White secularity: the racialization of religion in Netflix’s Unorthodox

ABSTRACT

Unorthodox is a four-episode Netflix series that offers a compelling narrative of freedom from religion for feminine subjects. This paper interrogates the vision of freedom offered by the show through the lens of lived religion (which circumvents the secular/religion dichotomy by treating the moral meaning-making practices of everyday life as “religious.” A close reading of the lived religious practices in Unorthodox shows three, morally-valanced practices sustaining secular feminine freedom: making the private public, overcoming historical narratives, and taking pleasure. Because in Unorthodox the central barrier to freedom for feminine subjects is the racialized religious community, this paper builds on literature about the racial other and religious freedom to propose the concept of “white secularity.” White secularity is a belief system that assumes every individual can freely opt into good forms of religion, coded as white, and out of bad forms of religion. In white secularity, bad forms of religion are racialized because they make visible white dominance in the public sphere. In this way, white secularity divides the interests of women and racialized minorities by pitting feminine freedom against racialized communities.

KEYWORDS:

• Whiteness
• secularity
• race
• lived religion

Notes

1 The episode titles are simply “Part I, II, III, and IV.” These words (Exodus, New Life, Struggle, and Freedom) are labels the author has applied to summarize each episode’s role in the 4-episode narrative arc.

2 Vaginismus is “one of the more common female psychosexual problems” where the vaginal muscles involuntarily contract, making penetrative sex painful or impossible (Melnik, McGuire, & Hawton, 2012, p. 1).

3 These are medically recommended techniques for treating vaginismus (Crowley, Goldmeier, & Hiller, 2009).

4 The trauma of marital sex and the devastation of Esty’s dreams to become a mother are rather suddenly erased from the narrative from this magical moment onward. Robert and Esty are not dating; they have no particular commitment to one another and their relationship is not explored any further.

5 Eruv wires delineate which areas of a neighborhood are private and which are public. The wire around the Brooklyn community separates their community into a “private” domain as opposed to the public around them. The opening shot of the entire series was of the eruv wires and this conversation with Vivian, although a flashback, is shown near the end of the entire series, a symbolic representation of Esty’s journey from ideologically oppressed by the lies of her religious community to the freedom of critical thinking.

6 A hat worn by Hasidic men. It traditionally uses six mink pelts, according to the “Making of” documentary, but the creators assure the viewer playfully that “No mink were harmed” because the hats are (more ethical) fakes.

7 Esty secretly slept in the building at which the other musicians practice, quickly running out of money and options.