Bleeding and Bold: A Womanist Theology of Reproductive Justice and Dangerous Epistemology 

Introduction

The Gospel narrative of the hemorrhaging woman (Mark 5:25-34) has long been interpreted as a story of individual healing and faith. Yet when read through a womanist theological lens, her twelve-year struggle with medical exploitation and her clandestine act of self-healing reveals significant insights for contemporary reproductive justice discourse. This woman’s embodied resistance—knowing in her body that she is healed (v. 29) yet fearing discovery—represents what I term covert bodily reclamation through embodied knowledge. Her touch becomes a form of “silent sass,” a dangerous act of knowledge production that challenges medical authority and patriarchal control over women’s reproductive capacity. For Black women in 19^th Century America, reproductive discourse was directly tied to the economics of slavocracy. According to historian Diana Berry, 

Women were valued for their fecundity, and traders made projections based on their “future increase.” Their appraisals were linked to their ability to reproduce.

Through womanist hermeneutical analysis, I argue that the hemorrhaging woman’s narrative provides essential theological foundations for reproductive justice that encompasses both individual bodily autonomy and community liberation. Her story reveals the dangerous nature of women’s embodied epistemology—their right to know their own bodies and make informed decisions about their reproductive health—while establishing biblical precedent for such knowledge as faithful resistance that ultimately transforms communities.

Silent Sass as Dangerous Epistemology

Building on Mitzi Smith’s groundbreaking work on womanist “sass” as bold, unapologetic resistance that disrupts established power structures, I propose “silent sass” as a previously unexamined form of resistance that functions when patriarchal systems render women’s voices unwelcome or dangerous. While Smith focuses on verbal boldness as “talking back,” silent sass encompasses the full spectrum of nonverbal resistance that Black women employ when direct confrontation could result in violence, exclusion, or further marginalization.

Contemporary Black women understand this form of resistance intimately—”the look” that communicates volumes without uttering a word, the strategic silence that refuses to engage with systems designed to exploit their emotional labor, the deliberate body language that asserts dignity in spaces designed to diminish it. These acts of silent sass function as what Patricia Hill Collins terms “everyday resistance”—small acts of defiance that preserve agency within oppressive systems while working toward broader transformation.

The hemorrhaging woman’s clandestine touch represents the biblical prototype of silent sass. In a patriarchal religious system where women’s voices carried little weight, where her bleeding made her ritually unclean and socially untouchable, and where twelve years of medical exploitation had drained her resources, verbal confrontation was not a viable option. Instead, her touch becomes her voice—a silent declaration of self-determination that bypasses the gatekeepers who had profited from her suffering.

The Strategic Nature of Silent Sass and Touch as Epistemological Resistance

Silent sass emerges as a survival strategy when patriarchal systems devalue women’s voices while simultaneously punishing their silence. For the hemorrhaging woman, speaking her need aloud would have required navigating complex social prohibitions: admitting her ritual impurity, revealing her desperate financial state, and potentially facing rejection from the crowd surrounding Jesus. Her silent approach represents calculated resistance—she claims her healing without subjecting herself to the systems that had already failed her. Many women are silenced through a perceived hierarchy of oppression, existing in the midst of people with many forms of suffering, questioning where it’s safe to share their own stories.

As Emilie Townes argues, “the bulk of theoethical analysis and critique of structural evil tends to focus on the rational mechanisms that hold forms of oppression and misery in place.” She further states, “I contend that this can only take us so far as structural evil is also maintained by more heuristic forces that emerge from the imagination as emotion, intuition, and yearning.” This strategic silence mirrors how contemporary Black women navigate medical systems that simultaneously demand their compliance and dismiss their knowledge about their own bodies.

The woman’s touch represents more than physical contact—it embodies epistemological resistance to systems that position expert medical knowledge above women’s embodied understanding. Her reach toward Jesus’ garment mirrors what Smith identifies as the transgressive nature of sass, but in a form that doesn’t require voice, only bodily agency. Her embodied knowledge—”she knew in her body that she was healed”—challenges the twelve-year medical consensus that had drained her resources while worsening her condition.

Biblical Analysis: From Silent Sass to Public Testimony

The text reveals the woman’s careful strategy: “because she thought, ‘If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed’” (Mark 5:28, NIV). This internal dialogue reveals the calculated nature of her resistance—she has assessed the situation, identified her opportunity, and planned her approach to minimize risk while maximizing her chances of healing. Her silent sass operates within the constraints of a system that would punish her open presence while allowing her covert action.

Her approach contrasts sharply with other Gospel narratives where women advocate openly for healing. The Canaanite woman (Matthew 15:21-28) employs verbal sass, talking back to Jesus when he initially dismisses her request. The hemorrhaging woman, however, initiates connection through a silent resistance—a strategy that reflects both the particular constraints of her ritual status and the power of nonverbal forms of assertion that Black women have long employed for survival and resistance. It is here that hooks is instructive in analyzing the way that patriarchy underestimates women. She states, 

They do not understand, cannot even imagine, that black women, as well as other groups of women who live daily in oppressive situations, often acquire an awareness of patriarchal politics from their lived experience, just as they develop strategies of resistance (even though they may not resist on a sustained or organized basis).   

The woman with the blood issue demonstrates a resistance borne of her struggles to navigate patriarchal assumptions of her value and worth. 

