Name: Primrose Vien G.

Ferolino

Schedule: 10:30-12:00 Course: BSA-1

PRELIM OUTPUT

GOD IS A WOMAN: A Theological Critique

I. Lyrics (God is a woman by Ariana Grande)

II. Background/Story behind the Song/theological basis or foundation

III. Critique

Your reaction here must be supported by any of these expert, author or a study/jurnal/research.

IV. References/Bibliography
 "God Is A Woman"
You, you love it how I move you
You love it how I touch you
My one, when all is said and done
You'll believe God is a woman
And I, I feel it after midnight
A feeling that you can't fight
My one, it lingers when we're done
You'll believe God is a woman
I don't wanna waste no time, yeah
You ain't got a one-track mind, yeah
Have it any way you like, yeah
And I can tell that you know I know how I
want it
Ain't nobody else can relate
Boy, I like that you ain't afraid
Baby, lay me down and let's pray
I'm tellin' you the way I like it, how I want it
(Yeah)
And I can be all the things you told me not
to be
(Yeah)
When you try to come for me, I keep on
flourishing
(Yeah)
And he see the universe when I'm in
company
It's all in me
You, you love it how I move you
You love it how I touch you
My one, when all is said and done
You'll believe God is a woman
And I, I feel it after midnight
A feeling that you can't fight
My one, it lingers when we're done
You'll believe God is a woman
I tell you all the things you should know
So, baby, take my hand, save your soul
We can make it last, take it slow, hmm
And I can tell that you know I know how I
want it, yeah
That you different from the rest
And boy, if you confess, you might get
blessed
See if you deserve what comes next
I'm tellin' you the way I like it, how I want it
(Yeah)
And I can be all the things you told me not
to be
(Yeah)
When you try to come for me, I keep on
flourishing
(Yeah)
And he see the universe when I'm in
company
It's all in me
You, you love it how I move you
You love it how I touch you
My one, when all is said and done
You'll believe God is a woman
And I, I feel it after midnight
A feeling that you can't fight
My one, it lingers when we're done
You'll believe God is a woman, yeah, yeah
(God is a woman)
Yeah, yeah
(God is a woman, yeah)
My one
(One)
When all is said and done
You'll believe God is a woman
You'll believe God
(God is a woman)
Oh, yeah
(God is a woman, yeah)
(One)
It lingers when we're done
You'll believe God is a woman
 Ariana Grande’s “God is Woman” mixes the concepts of divinity with sexuality in a
video that is full of references to historical works of art. We’ll look at the intense symbolism of
this video.
Is God a woman? Of course not. God is an old man with a long white beard, everybody
knows that. But seriously, debating God’s sex is one of the most pointless endeavors one can
engage in.

Pretty much every religion and spiritual current in History asserted that God is above the
concepts of male and female. While life on Earth is divided into two opposing sexes to ensure
the propagation of species, God transcends these limitations of the physical realm.
So what is Ariana Grande babbling about when she sings “God is Woman”? Well, first, it
is important to note that the song was not composed by Ariana Grande, but by two men (who are
record industry giants): Max Martin and Savan Kotecha. Also, the video was directed by another
man (who is also an industry giant) Dave Meyers.
Second, despite the name of the song, Ariana does not actually claim that God is a
woman. The song and the video are actually about her becoming a goddess through sexuality.
The lyrics actually say:

“when we’re done,

You’ll believe God is a woman”
While most reviewers claim that God is a Woman is about “female empowerment”, the
video uses symbols and works of art that allude to profound spiritual concepts, giving the song a
deeper meaning.
Indeed, God is a Woman touches on the esoteric concepts of tantric yoga and sex Magick,
where sexuality becomes a spiritual experience that can lead to “self-divinity”. The video also
mixes in imagery alluding to ancient mythology, the sacred feminine, and modern feminism, in a
dizzying potpourri that accurately reflects the state of spirituality and gender relations in this day
and age.
Let’s look at the meaning of God is a Woman.
The Song
In many ways, the song is similar to Madonna’s 1989 hit Like a Prayer, which cleverly
(yet blasphemously) blended sex with religion. Madonna – who I like to call the Grand Priestess
of the music industry – actually does a cameo appearance in the video God is a Woman (more on
this later).
The lyrics of God is a Woman uses vocabulary associated with spirituality to describe various
acts of lovemaking.
“Boy, I like that you ain’t afraid
Baby, lay me down and let’s pray
I’m tellin’ you the way I like it, how I want it”
The line “lay me down and let’s pray” is a reference to the children’s prayer:
 Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
If I should die before I ‘wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take
However, in Ariana’s version, “let’s pray” refers to something else … maybe oral … I’m
not sure … we should ask the two men who wrote the song.

In the second verse, there is more religious-inspired lust.

“if you confess, you might get blessed

See if you deserve what comes next”
Ariana alludes to the Catholic practice of confessing sins to a priest. “You might get
blessed” refers to, once again, knocking boots in the ol’ haystack.

