Ramblings of a Crazy Diva: Catholicism and women

Today I fell down another "rabbit hole". This time it was about women and history as it is applied by religion. Oh my God! What a huge "rabbit hole" I found. As a feminist of long standing (I am a child of the 60s after all) I have always denounced how women are treated everywhere, but until I fell into this hole, my thoughts could not congeal into one focused thread. Now, I can and it is that Power under the guise of Religion (see I used a capitol letters there?) is the basis for all the mistreatments that women have endured since the beginning of time.

It Really is All About Retention of POWER

Keeping women in a down position is all about power, no matter the words used to continue this treatment of women. Power. I'll say that again. Power. Men fear women because we have the power to create life, and because we are the main caretakers of our children, we also have the power to mold the children's minds. This is unacceptable to Men (I used a capitol letter here again on purpose).

Now, I grant that men play a part in the creation of children. Without sperm, there would be no child. However, there are species that can reproduce without males and I am sure that science is ongoing to figure out how that can happen. Once they figure it out, men may become obsolete! No wonder men are so afraid.

Let's review some history:

The Middle Ages

In the middle ages, witch hunts took place with women being burned at the stake because they refused to bow to the men in power. They openly decried the state of the world as they knew it and used herbalism and alternative measures to try to protect themselves from the violence they saw. Those witch hunts/burnings were all about power, not fear. The men in charge saw these women as threats to the way things were and feared that other women would follow them and upend the life they knew. Religion was just the vehicle these men chose to use as cover.

During the evolution of Catholicism, women were always seen as a threat to the male dominated religious leadership. Women were not allowed to participate in the clergy so as to keep them in powerless roles. Women were not allowed control of their bodies by the Church; and dogma stated that women must always subserve themselves to their husbands. Once again, religion was just the vehicle men chose to use as cover.

Maybe religion was just seen as less abhorrent than power grabbing to the world's population.

Current Times

Today, nothing is different. China uses forced sterilization, forced abortions, forced implants, forced marriages and even death is used to control women and remove the threat of power. In the middle east, women are raped, killed, forced into marriages, and forced to convert to Islam. The Islamic religion, as some now see it, is not good or helpful for women at all. Women under Islam are less than property. This is all about power.

In Africa, women are raped, sold, enslaved, tortured, forced to live with female genital mutilation. They also are considered forms of currency and they are the possession of the dominant male in their family. This is a way to enforce and keep their power over the women in their lives.

Now, in the United States, women once had some rights to the control over their bodies but the Supreme Court decided to end that right. There has also been some talk about rescinding the woman's right to vote. This also is all about power. We have old, white men in power and they fear the power that women have to disrupt the status quo.

None of this has anything to do with religion or religious freedom. If things continue as they are now, there will be no such thing available for women. This is all about POWER and the ability to enslave women and bend them to their beliefs and rules.

When I went to college, I enrolled in a Women's Studies course (this was in 1988) and in my Women in Literature class, we were to read a book about women's rights and write a paper on it. I read A Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. This book scared the pants off of me because I truly believed that it was a foretelling of the future for women.

If you have seen the Hulu version only, you have missed some of the most egregious parts of the book. But, still, if you saw at least the first few episodes, you understand why I was so moved and afraid. Tell me, now that we are seeing this come to pass, was I wrong?

I don't think so. I can only hope that the youth of our nation wake up and see that they are in danger. The youth movements of the 60s changed laws and if the youth of today could also form together, I think they could wield the same power. I can only hope for the best. My time has passed and no matter what happens, it probably won't affect me, but it will affect my daughters.