GOD - Chapter 17 (Sadomasochistic)

In chapter 17 of GOD, Barker argues that the god of the Old Testament is Sadomasochistic, a portmanteau that has been said to be non-existent in other sources (such as an infamous article in the Angelaki: Journal Of The Theoretical Humanities). Whether or not Sadomasochism is a real psychological entity (I would argue that it is, being something that YHWH & I have in common, apparently), YHWH seems to not necessarily be masochistic so much as an unreformed sadist. Barker says:

This is what comes up on Google when one searches 'sadomasochism'. Practices like this seem to bear little in resemblance to actual practices of Sadism & Masochism today

"Not content with being merely misogynistic & bloodthirsty, the Lord brags that he's also a rapist:...And if you say in your heart, 'why have these things come upon me!' it is for the greatness of your iniquity that you skirts are lifted up, & you are violated...I will myself lift up your skirts over your face, & your shame will be seen" (Jeremiah 13:15-26) 

Barker maintains that the phraseology of 'lifting skirts up over the face' means rape. Whether or not that is the convention, it must mean some sort of sexual humiliation which YHWH inflicts upon women. It is something that he threatens in more than just one passage:

So that YHWH may lift it up over her head

"The phrase 'skirts are lifted up' is sexual assault...the word 'violate' is rape. If you read the King James Version, which has the quaint idiom 'heels made bare' you might miss the sexual molestation...some English translations have 'skirts torn off' (NIV), 'stripped' (NLT & CEB)...'destroyed' (LB), & 'raped.' (NLT) The Good News Translation has the good news that 'your clothes have been torn off & you have been raped'"

YHWH is a rapist -- either in the sense that he commands rape, or that he acts to do so on a disobedient populace as a punishment for their 'iniquity.' Barker also quotes the god as saying "Go, love a woman who has a lover & is an adulteress, just as the lord loves the people of Israel, though they turn to other gods & have raisen cakes" (Hosea 1:1)

YHWH also offers this tidbit of 'good news':

"Happy shall they be who take your little ones & dash them against the rock!" (Psalm 137:9)

Lovely. It seems that YHWH is much pleased from violence in general, & likes to inflict rhetorical violence, as well as commanding/instigating physical violence, partly (At least) through leading the Israelites through their alleged sojourn of genocidal eradication in the Holy Land & Palestine.

YHWH seems to reserve a special reservoir of hate & anger against women subjects. This is, I believe, tied-in with the function of 'the judgments of god' as a cypher through which the actual personal, psychological, & cultural imperatives of the Hebrew humans flow into representation. It really has nothing to do with god: Let's be real, these are human prejudices, human desires, human insecurities, & human imperatives for persecution. YHWH's sadomasochism is that of the Hebrews. He is a scared, insecure, authoritarian Hebrew man. That is 'god'. & not mine. That is not my god. I leave you with this 'gem' from the book of Isiah:

"The Lord said: Because the daughters of Zion are haughty & walk with outstretched necks, glancing wantonly with their eyes, mincing along as they go, tinkling with their feet; the Lord will afflict with scabs the heads of their daughters of Zion, & the lord will lay bare their secret parts" (Isaiah 3:16-17)

You can practically taste the hatred for women.

There is special reservations of condemnation for women, especially those which have any degree of power