International Women's Day 2008 (2 Viewers)

[Froog]

more feminist hijinks kicking off in eirecore...

http://www.thumped.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=60916

 

[potlatch]

Ah jaysis. That's just silliness now, fella

Hey, alls I know is it's what this bint said.

 

[the pyrate dead]

I'm not sure I understand you Pyrate, but I suspect that we may be agreeing on some level.

I'm not sure I'd separate sexism from catholicism though. I mean, sexism rarely presents itself in a raw, unadulterated form. Rarely, nowadays, will you get someone going 'birdz are shit and shouldn't be allowed to do anything'. Mechanisms to control women always have a disguise of legitimacy, be it legal, religious, moral, spiritual, cultural etc... see the constitution (it's the LAW that you stay at home and have babies), our abortion laws (it's IMMORAL to KILL your BABY), popular culture and advertising (you HAVE to be skinny to be beautiful).

i would seperate the two because they are different issues. we are growing out of being a catholic state, and people(not me before anyone gets mad) are against abortion because it 'murders an innocent life' and not because 'sure ya cant let thicko women make desisions.' I dont think any of the pro lifers think abortion should be permanantly outlawed because of any type of underlying sexism. I also feel that the fact that men are left out of the pro choice abortion debate is more sexist. it takes two people to have a child and all, but many liberal left wingers like myself are of the opinion that its a womans choice ONLY. but thats another talk for another day that i dont believe needs debate at the moment.

on the popular culture point, what about men? its becoming the same! look at how well creaotine(spell check) and other beefcake products sell to young vulnerable males, look at the pressure to look buff in one magazine and like a floppy haired guylinered metro in the next. young male identity is being pushed to a horibly confusing complex, almost on a par to the skinny female model culture. many young males suffer eating disorders, or complications arising from these 'diet enhancers'. my little brothers school was full of these problems, to a far more shocking degree than when i was younger.

i really dont think anyone is trying to secretly control women in ireland, unless its through advertising, because advertisers try to control everyone and anyone.

but, if thats what you beleive i dont mind!

 

[chickenham]

Some ideas re: Catholicism and women

Jesus preached and lived equality with women, as demonstrated in the canonical gospels. Examples on request.

Christian theology is mostly based on the Pauline letters; those letters that are unequivocally credited to Paul echo the equality: 'in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female' etc.

Women had positions of power in the early Xian church.

The letters that are not believed to be by the hand of Paul feature some outrageous misogyny: 'Wives, obey your husbands..' 'Man is not made for woman but woman for man..' etc.

Like Islam, Xianity quickly reverted to the extreme patriarchal model of the parent religion Judaism, which, to this day thanks Yahweh that 'I was not born a woman or a slave'. Rather than be partners in a new utopian endeavour men and women were to be once again placed in traditional dynamic opposition in ill-fitting roles.

Midwifery and folk medicine as remaining centres of womens power in society were brutally suppressed in the name of witch-hunts thereby handing over all authority on matters of children to men. This makes a lot of sense in that the only way to know that it is in fact, your own bloodline that's being propagated in patriarchal society is to have total control over the woman and the process of childbirth. No abortion!

The rule of celibacy was introduced with all sorts of sound theological reasoning but worked to make sure that the church would have no dependents or heirs. Everybody lost out on that one. Paul's directions for appointing a new bishop was that he should only have been married once!!!