Inspiration of a Muse

May 7, 2009 at 6:15 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

To choose one scene to answer a focusing question is pretty tough when it comes to Dogma.  Every scene has some sort of flip-flop (ha! a dash!) of what the majority of us have been taught to believe.  My focusing question is why Kevin Smith used women to portray roles in the movie that are otherwise known as men?  I think I’ll choose the scene when they meet the Muse because that particular scene really spells out what is going on up to that point. 

Bethany and her entourage have arrived at a Strip Club, out of all places, to find a muse named Serendipity.  She explains that she has come down to get credit for her inspirations, but finds out that she cannot use her inspiration for personal gain.  So she finds herself a womanly host body and a job as a stripper because at least she can make a buck or two.  When she meets her new found friends she gives an explaination as to why things the way they are.  She starts talking and keeps using “She” in reference to God.  She stops to explain that when she wrote the story of the Bible (remember she is the muse, so she didn’t physically write it) that she meant for God to be a woman.  The men that she inspired to write the Bible were all men and took it upon themselves to change Her into a Him.

I think this will be a strong point to mention because not only was God meant to be a woman and is portrayed as a woman in this movie, but the last Scion is a woman, and the inspiration for all creation is portrayed as a woman, too!  Alison made a good point as well.  A muse is never mentioned in the Bible.  It could be that Kevin Smith created one because society was taught that we were created from amebas, the Big Bang theory, or as the Bible begins in Genesis “God created Heven and Earth……”  He may have wanted to create his own beginning to creation, but as with all projects, they have to comes from ideas.  To keep with the theme of biblical anarchy, he made the inspiration of creation a woman.

P.S.  I’ll try not to make this a super feminist paper……..

Comments (2)