RE: [Fwd: Re: Europeans and Jews, part N]

[Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky <reyzl...>]

Wolf,


>The point:  after this war on women,  come modern times and one of the
>most dominant of mass media images --  the Blonde Bombshell and Sex
>Goddess a la Jean Harlow, Monroe and Madonna. 

You left out the middle part between the inquisition and modern times, namely, 
the dichotomization to saintly mother and whore wife that spread throughout 
Spanish culture, including the Americas (very similar to the Poles' obsession 
and deification with Mary more than Jesus.)  

This was interesting stuff.


Reyzl 


----------
From:  Kame'a Media[SMTP:media (at) kamea(dot)com]
Sent:  Wednesday, October 21, 1998 2:48 PM
To:  World music from a Jewish slant.
Subject:  [Fwd: Re: Europeans and Jews, part N]

Judith R. Cohen wrote:
> 
> great observation! Add the Gypsies (Roma)....
> and, while we're at it, - women?
> Judith

There are parallels:

The Roman Catholic Church's war on women (witches) and folk/pagan
culture lasted for six generations.   Entire villages were decimated.
"Hags" (originally, one who possessed sacred/healing knowledge) and
midwives were initially persecuted by doctors, because they could ease
the pain of childbirth, provide birth-control knowledge and perform
abortions--without benefit of "med school", in this case
Church-controlled access to information
and the legitimization of elitist professionalism.

The Inquision provided fantastic career opportunities for lawyers,
judges
and accountants.  Like Jewish victims of the Holocaust, witches paid for
their own seizure, transportation, imprisonment, torture and murder out
of their own seized assets.  All it took to get the process going, was
an accusation -- from anybody.  The Inquisition was a business.

When land reform (read: theft by the powerful) drove huge populations
into the towns and cities, the weak, non-conformist and women were
persecuted and punished in  public spectacles.  Husbands were told, from
the pulpit, to beat their wives for the good of their souls.  The gift
of sexuality was transformed into Original Sin and all that rot.

In a patriarchal society,  women, who outlived men and/or due to their
independence, maintaining their own property, were perceived as a
threat. 
Just to be old was suspect when the average lifespan was around forty
years.

It is curious, too, that under torture, women from various remote and
isolated communities all  gave the same descriptions of their "union
with the devil".  How is this possible?  The Inquisitors were provided
with a handbook, the Malus Maleficorum (I believe) and testimonies were
faked.  This book was one of the first to be widely distributed.

The point:  after this war on women,  come modern times and one of the
most dominant of mass media images --  the Blonde Bombshell and Sex
Goddess a la Jean Harlow, Monroe and Madonna. 

Wolf Krakowski