the patriarchal re-writing of history is truly fascinating and affects everything you think you’ve ever known — the only way to combat this is to seek out women-authored intellectual works and re-learn our history from first principles
i recently learnt that many nuns were not the devout and chaste women that males would love us, and have continuously forced us, to be — and, for a non-trivial amount of women, being a nun had very little to do with submission to a male “God”
in many medieval and early modern European societies, women (and particularly lesbians) became nuns because it was one of the very few ways to escape marriage, (marital) rape, childbirth and a lifetime of exploitation by her husband — though, of course, the vast risks of male violence by religious men in the church remained
convents were one of the extremely rare places where women could access formal education and intellectual communities. here, women could learn how to read and write, and gain a broad education in theology, philosophy, music, languages, medicine and other areas
certain nuns, particularly abbesses of wealthy convents, had considerable authority which she could never have achieved in the outside world — including managing estates, controlling finances, and negotiating with political and religious authorities
in other words, it was more desirable for many women to pay a religious dowry and sell herself to “God”, than to pay a marital dowry and be sold by her family, and by society, to a man
of course, many convents were extremely abusive institutions, and the experiences of women differed greatly dependent on her social class and the historical period in question
however, it’s quite ironic that submitting to one of the most patriarchal institutions in society was one of the very few ways for some women to achieve a slither of intellectual, social and personal agency
titsay
turnnoffyourmind
origamiaround
2087
areudirty
