Well researched and written walk through misogyny. One of the big notes relating to recent history is that we often fear Communism more than misogyny. We allow countries (like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan) to be our allies, just like in generations past you’d be friends with someone that beat their wife. The abuse of women is a private matter…and it should never be.
We clearly have a long way to go in treating women right and not attempting to control them. That also means many man-child’s will have to learn to relate to a sexually strong mature woman, which terrifies them. Thus they try to control what it means to be a woman and limit the realm in which she can operate.
- the history of misogyny unites Aristotle and Jack the Ripper as they both expressed hatred of women #4
- while The Virgin Mary is exalted as trampling on sin, women are also at fault for Original sin and causing men to “fall” from the perfection of God #7
- history is mostly a recounting of “his” story where patriarchy discounts and covers up anything that females did that was before men. An explanation of why men should dominate women. #8
- the aim of misogyny is to dehumanize half the human race #11
### 1 Pandora’s Daughters
- greek mythology says that man was too close to the perfection of the God’s so man was “gifted” with a beautiful evil of woman. #14
- this is similar to the Christian creation story where man was first and woman was an after thought. Though the Greek version makes woman evil, where Christian it was a gift of love.
- the rise of democracy and decline of blood lineage in Greek culture also brought strong misogyny, and is probably the birthplace of it #20
- much participation in society was restricted to adult male citizens alone
- adultery of a man was fine. If a woman committed adultery, or was raped, the man was obligated to divorce her or loose his citizenship
- prostitutes were seen like a sewer that drained off men’s lust #23
- Plato equated men with spirituality and higher pursuits, and women with carnality and lesser things #27
- Aristotle saw women as “failed” men caused by too much menstrual fluid in the womb. They were supposed to be men, until the woman carrying the baby influenced the baby and we get a woman. #34
### 2 Women at the Gates
- Roman law said that every male child and first born female should be raised. This invited the infanticide of every other female child #38
- women face danger to their lives when their value is voiced in terms of sexual purity as goodness #40
- this is why Roman woman could be divorced for showing their hair. Their beauty was only for their husband and showing it off elsewhere was terrible.
- this is clearly controlling the sexuality of women
- this also holds women responsible for the lusts of men. If a woman is raped, she is punished because she must have brought out the lust.
- this also belittles men, saying that they are little better than animals and can’t control themselves. Though most societies say it’s a woman’s fault and she called those desires onto themselves.
- there was a problem in Rome, and indeed in the 60/70’s, when women were having more sex and not having more children 52
- it was seen as an affront that women simply enjoyed sex, they shouldn’t and it should be simply for reproductive reasons. Of course it’s fine and “natural” that men enjoy sex
- misogyny wastes an excellent resource, the knowledge and skills of women applied to any activity outside the home Page 64
### 3 Divine Intervention
- In Christianity a man (Jesus) comes to save the world from all the evil than a woman (Eve) brought into the world through her weak body Page 67
- one third of the world has inherited the belief that a woman brought about all that is bad in life Page 68
- through Christianity, shame in the human body entered the public consciousness. Page 70
- this continues today, especially for woman who most Christian circles push to be “chaste” because men aren’t. They also put the burden on women to dress so they don’t distract men.
- then as they get married, they’re suddenly supposed to be okay with sex, after a life being told it’s something terrible to stay away from
- Jesus’ relationship and treatment of women was revolutionary. He gave them personhood and didn’t condemn them like much of society did at the time. Page 74
- he talked with the woman that had a disease of the blood and healed her. He rebuked men when they challenged a women for fine oil. The people that stayed at the cross were women, while the men fled.
- Christianity held that each person held a spark of the creator, so infanticide was forbidden. This meant female babies were kept instead of being exposed. Page 76
- it does still put the man at the head of the house, and establish that man was created first and woman to help him Page 79
- many early church leaders and writers felt that abstaining from sex and bodily desires was something that brought you closer to God Page 82
- of course that means that women are on the hook for their dress so that they don’t distract men. Thus we have more oppression of how women dress and conduct themselves so that men don’t stumble.
- this again means that men aren’t responsible for their behaviour and women must take responsibility for men’s actions in regards to how women look.
- A man’s battle with himself is at the root of misogyny as seen in St Augustine’s writings about his own battles as he tries to master his desires Page 94
- again, by putting stricter controls on women, men are taking away their agency in choosing how to behave. They are infantilizing themselves.
### 4 From Queen of Heaven to Devil Woman
![[Jesus cult like contention on family 231020200722]] 101
- with Mary’s virginity being held up as ideal because she is the perfect women, the only way for women to imitate her is by not having sex and denying any pleasure in this “base urge of men” if they do have sex Page 104
- so it amounts to putting rules around the sexuality of women and condemning their pleasure in sex
- the priesthood was closed officially to women because women tempted men, not men tempted women (Adam and Eve) thus the superior essence of men should be in charge Page 106
- deification is as bad for women as demonization. It removes regular humanity from their grasp 110
- it dehumanizes women in general
- the devil as lover first appears in history in the form of Three Big Handsome Black men Page 115
- this also looks towards the black male as being sexually dangerous trope as explored in [[Boys & Sex]]
- It seems that early witch stuff spent a lot of time worrying about the pleasure that women have with “demons” and don’t spend any time worrying about men and their pleasure Page 120
- they seem obsessed with women’s pleasure and these priests shouldn’t have been worrying about it. Almost as if they get pleasure from it, or are condemning it because they aren’t supposed to be partaking in this form of pleasure.
