Undoing religion, redoing gender: sexual stories of religious exit

Drawing on life story research in the UK and the Netherlands, this article foregrounds women’s experiences of sexual embodiment in leaving religion. It approaches religious exit as a trajectory of transformation entangled with power and relationality. The article considers sexual embodiment as shaped by discourses of boundary-making that construct notions of religion, gender, sexuality and race. From this perspective, the article analyses women’s sexual stories of religious exit focusing on modesty, purity, sex and abuse. Its main argument is that women’s trajectories are involved in undoing religion and redoing gender, sexuality and race. The article encourages scholars of leaving religion to take gender, sexuality, race and embodiment seriously as formative for religious exit. Moreover, it calls for scholars of (lived) religion and gender to pay more attention to those who cannot or do not stay.