#angel 1

[hcnnibal]

happy father’s day to the world’s youngest single mother of two

[kipper7]

everyone please do the ask game

[breakandbuildfiction]

Fictional Matriarchal Societies

Okay this is a bit of a weird one but am I the only one who has noticed that pretty much every Matriarchal society in fiction is objectively worse than first world Patriarchal or Neutral Gender Dominance societies both in fiction and in reality? Particularly when you compare them to other societies in their same universe, timeframe, and technological advancement?

To keep things simple I'm going to reference three of these societies to make my point. Angel 1 from Star Trek TNG, the Amazon Amazons from Percy Jackson, and the Amazons of Themyscira from DC Comics.

To get the obvious out of the way first, all three of these societies are far more sexist than modern Western and first-world societies in our real life.

In Angel 1 the men are incapable of being allowed to hold any office, join the military, or be actual citizens. They are not dissuaded or have to work harder for these jobs like how many women have to in the real world, they just straight up can't. This sexism is so severe that when a group of men-- many of whom admittingly aren't actually from Angel 1-- stand against this, they and all their supporters are set for execution and it requires outside powers threatening them to get the Matriarchal leaders to agree that banishment to a desolate part of their planet is a good downgrade for their punishment. This was a society that advanced enough to have Warp Travel and yet they hadn't even STARTED on equal gender rights yet. Also, their level of technological advancement is far lower than average for a space-faring species in Star Trek TNG. Meaning not only do they fail to advance socially at even close to the same rate as the originally Patriarchal societies of the Star Trek universe, even needing outside influence to get the ball rolling, they also MIGHT be advancing slower technologically as well.

Next up are the Amazon Amazons from Percy Jackson. They literally put collars on men and made them slaves. This happens in modern America and they say they do this to 'show men their place'. They side by side with a society that most deem Patriarchal but still gives women equal rights under the law, but still believe that their way is better and are pro-gender-based slavery. And remember that this group never does SHIT of any actual importance in the entire series. The best they do is act a pitstop and as a lore drop for one of the leaders of New Rome. They are objectively the weakest group that fall under the Greek Pantheon in Percy Jackson despite being one of if not the largest with no unique mystical or technological advantages to speak of. The Cyclopses of Atlantis, all of whom are male and basically have severe autism, are a more impactful accomplished group from what I can tell, and I don't think we've even heard of most of them since they helped attack Typhoon back in The Last Olympian.

Finally the most famous and in my opinion worst offenders on this list, the Themysciren Amazons from DC Comics. Even if you don't take into consideration things I know aren't canon anymore like how they repopulated via mass rape and murder before chucking male children into the ocean, there are still a LOT of things that showcase that they are terrible. Though admittingly some of these aren't fully their own fault.

To keep things brief I'll just highlight how they condemn men and 'Man's World' for the existence of wars, saying it is the fault of the nature of men and that it is the duty of Amazons to show them a better path. This viewpoint they are written to have ignores the fact that there have been women who declared and perpetuated wars before and the fact that the Amazons really have no place to talk about the subject because due to them living on Themyscira they never actually have to deal with the problems that cause wars to occur. Think about it, due to them living on an island protected by, hidden by, and blessed by the gods themselves the Amazons never have to deal with things like cultural friction, border disputes, resource scarcity, religious differences, or trade routes and deals. Hell, due to Hippolyta being immortal-- or depending on the continuity all of the Amazons being immortal-- even periods of succession and political upheaval are nonexistent to them! They condemn men for using violence to deal with these issues despite never having to deal with them themselves. And when they DO have the SLIGHTEST taste of ANY of these problems, their reaction is to kill people. Seriously, a man so much as washing up on their shores is grounds for execution, and in the semi-rare storyline of Diana bringing male heroes to the island to help save it, she is punished for allowing men to set foot on their island. They are objectively hypocrites who are just as if not more violent than men. And this sucks for them since outside of like, six of them they are all basically canon fodder who mostly exist to get their asses kicked and give Wonder Woman a reason to get pissed off. Remember, most of them aren't demigods and can't block bullets with their bracelets. They are just tall and fit women with spears and shields and low-level metahuman physical buffs.

((Note: A very big exception to that 'Amazons are fodder' statement is the Flashpoint continuity where the Amazons are keeping pace with all of Atlantis as the two destroy the whole world. Though I will be docking points from this example because it is a war that started because Wonder Woman fucked a married man and killed his pissed-off wife before presenting him with her severed head. Meaning she started it... Also, I'm pretty sure the Atlantians having a higher population, greater ability to reproduce, and their attempts to flood the Earth while Atlantis itself couldn't be directly attacked by the Amazons all comes together as a guaranteed long-term win for the Atlantians.))