As stated above, the song is not actually about God being a woman, it is actually about
Ariana Grande “ascending” to the status of a goddess through the act of copulation. Tantric yoga 
– a highly esoteric practice originating from Eastern spirituality – uses sexual energy as a source
of spiritual power. In Western occultism, Aleister Crowley popularized (and some say corrupted)
similar ideas through Sex Magick, which uses of the energy from arousal to reach magical
purposes.
Crowley’s occult order, the O.T.O, claimed that the mastery of this practice led to nothing less
than unlocking the secrets of all forms of spirituality.

“Our order possesses the key which opens up all Masonic and Hermetic secrets,

namely, the teachings of sexual magic, and this teaching explains, without exception,
all the secrets of Freemasonry and all systems of religion.”
The video God is a Woman describes, in various symbolic ways, the ascension of Ariana
Grande to the status of a goddess. Through her genitals. I’m not being crude, the video depicts
this quite explicitly.

III. Critique

“You! You love it how I move you” she sings, “You love it how I touch you…My one,
when all is said and done/You’ll believe God is a woman.” It’s already topping charts and being
called the song of the summer.

Both Cuomo, a politician, and Grande, a pop star, present a vision of God that is
alternative to recent tradition: God as a benevolent feminist mentor, and God as the ultimate
source of sensual pleasure.

And both prophets speak their visions, above all, for their own aggrandizement. Cuomo
positions himself as a man who straddles tradition and the cutting edge, a governor for all
seasons and all paternal figures, while Grande positions herself as the creamy foam on the
breaching third wave of feminism — a sex symbol who derives her power from the pleasure she
can give to men, the warm-bodied incarnation of female empowerment with a kind of celestial
supremacy.

To paraphrase my mom paraphrasing the musical “Hamilton” paraphrasing George

Washington: “These men take God’s name and they rake it through the mud! God’s name’s been
through a lot, God can take it.”

Neither the third-term hopeful nor the pop-princess do anything terribly wrong by God —
certainly nothing outside of the proud tradition of politicians and artists as theologians.

But they do give us a good opportunity to discuss the belief Grande posits her lovers will
hold after a night in her company — that God is a woman.

Several instances in the Scriptures suggest a female form of God. The prophets Isaiah and
Hosea describe God as a mother, a woman giving birth, and as a mother bear. Kabbalists
developed the idea of a female aspect of God, the Shekhina, in the Zohar. But the common
consensus is that God is gender-less — or in more radical circles, gender-queer. Evidence comes
as early as Genesis 1: “And God created man in his image, in the image of god he created him;
male and female He created them.”

This is an English grammar teacher’s nightmare, but a gentle parsing suggests that if men
and women are both in the image of God, then God’s image must contain both.

So God has both male and female, or maybe a blend of both that is neither. Sounds fair
enough.

But Rabbis, scholars, and the Torah don’t treat God that way. The so-called “feminine”
aspect of God might have its day from time to time in drashes and writings; mostly it is shunted
aside by the cruder force of language. Both Hebrew and English are limited by gender, and so
almost everywhere in the Tanach, and in prayer, and in scholarship, God is referred to by male
pronouns.

If you’re a truly religious or spiritual person you should find it blasphemous to refer to
God as a male — this brings God down to human levels. Why should God be diminished just
because language is limited? And why should generation after generation grow up believing that
the supreme force who created and controls the world is male? Children internalize God’s
maleness long before they can understand nuanced adult beliefs about God’s non-binary gender.
The tacit confirmation by every prayer, every line of Torah, every Rabbi’s sermon, that God is a
“he” builds and rebuilds a world where men are supreme, women are secondary, and nobody is
in between. It is one of the mightiest and simplest tools of the patriarchy.

It’s bad for humans. It’s bad for God. It’s lazy. And it’s not holy.

Moreover, God’s role in the Torah is abundantly feminine. It is that of creator, maker,
nurturer, punisher, the one who “raises” the Israelites up, gives to them again and again without
thanks, comforts them, terrifies them, protects them, shelters them, provides for them, instructs
them, and shows them the way.

God, the Torah makes clear again and again is not a woman — but God is a mother.

The answer to dismantling patriarchy is not raising up a matriarchy in its place. But
building our understanding of, as Ariana Grande puts it, “God [as] a woman,” will help
counterbalance almost every human’s internalized beliefs that our creator is a man, a father, a
guy in the sky with a beard.

God is our mother, our father, our parent. While language is inherently lacking, God is
limitless. The abilities we have to see each other are blinkered and binary, but God can see us as
infinite. God calls on us fettered, ignorant humans, to see eternity in each other. So it can’t hurt,
as Grande sings it, if, “When all is said and done you’ll believe God is a woman.
IV. References

https://www.jstor.org/stable/1386392

https://www.instagram.com/p/3ollg0yWZi/?utm_source=ig_embed

https://www.glamour.com/story/ariana-grande-god-is-a-woman-video