First and foremost, did Adam and Eve have tummy buttons? If they were the first humans to ever exist, and were not born from a womb, then there would have been no umbilical cord to cut and therefore, no tummy button. Perhaps the reason this has bothered me for so many years is because a tummy button-less person is quite an uncomfortable image anyway, as well as it being an overwhelming conundrum. I think that a common retort to this question would be, “why are you asking? They are a myth anyway.” Whilst I do not disagree with the view that they are a myth, I think that it is still important to ponder the unanswerable; not everything that we talk or think about needs to make sense or be conducive to making progress.
My next point is slightly more serious and focuses on the effects that the story of Adam and Eve has had upon women throughout history. Every time I think about this or try to write it down there is too much to process and too many roads to go down, but I will try to write it as concisely as possible, for everyone’s benefit.
Adam and Eve’s banishment from the Garden of Eden is the epitome of a fall from grace. The blame for this fall was placed almost entirely upon the shoulders of the ‘temptress Eve’ as she gave into the temptation of the serpent/devil by biting into the forbidden fruit and led Adam astray. This story painted an image of all women as weak, betraying and disobedient. It has had a more negative impact on women than any other biblical story. I would argue that its early chronological position in the Bible determined women’s place in Christianity from this point forward. As Mary Daly ponders on the length of a depatriarchalised bible, she concludes that “there would be enough salvageable material to comprise an interesting pamphlet”.
I believe that Eve’s portrayal and the impact of her actions as the ‘first woman’ marks the beginning of the patriarchy. This leads us to the question, what came first, the myth or the patriarchy? This is easier to solve than the chicken and egg dilemma. Clearly this story is a product of the deeply patriarchal times in which the Old Testament was written, where women were the scapegoats for the humanity’s wrongdoings. Unfortunately, we have not quite been able to shake this label off. The so-called myth still haunts women everywhere today and ensures that we are always slightly subordinate to men, as Christianity is still a thriving world religion, which cannot be disproved as a result of its evasion of fact, much like this myth.
The myth of Adam and Eve was hugely incriminating for women and the way we are perceived. It was also (deplorably) enough to legitimise the beginning patriarchy. If we were to thoroughly write down all the ways that this myth and its condemnation of women has manifested itself into reality, I sincerely believe there would not be enough ink in the world.