Speaking of spears and shields, their level of technological advancement, though it does differ between writers and continuities, is almost always shown to be stuck roughly in the Roman era. And yes, I know that civilizations that are isolated or have an abundance of resources don't tend to technologically advance as quickly as others, but these women are TWO THOUSAND YEARS behind the curve! As in, they haven't advanced since the last members of the island were sent their from Men's World, meaning their advancements all came from MEN! And it's not like their mystical abilities make up for that! Can you name a prominent magic user from Themyscira? Because I sure as hell can't. The best I think there is is Circi and she ISN'T AN AMAZON! The best magic users in DC that aren't demons or gods or what have yous are probably Kent Nelson, Giovani Zatara (when he isn't dead), Zatanna Zatara, and John Constantine. That's 3/4 men.

In short the Themysciren Amazons are written to be self-righteous sexist jerks who believe that because they never had to deal with any real-world political or societal issues they are better than men outright.

I don't know if this is because these societies are rarely if ever the focus of a longer story or if it's a long-term oversight from the writers, but all these examples paint the picture that women being the majority rulers of societies makes things worse in the long term. No social advancement, cases of extreme social regression, slower or nonexistent technological advancement, weaker military forces, inability to have a significant impact on their respective greater settings, need I go on?

But enough of this. It's very late and I wrote this all out in a single go. If anyone wants to dispute this, please give me some examples of Matriarchal societies in fiction that aren't socially and/or technologically inept compared to their Patriarcal/Non-Single-Gender Dominated counterparts. I would honestly love to hear them.

[idkacatmonstermaybe]

okay hello @headfulloffeathers jess this is for you and the approximately two other people who might care about this meta breakdown but these are some of the parallels i see between look homeward and supernatural

(thank you for providing a distraction boot smut is stumping me i only have like 700 words written 😭)

(also uh supernatural spoilers? i guess? in the year of our lord 2024?)

okay so idk how much you know about supernatural so extremely surface level summary when dean is four and sam is like a few months old a demon kills their mom and then they spend their entire childhood on the road with their dad hunting supernatural monsters and searching for the demon who killed their mom. that’s like………. the bare bones basic premise of the show before they started delving hard into the angels/demons/biblical lore which gets really interesting and convoluted and tbh i stopped watching at a certain point bc i got bored and confused. SO basic vibes their mom (mary) is killed and their entire childhood they’re dragged around the entire country learning how to kill things bc their dad (john) is on a revenge bender.

so big overarching parallels: dean is a literal toddler when he is given the responsibility of caring for his baby brother which is so similar to a1 being 12 and assuming responsibility for sickly little 9 year old a2

sam is also like…. “assigned wrong at birth” lmfao bc the demon that kills their mom feeds him his blood to give him special powers? very confusing BUT there are moments where he’s ostracized for his powers and being born different and the way that parallels gods specialest boy a2 actually hurts me

follow up to that is sam goes through a phase where he is discovering these new abilities and goes a little power hungry and he starts drinking demon blood (lol don’t worry about it) and this gives me pretty strong serial killer era a2 vibes? but this one is a little looser bc sam and dean are still hunting together while this is going on and i’m pretty sure serial killer a2 is during the 92-01 separation? but they both have “dark” eras lmfao

okay also re: 92-01 when sam graduates high school he goes away to stanford for college and there’s a big falling out with john a “if you walk out that door don’t bother coming back” type moment so the boys don’t see each other for several years and there’s kind of the energy of really not knowing if they’re ever going to see each other again which parallels the very little we know about 92-01.

ALSO there are several moments throughout supernatural where sam is pushing to try to have a “normal” life—like going away to college to try and get a piece of normalcy that they never got to experience as kids. there’s also an arch in a later ish season where sam goes to hell (again……. don’t worry about it) and his like dying wish is that dean gets a chance at a normal life so dean shacks up with this woman lisa and her son ben but then when sam comes back he obviously ditches them lmfao. so there’s even an eden parallel sneaking in there lololol.

one thing that stays consistent throughout the series is also the way sam and dean are willing to do absolutely anything for each other like…… literally bring about the apocalypse if it means keeping each other safe which is The Dynamic of all time and is part of what makes a1/a2 so compelling

oh also sam is the vessel for the archangel lucifer and dean for michael which is flipped based on a1 and a2 but it’s also a fun little tidbit

obviously none of this means literally anything BUT early season supernatural was a fixation of mine for a while (obviously lmfao) so i find it so fitting that there are so many themes and motifs from one of my og hyperfixations are present in my current one

[spirithotline]

ah yes my ocs… angel 1 and angel 3

[posthumanwanderings]

[anthony10000000]

(Angel 1)

[dadstielkline]

Angel 1: So what you’re saying is, you tried to kill Dean Winchester?

Angel 2: Yeah. Why? What’s wrong with that?

Angel 2: I thought everyone wanted Dean Winchester dead.

Angel 1: Do you even know which angel Dean Winchester belongs to?

Angel 2: Castiel, right? It’s not like he’s gonna kill me. 

Castiel (as he stabs the angel in the back): Guess again, motherfucker!!