Reading Galit Hasan-Rokem's article on Jerusalem not being the mother of all cities was very interesting. In fact it was an idea that I had never really thought of. I ask though, if Jerusalem is not "she", than what is she?
I clearly remember my elementary school days, the days where girls had "cooties" and were boys rocked. I remember one day my mom took me to a museum where they had a special exhibit on the sinking of the Titanic. Just like Jerusalem, the Titanic was the mother of all ships and always was refereed to as she. Being the elementary school boy that I was, I found it insulting and was offended that such a cool ship would just be a "girl".
But if Jerusalem isn't a woman, what is "it"? Forever woman have been associated with beauty, youth, innocence, accessibility, and of course conflict. To me, all these words are perfect adjectives to describe Jerusalem not just today, but yesterday and most likely in the future as well.
If I could ask Rokem a question, I would agree that Jerusalem may not be a woman, it makes sense in a way. But if Jerusalem isn't a woman, what is it?
I also had not really thought about Jerusalem as a she, or any gender for that matter, until reading this. I like how you looked at this article and related it back to your childhood. (I was less than thrilled with this article and didn't really know how to respond to it, so I'm happy you did!) Now that you brought it up though, I do wonder why we tend to refer to objects and cities as "she." (My car is a boy though. Amy brought it up today that she's never heard of a boy car, so I had a little laugh.) I would argue that women have not been forever been associated with conflict. I'm not really sure why we would gender conflict as female as opposed to male. It would makes sense for a male to gender conflict as female, because to him women do create conflict, and vice versa. But to say simply that women are associated with conflict does not seem so correct to me. I think gendering (is that a word...?) anything depends on who is making the association. So, it is up to each individual to choose if Jerusalem is male or female, or neither.
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