Sexuality beyond Chastity: Negotiating Gender Intimacy and Sexuality within Roman Catholic Religious Communities in Poland

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Sexuality beyond chastity

I understand that translating colloquial Polish into refined intelligible English is far from easy. Below I have made a few suggestions in relation to particular sentences. However, the English expression overall requires attention, especially with the help of a native speaker, or near native speaker. This is especially the case concerning a number of longer extracts of interviews, some of which currently fail to have the impact in English translation that they should. For example, lines 389-94.

Another general comment is that, in some instances, rather than presenting percentages of results in continuous text, where one figure easily runs into another, tabulate these results in a diagram, and then add commentary in continuous prose.

11        the institutionalised framework of religious life

21        an important role

44-5     are people religious sexless? Should be: are vowed religious sexless?

70-1     inner unity of man in his bodily and spiritual being. Amend exclusivist language.

156      effects on … Better: affects …

161      becoming persons religious / becoming religious persons

195      that both male and female discussion participants represented a specific group / that male and female discussion participants each represented a specific individual group

227      instructions in / on

298      religious sexuality / a religious’ sexuality

295-6 the norm which decrees that men religious are desexualised individuals

Question: My emphasis. Whose norm is this? What does it mean to say that men religious are desexualised? Does it mean that one’s human sexuality is repressed, or spiritualised, or sublimated? Does the same apply to religious women? What happens if a person thinks he is, or has to be, desexualised, and yet finds that his sexuality asserts itself?

357-8   situations of crossing the border of intimacy on the part of lay people less often than on the part of clergy

Question: Do you mean “with” rather then “on the part of”?

365      objectively / as an object

And similarly elsewhere in this contexts. The word “objectively” in English generally has a positive connotation. The negative usage is to treat someone as an object.

367      like a companion / casually

369      ill treatment / ill-treatment

372      irritation / bewilderment

385      objectively / with reserve

389-94 This paragraph needs to be translated again so as to make good sense in English.

404      women religious construct an alternative model of femininity (based on theology)

The existing model of femininity is also based on a theology, but it is a different one to which an alternative is sought.

409-10 Women religious expect recognition of their femininity but also respect that they are women.

            The second part of this sentence merely repeats the first part in different words, making the “but also” the incorrect conjunction.

     413-6   Trzebiatowska concluded that her interlocutors ‘viewed themselves as women in the traditional sense … and [insisted] on their gender normality’ (Trzebiatowska 2013, 214). Here we see that they even struggle to achieve recognition as ‘normal’ women.

            A host of questions arises here, some of which have to do with how religious women see themselves and want to be seen by others, and some with how others in fact see them. “Gender normality” is a term that now needs to be explained.

418      they recognise different normalities

            Are these differences determined exclusively generationally. For example, might young women religious not agree on what is “normal”?

487-491 Commentary on this excerpt requires more careful formulation. It is not sufficient to write that this view is "misogenistic". Actually, the male interviewee is reflecting on practices in male religious communities that can now be seen, as he almost certainly recognises, as misogenistic.

503      living out both sexuality and gender

            Need for some preliminary definitions of sexuality and gender, how they overlap but are not the same.

526      this masculinity

            Which masculinity? There is nothing in the context to describe it.

560      This topic [expressing experiences in the sexual realm] therefore tends to be theologised.

            What does “being theologised” mean? Is it intended to say that one discusses the “sexual realm” abstractly? In fact, theology is central to this topic and its discussion. It should not be seen as equivalent to avoiding the real issues.

      579-80 the normative view that presents the religious (predominantly men), as oversexualised.

            This is a view commonly expressed in popular discussions of institutional sexual abuse, but where is the evidence that male religious are “oversexualised”? This theme requires more careful, specialised treatment.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Many thanks for your helpful comments. All changes have been applied to the manuscript. The manuscript was once again proofread by an English native editor. Figures have been added.

Commenting on the selected points:

295-6 the norm which decrees that men religious are desexualised individuals

Question: My emphasis. Whose norm is this? What does it mean to say that men religious are desexualised? Does it mean that one’s human sexuality is repressed, or spiritualised, or sublimated? Does the same apply to religious women? What happens if a person thinks he is, or has to be, desexualised, and yet finds that his sexuality asserts itself?

