A New World of Queer Activism: A Congregation Blessed by a Dildo, Yoghurt-Filled Condoms and Condom Savior Masses During the Aids Crisis

In todays episode Rachael speaks with Dr. Melissa Wilcox about her scholarship on the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. In asking questions in and about the often rough-terrain at the intersections of sexuality, gender, and religion, Rachael and Dr. Wilcox discuss narratives of sexual freedom, spirituality and safety. Dr. Wilcox's book Queer Nuns follows the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence's through their longstanding activism, including sexual education, public manifestations and protests, and charitable fundraising. Wilcox defines this performative activism as “a form of cultural protest in which a disempowered group parodies an oppressive cultural institution while simultaneously claiming for itself what it believes to be an equally good or superior enactment of one or more culturally respective aspects of that same institution.” Rachael and Dr. Wilcox discuss how the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence draws attention to a new world of religion and activism, one which charts how religious studies and queer studies can intersect in profound ways and more in this episode.