Jewish Q&A Online and the Regulation of Sexuality: Using Foucault to Read Technology

Abstract

Religion has the power to shape our understanding of gender and sexuality through various forms of practice, discourse, authority, and regulation. As religion is increasingly experienced through digital media, we can postulate on how the use of digital media might impact religious conceptions of gender and sexuality. This research offers a first step in that direction. More specifically, I examine Jewish Question and Answer (Q&A) websites to illuminate how this medium informs and regulates understandings and practices of gender and sexuality. This study illuminates how religious (self-)regulation is happening online, through the practice of asking and cultural and technological affordances that invite users to “confess” their sexual transgressions. I suggest the term “technological incitement to confess” as a way of thinking about how digital media might shape the religious practice of Q&As. That is, offering a Foucauldian analysis, I suggest online Jewish religious Q&A websites operate as digital panopticon, where the practice of asking becomes a tool for self-regulation. Although new to the online sphere, the practice of Q&As has a long tradition in Judaism, known as Responsa. Traditional Responsa is understood as a legal document, but when this practice takes place online, I argue that, at least relative to topics of sexuality and gender, users themselves are not looking for a legal consultation, but rather seeking a space to confess their sins. What was once a legal, public matter becomes via new media a form of personal self-regulation.

Mediatizing the Holy Community—Ultra-Orthodoxy Negotiation and Presentation on Public Social-Media

“…Under this prism, the negotiation of communal identity has been examined, as it manifests in mobile communications. Past studies that focused on the mediatization of religion highlighted changes in religious exegesis, ritual and practice to accommodate a media logic (Golan and Martini 2018;Valibeigi 2018;Radde-Antweiler 2006;Tsuria 2016). Alternately, this study found that social network sites offer the populace of a fundamentalist group a platform for voicing and negotiating their positions as communal citizens within a public sphere that was previously denied by the Haredi press, religious authorities and such.…”

Pushing boundaries and blurring categories in digital media and religion research

“…There is a growing need for scholarship on a variety of religious traditions and spiritual practices. A few examples of recent studies that offer new approaches or discuss under‐theorized movements including Gittinger's () work on Hinduism online, Feller's () research on Mormonism and new media, Tsuria's () study of Jewish online discussion forums focused on sexuality, and Hinzo and Clark's () work on indigenous spirituality and digital activism. Additionally, more critical scholarship needs to address how religion and spirituality intersect with other identity categories, such as gender, race, class and sexuality.…”

Online religious counseling for older adults

“…As the internet has become more integrated in everyday life, the number of online platforms linked to spiritual and religious activities has increased (Campbell & Golan, 2011). Such growth has generated academic interest in exploring the relationship between religion and new media, leading to an increasing number of studies on the topic (Tsuria, 2016). Early studies in this field examined online spiritual engagement as 'lived religion,' a prominent sociological approach that focuses on the experiences of religious individuals in everyday life (Hall, 1997;Orsi, 2003).…”

“…Although relatively new to the online sphere, the practice of Q&A has a long tradition in Judaism and it is considered a prominent religious activity in the Orthodox sector (Steinitz, 2011;Tsuria, 2016). Since the eighth century CE, responsa became an integral part of the Halakhic (Jewish religious law) system of scholarly inquiry and Bible study, that identifies the permitted and the prohibited and establishes preferred ideals and accepted performance.…”

“…This suggestion is explored by focusing on online religious counseling in a Questions and Answers (Q&A) format-a practice that is very common among religious populations. While this format has already been examined in previous research (e.g., Steinitz, 2011;Tsuria, 2016;Tsuria & Cambell, 2020), its use by older individuals was never explored. Besides examining older users of such online counseling services (i.e., the counselees), the study also explored the experiences of the spiritual scholars who provide such counseling (i.e., the counselors).…”