The Divine Response: Validating Silent Sass Through Voice

Jesus’ response to her touch reveals the transformative potential of silent sass when it encounters systems that recognize and validate women’s agency. Rather than allowing her healing to remain hidden, he stops and demands, “Who touched my clothes?” (Mark 5:30, NIV). This moment represents a crucial theological intervention—Jesus refuses to let her silent resistance remain invisible. He insists that her act of embodied knowledge production be acknowledged publicly.

His response demonstrates divine recognition of silent sass as legitimate resistance rather than subversive transgression. By demanding that she come forward, Jesus creates space for her voice within a system that had previously silenced her. Her testimony—”fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth” (Mark 5:33, BRG)—transforms private healing into public witness.

Jesus’ public affirmation—” Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” (Mark 5:34, NIV)—validates her embodied knowledge and silent resistance as expressions of faith rather than transgression. By calling her “Daughter,” he claims her as family and establishes her healing as legitimate within the religious community. Her silent sass, initially born of necessity within oppressive systems, becomes a model of faithful resistance that benefits the entire community witnessing this exchange.

The Continuum of Medical Violence and Silent Resistance

The hemorrhaging woman’s medical exploitation—” She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse” (Mark 5:26, NIV)—establishes a pattern of reproductive violence that continues through contemporary Black women’s experiences with healthcare systems. Her twelve-year ordeal of financial extraction and physical deterioration prefigures the systematic exploitation of Black women’s bodies throughout American medical history.

From the gynecological experimentation on enslaved women to contemporary disparities in maternal mortality, Black women’s reproductive suffering has been transformed into profit for medical institutions while their embodied knowledge has been systematically dismissed. Like the biblical woman, contemporary Black women often resort to silent sass as a survival strategy within medical systems that simultaneously demand their compliance and ignore their expertise about their own bodies.

Modern Black women’s experiences with reproductive healthcare reveal the ongoing relevance of silent sass as resistance. When medical professionals dismiss their reports of pain, ignore their symptoms, or provide substandard care, Black women employ forms of silent resistance: seeking second opinions without directly challenging initial diagnoses, quietly documenting symptoms when providers dismiss them, or strategically changing providers without explicitly stating their reasons. These acts of silent sass function as contemporary expressions of the embodied knowledge that the hemorrhaging woman demonstrated.

Theological Implications: Silent Sass as Sacred Resistance

The woman’s silent sass represents a theology of embodied knowledge that validates women’s reproductive self-determination even when—especially when—patriarchal systems devalue their voices. Her strategic silence does not represent submission to oppressive systems but calculated resistance that preserves her agency while claiming the healing she knows she needs. This understanding challenges traditional theological interpretations that position women’s quiet submission as virtuous while viewing their bold assertion as problematic.

Jesus’ transformation of her private healing into public testimony provides a model for the way silent sass can evolve into prophetic voice when it encounters systems committed to justice rather than exploitation. Her progression from covert resistance to public witness demonstrates that the goal of strategic silence is not permanent voicelessness but the creation of conditions where authentic testimony becomes possible and transformative. For contemporary reproductive justice movements, this progression offers hope that Black women’s current acts of silent sass within healthcare systems can evolve into public testimony that transforms medical practices and policies.

Conclusion: Toward a Theology of Silent Sass and Reproductive Justice

The hemorrhaging woman’s narrative establishes biblical foundations for reproductive justice rooted in Black women’s strategic resistance and embodied wisdom. Her story validates both the necessity of silent sass within oppressive systems and the transformative power of women’s public testimony when their agency is recognized and valued.

Her touch demonstrates that reproductive justice encompasses both strategic silence and prophetic voice, both individual healing and community liberation. Through her embodied epistemology, she reveals that women’s knowledge about their own bodies is sacred, their autonomous action is faithful, and their resistance—whether silent or spoken—is essential for community transformation.

For contemporary reproductive justice movements, her narrative provides theological grounding that honors the full spectrum of Black women’s resistance strategies. In a time when Black women continue to face reproductive violence and medical exploitation, her story reminds us that we can claim healing even when operating within systems designed to exploit our bodies and dismiss our knowledge. Her progression from strategic silence to public testimony offers a model for movements that recognize both the necessity of covert resistance and the transformative power of collective voice.

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References

Berry, Daina Ramey, The Price for Their Pound of Flesh: The Value of the Enslaved, from Womb to Grave, in the Building of a Nation (Beacon Press, 2017)

Byron, Gay L., and Vanessa Lovelace, eds., Womanist Interpretations of the Bible: Expanding the Discourse (SBL Press, 2016)

Collins, Patricia Hill, Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment, 2nd ed. (Routledge, 2000)

hooks, bell, Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center, 2nd ed. (South End Press, 2000)

Ross, Loretta J., “Reproductive Justice as Intersectional Feminist Activism,” Souls, vol. 19, no. 3 (2017): 286-314

Townes, Emilie M., Womanist Ethics and the Cultural Production of Evil (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006)

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© C L Nash, 2026. This article is a part of a series in collaboration with the FTN (Feminist Theology Network). FTN social media: https://www.instagram.com/feministtheologynetwork/ and @feministtheology.bsky.social

This work is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

Cover Image: Needpix.com photo.