shelves.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

*I read an ARC, and quotes may not be final.