{"id":878,"date":"2022-04-14T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-14T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/difference\/?p=878"},"modified":"2022-04-13T19:13:05","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T19:13:05","slug":"deadlier-than-the-male-the-sexual-curiosity-of-anti-catholicism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/difference\/deadlier-than-the-male-the-sexual-curiosity-of-anti-catholicism\/","title":{"rendered":"Deadlier than the Male? The Sexual Curiosity of Anti-Catholicism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Author: Rose Hayden<\/a><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Some considered Donald Trump a phenomenon, unlike any other. His populist presidential campaign and subsequent presidency exhibited a wanton disregard for women, and his convictions aimed to entertain whilst instil fear. However, many features of Trump\u2019s repertoire paid homage to Reverend Ian Paisley during the 1960s and 1970s. Well known for his rhetoric, Paisley\u2019s preaching and writings were experienced<\/a> as \u2018a powerful catalyst for bigotry\u2019. As well as notably voicing strong resentment towards the Pope, Paisley routinely used sexualised language to convey contempt in order to gain and maintain support for his \u2018firebrand\u2019 politics. His fundamental aim, to denounce Catholicism and rally support for his charge to dominate Ulster Unionism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On International Women\u2019s Day I presented my research paper about Reverend Ian Paisley and the sexual curiosity of anti-Catholicism. Paisley was one of the most influential individuals throughout \u2018The Troubles\u2019 (1968-1998) in Northern Ireland. A sectarian genie; Paisley was an enigmatic and charismatic character. He became one of the most ardent representatives of Unionism and to many, he represented the true protector of Ulster’s Protestant faith. Historians have coined the term \u2018Paisleyism\u2019 to describe his movement; he founded his own religious denomination, Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster in 1951; his own newspapers, The Revivalist <\/em>in 1955 and the Protestant Telegraph <\/em>in 1966;<\/em> and even his own political party, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in 1971.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of Paisley\u2019s popularity was due to the dissemination of sexualised rhetoric and pornographic texts, as well as his depictions of women as \u2018Jezebels\u2019 and \u2018Whores\u2019. Through his anti-Catholic preaching and writings, Paisley became a powerful Svengali who provided an \u2018unashamed appeal to the sexual curiosity of the strait-laced Northern fundamentalists\u2019<\/a>. His use of sexualised language in sermons to denounce Catholicism led one government official, Bob Cooper, to dub him \u2018the great pornographer\u2019 in November 1973.[1]<\/a> Cooper attended a sermon preached by Paisley in Belfast\u2019s Ulster Hall the night after Pope John XXIII died and recalled hearing Paisley describe \u2018the flames of hell at that moment licking around the dead Pope. It was so graphic and colourful that the audience could almost feel the flames and feel the heat. I will remember the horror till the day I die\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paisley frequently defined the Pope, Rome, and Catholic faith as \u2018the other\u2019 in the form of a female entity (she\/her). The Whore of Babylon was a vital feature of his rhetoric, to warn of the dangers of the Church of Rome. Introduced in the Revelation of St John the Divine[2]<\/a>, the Whore of Babylon defined a female harlot to blame for the \u2018fallen\u2019 state of humankind – which Feminist theologians have denounced as a misogynist male fantasy of the end of time. The book of Revelation constructs political and social relationships through the language and imagery of desire and gender, all of which was readily apparent in Paisley\u2019s oratory<\/a>: \u2018we are here to DEFEND the Gospel\u2026 with our blood like the martyrs of old who would not bow to the forces of Popery, and the scarlet whore drunk on the BLOOD of the Churches\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paisley\u2019s newspapers also capitalised on the idea that sex sells<\/em>. It is interesting to note that erotic literature has long been a vehicle for anti-Catholic sentiments. The Protestant Telegraph<\/em> gained an estimated circulation of about 15,000 by 1973<\/a> and through \u2018pornographication\u2019<\/a> it formed a gateway to produce oversexualised language and its scandalous stories appealed to tabloid style amusement. To put it as bluntly as the New York Times<\/em><\/a>, \u2018politics may be serious but it’s crime and sex that sell newspapers\u2019. Stories served to whet readers\u2019 appetites, and then focus upon strong attacks of opponents. This constructed a boundary between \u2018us\u2019 \u2013 the appalled and righteous Unionist readers \u2013 and them \u2013 exposed Catholic villains. During a time in which sexualised and misogynistic practices became commonplace in media, such as the emergence of \u2018page 3\u2019 in The Sun<\/em> in 1970, it is interesting to note how eroticised literature served two purposes: to entertain whilst also inflict an agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is important to consider the ways in which gender and sexualisation are used for political gain. The use of misogyny as a tool for dubious purposes is as prevalent now as it has been throughout history. Following de Beauvoir’s logic<\/a> that the epitaph \u2018whore\u2019 is flung at women who assert their economic or political independence, Catholics were defined as the Whore of Babylon to repress their progression in society. The fear of deviant women worked hand in hand with the fear of the Catholic Church. To a large degree, Paisley was not the pioneer of his language \u2013 instead, he capitalised on the idea that Catholicism seduces its advocates. In great measure it was his rhetoric, much of it misogynistic and highly sexualised, which acted as a catalyst that led to his recognition and the start of \u2018The Troubles\u2019, demonstrating the sexual allure of anti-Catholicism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/a> Hibernia<\/em>, 2 November 1973<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2]<\/a> Revelation 17:4, Old Testament<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Author’s biography<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Rose Hayden<\/a> is a Doctoral Researcher in History at the University of Westminster. Her research centres around gender, conflict and press with a particular focus on the Northern Ireland ‘Troubles’. Rose’s thesis focuses on representations of women and assesses the role of misogynistic and sexualised press and rhetoric in exacerbating conflict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author: Rose Hayden Some considered Donald Trump a phenomenon, unlike any other. His populist presidential campaign and subsequent presidency exhibited a wanton disregard for women, and his convictions aimed to entertain whilst instil fear. However, many features of Trump\u2019s repertoire…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":639,"featured_media":882,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,19],"tags":[188,27,24,164,190,161,39,187,191,26,189,38,33,25],"class_list":["post-878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-humanities","tag-catholicism","tag-college-of-liberal-arts-and-sciences","tag-difference","tag-different-conversations","tag-donald-trump","tag-history","tag-humanities","tag-ian-paisley","tag-international-womens-day","tag-las","tag-protestantism","tag-school-of-humanities","tag-university-of-westminster","tag-we-are-different"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/difference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/difference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/difference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/difference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/639"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/difference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/difference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":883,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/difference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878\/revisions\/883"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/difference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/difference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/difference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/difference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}