Body Modification/older societies/similar to WBTS view of women

by restrangled 25 Replies latest jw friends

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  restrangled

  I have just read the book, "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" along with watching part of the National Geographic series "Taboo"

  Sadly, most of the modification involves distortion of the female body which then inturn, affects the minds for generations.

  Most of the justification for the body modification was to keep women in line mentally. Generation after generation of mothers were taught that neck lengthening, breast flatening, foot binding, and female circumsizing kept the girls clean and free from attracting men and kept them "down" in their societies.

  I am not suggesting the WBTS Society approved of these physical methods, but the mental ramifications were adhered to and the result is the same.

  Women are considered second class citizens in this Patriarchal society. I can't tell you the number of articles about a woman in mensus considered a dirty bird.... studied in talks, watchtower lessons etc.

  No woman can lead anything, despite our advanced day and age in the year 2007.

  What do you think?
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  educ8self

  I don't know if those practices have any religious implications, but one thing that made a lot of sense to me is this idea that making God/the divine somewhere else (deus absconditus?) and declaring earthly/fleshly things bad is the basic strategy of this patriarchal power dynamic. Rather than spirituality as something natural to you, we have this idea of some kind of intrinsic badness/problemhood - and of course these guys have the solution because they have access to that in the somewhere else, you just gotta follow what they say.
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  Leolaia

  Other societies: neck lengthening, breast flattening, genital mutilation, etc.

  The "Society": squeezing into uncomfortable dresses, compulsory head covering, etc.

  Same difference.
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  educ8self

  By the way, it also explains why this view is so retarded when it comes to "fleshly desires" and so forth. When you've been in denial over a part of your NATURE for so long, no wonder you have all this conflicting angst. So I guess the basic idea is that women are more in touch with their physical nature, but men felt threatened by it so they devised this scheme to dumb down their natural instincts - turning it into a power dynamic rather than appreciating the difference and forming a greater potential based on the two.
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  greendawn

  I don't think that the two can be equated the dubs obviously don't treat their women as harshly as do the Moslems and other primitive religions. In countries like Saudi Arabia women can't even go to school or university without their husband's (or father's if not married) permission and are not allowed to talk in public at all because the female voice is considered to be a defilement.
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  Awakened07

  -From the outside looking in, it's quite astonishing how women have been and are seen as second-rate people. I think this underlying thought in society actually fully stems from the notion of a "male" God, which created man first, then woman as a 'helper' and so on and so forth all the way to the NT with the "women should stay quiet in the congregation". Looking at it from the perspective of, say some alien being from outer space, it's quite ridiculous why one gender should be any less in any matter, than the other. We are all human beings. How are women treated in societies worshiping a Goddess (not a rhetorical question)?
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  sweetstuff

  I don't think that the two can be equated the dubs obviously don't treat their women as harshly as do the Moslems and other primitive religions. In countries like Saudi Arabia women can't even go to school or university without their husband's (or father's if not married) permission and are not allowed to talk in public at all because the female voice is considered to be a defilement.

  I think if there were jw countries, like arabic countries, you are darn right they would enforce a bunch of insane rules upon women, because they are a small number, on a global scale, they have to be somewhat reasonable in order to gain new victims, er converts.

  Picture it.. a country were Jehovah rules, no other religion is allowed and they are the only majority, do you think they wouldn't be as harsh in that environment?
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  educ8self

  It's a matter of the basic, general attitude - a lot of things makes sense if you get a good birdseye view of things. In a way it's almost like little kids, don't touch girls because they have couties - well okay we like touching them, but we want to be in charge.. Some kind of fear of really being engaged I guess, in spite of all the hot monkey sex people are having.
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  Metamorphosis

  Here is an interesting quote for you - from 1962 WT August 1st

  "Further, many authorities recognize the subservient role of the wife and the helpful position she can occupy toward her husband. Notice what one woman psychologist said recently: 'I am a woman, hence my chief interest is men. And because I am also a psychologist, my interest in men is greater than it otherwise would be. Recently the National Management Association asked me to do some research on the different psychological factors of both men and women. It hoped that what I leared might point to ways of reducing the pressures which develop when men and women work together. I saw emerge these two truths: 1. All women like to work under a ceiling of authority. In short, they like to be bossed. 2. All women must feel that they are needed. These truths arise from the fact that, basically, women feel while men think. Women frequently measure up to men and surpass them in intelligence, but they are handicapped by the weight of emotional drag. Men have more practical minds; they can judge, organize direct. Thus the supervision of women by men seems to be nature's plan, however desperately women fight it.' What this authority refers to as nature's plan we recognize as God's purpose. How wholesome an arrangement it is and how well it works for happy family circles!"

  Wow.

  Morph
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  educ8self

  I am a woman, hence my chief interest is men.

  Gosh, as desperate as a man may get sexually I can't see someone that .. err I don't even have the word, I mean where's the self respect? Your interest as a woman has to be dependent on men?

  Alright lets not get off on a tangent here.. One point that came to mind is the infantilized frame of mind that such organizations has to work with, I mean girls, chicks as opposed to women and so on. You gotta wonder at what point is femininity equated or even associated with subservience?