Dan Brown on Gender

The first time I got acquainted with The Da Vinci Code, it was several years back when my friend, Karen, loaned me her CDs of the book. Tonight I finished reading the print copy. And I have to ask this: Is it just my observation, or does Dan Brown seem fixated on sex?

Reading the book reminded me of a joke a youth pastor once told us about a man who went to a therapist. The therapist drew a picture of an elephant and asked the man, "What do you see?" and the reply was, "Sex, sex, sex." The therapist then drew a circle and asked, "What do you see?" and the reply was "Sex, sex, sex." Finally, the therapist drew a straight line and asked, "What do you see now?" The reply again was, "Sex, sex, sex." The therapist said, "I think you are obsessed with sex," and the man replied, "What do you mean me? You're the one drawing all the dirty pictures."

Besides the whole goddess thing being a lie, he writes like he is some big friend to women by recapturing what we have "lost." But I suspect him of being a chauvinist cross-dressing in a radical feminists' clothing. Why is Sophie's character somewhat of a dimwit when it comes to believing all the two male "experts" tell her, unquestioning as she receives their "wisdom." And Brown presents sex as an elevated spiritual state that "man can only achieve through union with the sacred feminine" (p. 310). And what, pray tell, does the woman get out of the deal?

I don't mean to sound harsh here. Honest, I don't. But we don't do women or men a favor in an already oversexed culture when we encourage viewing women as a means to an end and point out sexual imagery in everything from playing cards to cathedrals. How 'bout we just call a spade a spade?