A Feminist Perspective

One of my (almost) daily reads is Echidne of the Snakes. I consider myself to be a feminist, and strive to improve my understanding of women's issues by reading some feminist blogs such as Echidne's.

When I went there on Wed after not having visited the site since last week, I found not only 1 post that I thought was worthy about sharing with the Mister Tristan audience, but 4 such posts. Note: the blog is continuous, sequenced by date, so you'll just need to scroll down to see the separate posts mentioned below:

1.  Repentance During The Holy Week of Christianity (30 March): about the Pope's complicity in covering up the rape of children. 

They tell us that they are speaking on behalf of a divine source, after all. They tell us how we should live our lives, what is wrong and what is right. For all this they get freedom from taxes, lots of kowtowing and respect. Something has to be given in return, and at a minimum that something should be higher ethical standards of personal behavior.

2.  The Black Widows (also 30 March): about the recent Russian female suicide bombers.

"While there is no single reason women decide to give up their lives, experts say they have usually suffered a traumatic event that makes them burn with revenge or question whether they want to live. This can be the death of a child, husband or other family member at the hands of Russian forces or a rape. Russian authorities have said the women are sometimes drugged."

And why do men become suicide bombers or terrorists? What drives them to do that? That question is not asked as often which is insulting to men. It's as if all men could just become suicide bombers and we don't really have to wonder about the reasons they have, however distorted they may be.

3.  Stripped Bare (29 March): about banning strip clubs in Iceland, and particularly the variations in how newspapers covered same.

That's where we stand: The Icelandic ban on strip clubs is under lifestyles/women and the U.S. coverage is a concern about spending tax money on the titillation of men who work for the Republican party.

4.  A Small Corrupt Clique of Men Shouldn’t Rule Anything by Anthony McCarthy (27 March): another about the corruption in the Vatican hierarchy (and, I hasten to add, NOT against the rank and file ordinary Catholics who do good work from within the church).

The use of scripture to explain things is a sometimes thing and, at times, a two edged sword. The vast variety of texts by different authors writing in various conditions and of varying experience passed down to us in copies of varying textual quality and authenticity, lends itself to contradiction. But I don’t believe the text in which Jesus said that people who corrupted children would have been better of drowned with a millstone around their neck is really ambiguous. Pope Benedict has had a hand in corrupting children. Many Cardinals such as Bernard Law have permitted the abuse of children...But this pope, who has been among the greatest proponents of the revival of confession, is stonewalling on his own, disqualifying, sins. The hypocrisy of the conservatives in control of the hierarchy doesn't seem to have a bottom.