IGF008 In Good Faith with Bren Ortega Murphy, PhD, recorded live on April 12, 2011. Produced by aNunsLife.org ministry. The nuns talk with Prof. Murphy about nun images in popular culture, such as Nunzilla, Boxing Nuns, movie nuns and more!

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Guest: Bren Ortega Murphy, PhD

Bren Ortega Murphy holds a joint appointment in Communication Studies and Women’s Studies/Gender Studies at Loyola University Chicago. She is the co-author of two books, Cultural Hegemony in the Unites States with Lee Artz and Voices of Strong Democracy with David Droge. Dr. Murphy has also written, directed and produced one radio documentary and two video documentaries, the latest of which is “A Question of Habit: The Image of Women Religious in U.S. Popular Culture.”

Visit the film’s website and check out the trailer below.

Show Notes:

• the fascination with Nunzilla, the Boxing Nuns, Late Night Catechism, and other images of nuns in popular culture
• what’s the big deal about nun images – they’re just funny, right?
• A Question of Habit, The Image of Women Religious in U.S. Popular Culture—Bren Murphy’s latest documentary
• why habits almost always are used in nun images in popular culture
• why so much nun kitsch but not so much priest kitsch in comparison?
• portrayals of sisters and nuns in popular culture “that got it right”
• buying nun image products – does it perpetuate stereotypes?
• the intersection of images of nuns and of women in popular culture
• the glass-ceiling phenomena in business
• what nun images reflect about popular culture

In Good Faith is a conversation exploring God’s call in everyday life hosted by A Nun’s Life Sisters Maxine and Julie. Our monthly program features guests who are nationally known for their ministry in spirituality, religious life, and discernment. We’ll look at how our guests understand their own life as a calling and discuss a variety of perspectives on living faith and call in everyday life. The program is broadcast live every first Thursday of the month from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. Central Time. Tune in at www.aNunsLife.org/LIVE.

The Conference on the History of Women Religious has been great. Yesterday we had a preview of a soon-to-be published document called A Question of Habit: The Curious Image of Nuns in Popular Culture by Dr. Bren Ortega Murphy of Loyola University Chicago. I wrote about A Question of Habit project when it was in its early stages back in 2008 when Dr. Murphy gave a lecture at Loyola.

The documentary is fabulous and Dr. Murphy not only provides an excellent portrayal of women religious in the United States, but she gives a commentary on the fascination of U.S. popular culture with nuns. Examples of this fascination include images of the demonized nun (Nunzilla); the sweet, childish nun (figurine); and the sexualized nun (Areala).

These images can be found in novelty stores, on TV and in movies, in our kitchens, in advertising, and pretty much all over the place.

For good or for ill, these images dominate what most folks (including Catholics) think about Catholic sisters and nuns.

A few questions for you …

What do you think of these kinds of images? What are both the positive and negative messages that these images convey? What are the images or words you’d use to describe a sister or nun?

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Yesterday I went to a great lecture at Loyola University called “A Question of Habit: The Curious Image of Nuns in Film and Popular Culture” by Professor Bren Ortega Murphy. Dr. Murphy is in the process of making a documentary film that examines the wide variety of visual images of Catholic nuns and sisters used in contemporary U.S. popular culture.

For the most part, said Murphy, nuns have been portrayed as one-dimensional characters. You get no sense of who the nun is, her moral agency, her way of life, her ministry, etc.

Murphy noted that in the history of film-making, Hollywood has had great difficulty in portraying women in general. Combine this with Hollywood’s uncertainty of how to deal with religion and one can begin to understand how portrayals of nuns (women+religious) has been exceedingly difficult for Hollywood. The result (however amusing and nostalgic) has been to portray nuns one-dimensionally, often reducing them to blatant caricatures. Sadly you can still see this in many media portrayals of nuns today.

Some examples of caricatures and stereotypes that I’ve seen:

• mean nuns with rulers
• hapless nuns
• giggling gaggles of nuns
• nuns always in full traditional habit
• sexually repressed nuns
• nameless nuns
• nuns who are theologically unsophisticated
• unquestioning nuns
• ethereal nuns who float in and then mysteriously disappear

Murphy said that there seemed to be a resistance, a hesitancy to portraying nuns (and women) as full human beings, with full moral agency, thoughts, questions, joys, fears, strength, etc. in the context of their life. Instead, nuns were dealt with by trivializing them (the hapless nun), demonizing them (mean nun with ruler), or sexualizing them (sexually-repressed nun).

So are there some good portrayals of nuns out there on the silver screen? Absolutely, said Murphy. Among those she noted “The Trouble with Angels”, “Brides of Christ” and “Dead Man Walking”.

Films about nuns coming to a theatre near you … soon: Our Lady of Victory (my post on the Mighty Macs) and Doubt: A Parable, a play which is being made into a movie. And be sure to look for Dr. Murphy’s documentary on visual images of nuns today.

And for my own fascinating reviews on nuns in movies check out: The Nun and The Blues Brothers. You’ll also find all sorts of interesting things when you type “stereotype” into the search box at the top of my blog.