A nun’s joy can be habit-forming

I have noticed a few letters in The Catholic Register critiquing cover photograph of Sr. Helena Burns, apparently because she was photographed in her habit, with a rosary, cheering on the Canadian Olympic hockey team. I find it significant that what raised the letter-writers’ ire was not the accompanying article, but the apparently “stereotypical” photo.

But I have lived in the world — and have known women religious — all my life, and I don’t believe a photo of a Daughter of St. Paul wearing a hockey sweater over her habit or holding a rosary is a shopworn stereotype. Indeed, it is the letters — written by women religious — that play into the world’s nastiest stereotype of women religious. This stereotype suggests nuns are angry and resentful.

This stereotype is represented by the hideous “Nunzilla.” Nunzilla, in case you haven’t seen it, is a wind-up toy, shaped like a short squat woman in a black-and-white habit. It has an angry expression and, as the toy grumbles along the floor, shoots sparks from its mouth. Although hatred of nuns is deeply rooted in the world’s misogyny, ageism and loathing for sexual abstinence, I assume this toy is meant to exploit any lingering resentment for the teaching orders that once ruled our childhood classrooms.