Women in Literature # Goddesses # Matrilineal societies existed in ancient Sumer, Crete, Egypt, Greece and Türkiye. Societies work best when power and responsibilities are shared equally. Any imbalance can prove detrimental to society.
Egyptian and Mesopotamian cultures illustrated goddesses enjoying more equal status with gods. Goddesses procreated with mortal males while in Greek theogony gods with mortal females.
Goddess celebrates the women and gender-transcending superstars who shaped their own roles, took creative control and fought a system that tried to exploit them.
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Nudity # What is the difference between nudity and naked? Other euphemisms include: unclad, clothing optional, naturist beaches/resorts.
Are we conditioned to be embarrassed about our nakedness? Are we unique in the animal kingdom to feel shame of exposure? Sexual modesty could be our protection of monogamy to protect our progeny.
When we are nude we are totally open, transparent but vulnerable. We step outside ourselves to see us as others see us.
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Women of Power # While power imbalances should be leveled, women leaders are not necessarily morally more pure than men.
Angela Saini, in The Patriarchs: How Men Came To Rule presents sound evidence that there have been many times throughout human history when females shared power equally with men fostering peaceful, prosperous and equalitarian societies.
Patriarchy is defined as the control of younger men and women by older ones.
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Women in war # Most pagan releigions have deities that combine War and love. Inanna was the Goddess of Love and War. Greeks had Vulcan, (Mars) who has a child called Harmony, with Aphrodite (Venus). Most prolonged battles included a following support camp for food and comfort women.
In the Iliad, Hector tells Andromache (Man - power)
Go home, and attend to your tasks, the loom and spindle, and see the maids work hard.
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Queens who have influenced history # A queen who does not enforce her laws is no queen at all.
Women are repeatedly written out of history.
In the earliest times the Sovereign was a key figure in the enforcement of law and the establishment of legal systems in different areas of the Commonwealth. As such the Sovereign became known as the ‘Fount of Justice’. While no longer administering justice in a practical way, the Sovereign today still retains an important symbolic role as the figure in whose name justice is carried out, and law and order is maintained.
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Shakespeare’s Women # Shakespeare’s writings canvass a wide range of topics with his characters expressing divergent views. He generally balances opposing views in such a way it becomes difficult to discern his own view. It is only through seeing patterns of meaning that you can make any kind of judgment.
Just because a character expresses a particular view, does not mean Shakespeare endorses it.
Jamie Q Roberts, Lecturer, University of Sydney, writing in The Conversation, claims:
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