Answer: 

Thank you very much for this comment. We have revised the following sentence indicating that this is institutional norm. Regarding other questions, according to our study this is the very center of the problem: on the one hand, the institutional norm defines both male and female religious as sexless, meaning omitting the sexual drive, on the other hand it is being privatized which means that everyone has to deal with the consequences individually. Women religious seem to be more aware of the problem while men religious do not discuss it easily.

     413-6   Trzebiatowska concluded that her interlocutors ‘viewed themselves as women in the traditional sense … and [insisted] on their gender normality’ (Trzebiatowska 2013, 214). Here we see that they even struggle to achieve recognition as ‘normal’ women.

            A host of questions arises here, some of which have to do with how religious women see themselves and want to be seen by others, and some with how others in fact see them. “Gender normality” is a term that now needs to be explained.

Answer: Thank you for this comment. These are questions for a separate article. We propose to leave this sentences as they are and to not to unpack the ‘gender normality’ issue which would require to define the patriarchate and perhaps a queer perspective.

418      they recognise different normalities

            Are these differences determined exclusively generationally. For example, might young women religious not agree on what is “normal”?

Answer: Thank you! This is an inspiring question. Unfortunately, our study do not provide data to address it.

487-491 Commentary on this excerpt requires more careful formulation. It is not sufficient to write that this view is "misogenistic". Actually, the male interviewee is reflecting on practices in male religious communities that can now be seen, as he almost certainly recognises, as misogenistic.

Answer: Thank you for this comment. We have revised it into: “Third, the model being understood by the interview as  misogynistic”.

503      living out both sexuality and gender

            Need for some preliminary definitions of sexuality and gender, how they overlap but are not the same.

Answer: Thank you. The following paragraphs has been added:

So, how do we understand sexuality here? Of course, sexuality is socially constructed (Seidman 2003). However, within this study we do not seek to explore how sexuality is being socially constructed but we aim at grasping how consecrated persons lived out their sexuality in the institutional environment. It also means that we do not assume a specific definition of sexuality but follow what comes out of individuals’ narratives. We do not want to, for instance, assess the level of oppression but uncover how our participants understand it. The understanding of sexuality in this study represents the self-understanding, the way of communication and reflexivity of the researched persons. It means that we study the way sexuality is reflected upon individual and community discourses. The same applies to gender understood as socially constructed characteristics of women and men which include norms, behaviors and roles.

560      This topic [expressing experiences in the sexual realm] therefore tends to be theologised.

            What does “being theologised” mean? Is it intended to say that one discusses the “sexual realm” abstractly? In fact, theology is central to this topic and its discussion. It should not be seen as equivalent to avoiding the real issues.

Answer: Thank you for this. We have decided to erase this oversimplification.

      579-80 the normative view that presents the religious (predominantly men), as oversexualised.

            This is a view commonly expressed in popular discussions of institutional sexual abuse, but where is the evidence that male religious are “oversexualised”? This theme requires more careful, specialised treatment.

Answer: Thank you. Exactly. This is our point. In the following paragraph we seek to show that we seek to overcome this oversimplification.

From institutional and theological perspectives, as a consequence of taking the vow of chastity, consecrated persons are sexually abstinent. Within the contemporary debate on sexual abuse, this view appears in sharp contrast to the normative view that presents the religious (predominantly men), as oversexualised. Our study was designed as a new approach to the topic of sexuality and gender of the religious. Using the concept of reflexivity in the lived-religion approach, we sought to reveal how the religious understand and negotiate their intimacy, sexuality and gender. We believe that our mixed methods study penetrated this layer of the consecrated life.

Thank you again.

Reviewer 2 Report

A brave article. The author writes on a topic that is rarely and little analysed, so I recommend its publication. I have one suggestion for improvement: I would like to read a little more detail about the mandate behind the article. What was the purpose and rationale behind the commission, what was the background to it? Thank you for letting me read it, I find it very interesting and informative.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Many thanks for your work and opinion. I have shortly developed the following sentence:  "The research was sponsored by Catholic Female and Male Religious Superiors in Poland which aimed at developing institutional formation procedures" (p. 5). Simply, Catholic Female and Male Religious Superiors ordered our study since they wanted to collect information for developing institutional formation procedures. On the other hand, since the very beginning our aim was to design and carry on the scientific study. 

Our participants were informed that "Provided information will be used for developing institutional formation procedures and preparing scientific articles and presentation of conferences".

Many thanks again.