Page - 25 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 06/02

Comfort the Waste Places, Defend the Violated Earth | 25www.jrfm.eu 2020, 6/2, 21–33 symbolic connections between nature and women are affirmed; on the other the experience of sexual violence that women especially suffer are addressed and intensified to a cosmic scale.20 Another major critique of the deployment of a rape metaphor to depict eco- logical disaster relates to its using passive victim language rather than fea- turing women as “figures of power, resilient survivors”.21 We might see Zi- on’s agency emphasised in the call for her to play an active role in her own freedom in Isaiah 52:1–2. Zion is not blamed in Deutero-Isaiah for her situa- tion, distinct from other prophetic uses of a rape metaphor.22 Mother Earth’s strength is more implicitly evident in Chapman’s song in Earth’s having given birth to all of humanity. Whilst we can appreciate the risks in using rape metaphors, by avoiding these images we downplay their shock value. By not engaging with the ref- erences to rape in the song and the passage, we potentially remove them from conversation, from front of mind. Interrogation of the imagery needs to include challenging derogatory assumptions within it, particularly in the case of the biblical text, where rape metaphors emerged in patriarchal and androcentric cultures.23 “The Rape of the World” The lyrics of Tracy Chapman’s 1995 song “The Rape of the World” personify the earth as a mother being stripped, raped, beaten, and raised falsely as a queen.24 Chapman’s work connects issues of class, race, gender, religion, sexuality, vi- olence, poverty justice, and politics. The intermingling of reggae, African, and pop and rock sounds with the civil rights movement is evidenced in her mu- sic.25 As womanist scholar Cheryl Kirk-Duggan relates, Chapman’s blues style 20 Gudmarsdottir 2010, 206. 21 Gudmarsdottir 2010, 220. 22 Stone 1992, 85–99; Darr 1994, 85–123. See Isa. 47 for the blaming of Babylon for her own sexual humiliation. 23 Gudmarsdottir 2010, 220. 24 The song is from the album New Beginning (Tracy Chapman, US 1995, Elektra). To hear the song and read the lyrics see the following YouTube link https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=rPrGB-1lYkg [accessed 16/09/2020]. 25 Whiteley 2000.