Gendered Symbols in Theravada Buddhism: Missed Positives in the Representation of the Female

Abstract

The aim of reinstating the Theravada nuns ’ lineage has been a major motivating force in the production of Buddhist feminist and Buddhological gynocentric writings. While this is inspired by the wealth of evidence in Theravada literature for the intended inclusion of women on the soteriological path, so far the literatures of Mahayana and VajrayAna Buddhism have been far more productive than Theravada sources for the creation of modern feminist readings. Nevertheless, there has been something of an imbalance in the chronological spectrum of sources used, with Mahayana and VajrayAna literature being drawn from across the centuries, while most examinations of Theravada sources confine themselves, with rare exceptions, to the Theravada canon. Even within the canon the focus for eliciting paradigms of Theravada approaches to the feminine has tended to be a relatively narrow selection of texts. My purpose here is to look at how current categorisations of the ways in which the feminine is represented in Buddhist literature are affected if we examine a broader range of Theravada literature and related

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