- This witch stuff and the torture that was brought on women is something regularly overlooked by Christians. While I may not be Catholic, it’s still sitting there in my heritage as much as Germany has Nazi and WWII sitting in their heritage. It makes Andy’s claim in [[Reclaimed 090920200635]] hard to support as you watch religion dehumanize women in witch trials Page 122
#### 5 O Brave New World: Literature Misogyny and the Rise of Modernity
- Protestant reformers rejection of priestly celibacy elevated marriage from the inferior state that Catholicism had placed it and made the role of wife much higher stature than a secondary state that was lesser than celibacy Page 132
- The Church campaigned against the use of cloroform in child birth because Genesis said that women were to suffer in child birth as punishment for sin Page 138
- The novel arising in the late 18th century, showed that women had lives apart from others which gave rise to thinking of women as autonomous beings without needing a husband or other around to give her meaning Page 155
- women also purchased novels and thus had a say in what was printed in them for the first time. This changed literature forever.
- Misogyny has it both ways with female sexuality. They are depicted as wanton wastrels that tempt men, or as beings without sexuality. At no point do they get to just be people that enjoy sex in the same ways that men could enjoy sex. Page 159
- the sexless woman is dehumanized in the name of purity
- this sexless purity is why we hear “yes” when a women says “no”. It’s got into the consciousness that women always say no because they’re virtuous but not always with the same vigour, so not always with the same success Page 162
- philosophers and priests have done more harm to women than pornographers Page 164
- because they dehumanized women via religion or via “the natural order” and reduced their autonomy and value in society as a whole
- does this then lead to them having no say and being easier to exploit for pimps and pornographers?
#### 6 Victorian’s Secrets
- when Europeans started to interact with India, they were greeted to things like The Karma Sutra, which didn’t just look at sexual pleasure from a man’s perspective but took a woman’s full pleasure into account Page 169
- though women were still obviously oppressed
- both Chinese and Indian traditions recognized a woman’s sexuality and said that both parties should be enjoying the act of sex Page 172
- this recognized a woman’s full sexuality
- there was much female oppression though, with women being run by men
- A wife that didn’t produce a son could be displaced by a concubine that did Page 174
- Even now, women are not often educated in India. This goes back in part to the fact that prostitutes were the only women allowed an education. So education is associated with prostitution Page 177, 178
- Victorian women were only to submit occasionally to their husband’s advances, mostly because they wanted to have kids Page 187
- ultimately any sign of enjoyment or loss of control during sex was a “sign” of weak moral character or a weak mind that could be sent to an institution.
- the poor were the ones with weak minds and those ladies could enjoy sex
- Victorian men couldn’t relate to adult women sexually at all Page 190
- since adult women were viewed as asexual “angels” there was nothing to relate to
- Slavery in Southern USA was a sign that women were free to be exploited Page 200
- since slaves were property, female slaves were used to breed more property and many masters raped them. It wasn’t wrong, like raping a white woman would be, because a black woman wasn’t a person.
#### 7 Misogyny in the Age of Supermen
- Freud said that women only experienced full sexuality if they gave up clitoral pleasure (which was masculine) and instead only had vaginal pleasure Page 210
- this is little different than superstitious tribes that thought the clitorous was part the “male” part of a dual soul and must be removed from women
- male sexuality was “normal” and the preferred state, while female sexuality and development was lesser. See Invisible Women for more on this topic of male being normal and default
- Misogynistic cultures always dwell on the violation of "their" women by other cultures that don't match up to their idea of perfection Page 220
- Nazi's feared Jews and Black People
- Current white people fear all POC
#### 8 Body Politic
- For a woman controlling her fertility is crucial to her autonomy. Misogyny denies her this autonomy because the subjugation of women relies on keeping them subordinate and not giving them authority over their reproductive process Page 237
- If women could have sex without possibly becoming mothers, they are bypassing the “pain” that is biblical. There was also the fear that since women were very sensual moral decay would follow and society would collapse. Page 238
- with the condom as the only workable means of contraceptive, women had to rely on men for their reproductive freedom. Men would coerce and pressure women not to require them because it was more pleasurable for men that way. In 1955 the contraceptive pill meant that women could take control without needing to get men involved at all.
- Prohibitions against abortion only punish the poor. Rich elites can go get an abortion in other countries and not fear social stigma. Poor are relegated to back alley methods and risk death. Page 243
- more women die per year due to back alley abortion than died per year at the height of witch trials Page 245
- bans on abortion and a woman’s right to choose puts Christians and Hitler on the same footing. One bans them because of a higher religious code, the other because of a higher moral code Page 245
- the links between those acting on misogyny and “pro-life” with racism, sexual abuse seem strong and staggering Page 250
- US funding of Hekmatyar via Pakistan’s secret service shows that the US believed communism was a bigger threat to the world than misogyny Page 261
- Once religion sanctions an idea our normal ideas about what’s rational and not rational are thrown out the window, because religion gets a pass Page 265
- In May 2001 George W Bush was congratulating the Taliban for cracking down on the opium trade in their country and wrote them a cheque to compensate them for the lost revenue Page 266
- 4 months later, after 9/11 their misogynistic treatment of women was suddenly a problem worth paying attention to
- it’s as if, just like older times, beating your wife is your own business. The West doesn’t worry about women’s rights when they choose their allies. Look at Saudi Arabia, we’re allies and yet they’re terrible to women:
#### 9 In Conclusion: Making Sense of Misogyny
- For much of history misogyny was considered the “common sense” of society Page 268
- When men feel humiliated impotent and angry, women are a convenient scape goat for men’s problems Page 269
- Misogyny is so “strong” that as the world moved away from Christian explanations, misogynists jumped on board with scientific explanations of why women were inferior as they abandoned the religious ones that were ready made Page 276
- The misogynists limiting of a woman’s sexuality, dress, life reveals how poorly they are at relating to a sexually mature strong woman Page 285
