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In light of recent threads I thought I would post in intrigue of am article about weird beliefs about women. Especially since not all the weird dogmatic beliefs came from men but women themselves. Queen Vitoria was quite the err umm.. Interesting person for this herself. We can laugh at these beliefs now but they are lessons we can learn from them and this article.
Quote:Saudi Arabia is the only country where women are not allowed to drive. On Saturday, dozens of Saudi women took to their cars in defiance of the de facto driving ban and posted videos of their protest online. While some 17,000 people signed a petition in support of their campaign, plenty of conservative Saudis are happy to keep things just the way they are. Among them is Sheik Salah al-Luhaydan, a top cleric who last month warned women that they risk damaging their ovaries and rearing defective children if they drive. In honor of the sheik’s comments, TIME takes a look at some of the strangest beliefs in history about girls and women.
1. Wombs go randomly wandering
The ancient Greek physician Hippocrates believed a displaced uterus, or a wandering womb, was to blame for a range of medical problems that plagued women, from excessive emotion to knee problems. The symptoms of the disease, known as hysteria, varied depending on where in the body the uterus wandered. This is how Aretaeus of Cappadocia later described the condition:
On the whole, the womb is like an animal within an animal. When, therefore, it is suddenly carried upwards, and remains above for a considerable time, and violently compresses the intestines, the woman experiences a choking, after the form of epilepsy, but without convulsions. For the liver, diaphragm, lungs and heart are quickly squeezed within a narrow space; and therefore loss of breathing and of speech seems to be present.
2. Crippled, broken feet are super hot
Over 10 centuries, millions of women in China had their feet broken and bound with bandages to conform to beliefs about tiny feet being beautiful and a desirable status symbol. Foot binding was banned in 1912, but the practice continued underground for years. NPR spoke to one of the last foot-binding survivors in China’s Yunnan province in 2007.
3. Put down those books ladies, don’t you know that reading makes you sterile?
In 1873, a physician at Harvard, Dr. Edward Clarke, published a book arguing that women who read too much could suffer from sterility, as well as atrophy of the uterus and ovaries. It was all about blood flow, you see — too much thinking caused blood to rush to the brain and away from the uterus, and reproductive organs withered.
4. Autism is caused by bad mothers
Leo Kanner, a psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins University, identified autism as a neurological condition in 1943. Using a small research sample, Kanner observed that autistic children usually had detached, intellectual parents. He attributed the condition, in particular, to mothers who showed a lack of parental warmth.
5. American women don’t actually want to vote
As women in the U.S. fought for the right to vote at the turn of the 20th century, one major campaigner against the idea, the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage, published a pamphlet explaining why women’s suffrage was a bad idea. The best reasons included: “Because 90% of women either do not want it, or do not care; because it means competition of women with men instead of cooperation; and because in some states more voting women than voting men will place the government under petticoat rule.” The pamphlet also included housekeeping tips for homemakers, like “You do not need a ballot to clean out your sink spout.”
And if you thought all the silliest ideas about women came from men, it’s worth remembering Queen Victoria’s views on women’s rights:
I am most anxious to enlist everyone who can speak or write to join in checking this mad, wicked folly of ‘Women’s Rights,’ with all its attendant horrors, on which her poor feeble sex is bent, forgetting every sense of womanly feelings and propriety. Feminists ought to get a good whipping. Were woman to ‘unsex’ themselves by claiming equality with men, they would become the most hateful, heathen and disgusting of beings and would surely perish without male protection.
http://world.time.com/2013/10/28/forget-the-saudi-driving-ban-the-five-weirdest-beliefs-about-women-ever/ ” class=”bbcode_url”> http://world.time.com/2013/10/28/forget-the-saudi-driving-ban-the-five-weirdest-beliefs-about-women-ever/ Please don’t take this as a criticism, Charity, but I think these points are easy for us to think about because they pertain to either foreign cultures or the historical past. I wonder what current LDS practices/attitudes regarding women will one day be seen by Latter-Day Saints as outdated or demeaning? convert1992 wrote:Please don’t take this as a criticism, Charity, but I think these points are easy for us to think about because they pertain to either foreign cultures or the historical past. I wonder what current LDS practices/attitudes regarding women will one day be seen by Latter-Day Saints as outdated or demeaning?
You mean like how women are a “moral authority” but we should not include their input in creating any moral stances? Stuff like that?
Charity – if you haven’t seen the movie Hysteria, I highly recommend it. It’s based on the very real “treatment” for women diagnosed with this very not-real “disease.”
convert1992 wrote:Please don’t take this as a criticism, Charity, but I think these points are easy for us to think about because they pertain to either foreign cultures or the historical past. I wonder what current LDS practices/attitudes regarding women will one day be seen by Latter-Day Saints as outdated or demeaning?
Like this you mean:
Quote:
During a Jan. 15 Brigham Young University “devotional” address, Elaine Dalton, who oversees all young Mormon women between ages 12 and 18 in the 14 million-member LDS Church, said the following:“Young women, you will be the ones who will provide the example of virtuous womanhood and motherhood. You will continue to be virtuous, lovely, praiseworthy and of good report. You will also be the ones to provide an example of family life in a time when families are under attack, being redefined and disintegrating. You will understand your roles and your responsibilities and thus will see no need to lobby for rights.”
convert1992 wrote:Please don’t take this as a criticism, Charity, but I think these points are easy for us to think about because they pertain to either foreign cultures or the historical past. I wonder what current LDS practices/attitudes regarding women will one day be seen by Latter-Day Saints as outdated or demeaning?
Non taken. It was not meant that way. But the ability to make humorous ones own self and culture in light of progressing is important in progressing healthfully I think. I do not make fun of beliefs but find in humor out progress we make over time and sometimes our ability to seem to say we made enough…let us stand still with out feet firmly planted in our present understanding. I think it reflects in the past that we should not.
hawkgrrrl wrote:convert1992 wrote:Please don’t take this as a criticism, Charity, but I think these points are easy for us to think about because they pertain to either foreign cultures or the historical past. I wonder what current LDS practices/attitudes regarding women will one day be seen by Latter-Day Saints as outdated or demeaning?
You mean like how women are a “moral authority” but we should not include their input in creating any moral stances? Stuff like that? Thank you HG and Mackey. I was hoping to take a look at our “current” beliefs in relation to the past and see with within and in our cultures outside the church in general. Some times I see the more things change, the more they stay the same. Our root behavior for a “status quo”. Also thank you HG, I will take a look at that.
Charity – if you haven’t seen the movie Hysteria, I highly recommend it. It’s based on the very real “treatment” for women diagnosed with this very not-real “disease.”
“Women should not work outside the home” is not far gone and is still prevalent in some areas. Pretty weird belief if you ask me but it seems to be on the way out. Queen Victoria is misunderstood. We know from her own private accounts that she had an active sex life with Albert, and thoroughly enjoyed it, for example. I can see why someone might think autism was due to parenting. Children whose mothers don’t look after them DO develop psychological abnormalities. Children who are not socialized early on, also develop social and linguistic issues.
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