How did we get to this?? Killing female children in India,

[cally]

The Taliban and their hatred of women. The christian church and their teachings about the evil seductress. Hatred of women is the norm in modern religion. How did we get to here??

I don't have the answer. I may offer some theories but we are facing a world culture that is against us.

[ismnotwasm]

1. The elephants in the living room

Misogyny. Patriarchy. Few people want to talk about them-- much less acknowledge them.. Or even believe they're real. There is a heavy metal band called Otep, not bad at all as far as metal goes, if you like the genre. The lead singer is a women, one of the only "out" lesbians in the metal scene. Maybe the only one. Her lyrics are disturbing, and your thread brought in mind of this song. Very sad stuff (as well as a bit obscure like most metal lyrics)


OTEP LYRICS

"The Lord Is My Weapon"

Eternal salvation suffers from inflation

Say what you need to, save your soul
But don't fuck with me,
I'm loosin' control
I'm so tired of this, so sick of you
My tongue is battered and bruised from all these attitudes

Teach me the magic of your sacred poems
Conjuring a voice of signs and omens
Prophecies got debris
The syllables and symbols breath
And as we climb, divine
To sacrifice our wounded minds
This awkward chance to seek, insanity
I can't save you, cause I hate me

The lord is my weapon
And I see him shoot pawns
Woman is the devil
Your god is a fraud
Everyone you knew
Everything you've ever done
Suffer for your freedom
Die by the law

The lord is my weapon
And I see him shoot pawns
Woman is the devil
Your god is a fraud
Everyone you knew
Everything you've ever done
Suffer for your freedom
Die by the law

Say what you need to save your soul
But leave your religion at the door
Smokin all of Christians weed
I'm sick of these weak anarchies
You see me as a place to make a bruise
But in my reality I'm a slate of the muse
Fuck these hypocrites, and together will fight

Tyrannist swears, as quick as your knife

The lord is my weapon
And I see him shoot pawns
Woman is the devil
Your god is a fraud
Everyone you knew
Everything you've ever done
Suffer for your freedom
Die by the law

All you sinners
Blasphemers
Burn in the pit
Burn
Burn
Burn

The lord is my weapon
And I see him shoot pawns
Woman is the devil
Your god is a fraud
Everyone you knew
Everything you've ever done
Suffer for your freedom
Die by the law

Save me
Save me
Save me
Save me
Save me
Save me
Save me

[MountainLaurel]

3. Damn

Generally not a metalhead, but I may have to pick up the album with that track.

[bloom]

2. "How did we get to this?"

"... In societies where man worships these mysteries (harvest & procreation), woman, on account of these powers, is associated with religion and venerated as priestess; but when man struggles to make society triumph over nature, reason over life, and the will over the inert, given the nature of things, then woman is regarded as a sorceress."

The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir (from 1952)

_______________________


The philosophical concept that people value life over reason (ie. "reason" = ideas, whether that includes ideas of immortality or capitalism or whatever) is threatening to people, even still. Even on DU.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=214x102755#102849

[Greyhound]

4. I follow the theory that all of the current major religions came out of the same

desert cultures that worshiped violent, vengeful, bloodthirsty, capricious, gods who decreed that the pay-off (such as it is) was obtained after death, where no verification is possible, is the root of evil in the modern world.

The cultures these villains supplanted tended to be feminine, nature based, and life affirming, and therefore, women and female tendencies are a threat to their authority.

[bleedingheart]

5. It has been this way for centuries

women are threatening to men.

This is not new.

However, societies that prosper are typically those in which women are equals. Look at the nations where women are treated like property or animals...and you will view what the Dark Ages were like.