Christianity has never been good for women.
Historically speaking though it takes a new invention coupled with the preexisting corrosive doctrine of religious misogyny to achieve that next tier of gynocidal malevolence.
“Accusations of witchcraft and demonic sex began to occur more frequently in the fifteenth century. They were a feature of the first wide-ranging witch-hunt in the Rhone Valley in southern France in 1428, during which between one and two hundred witches were burned. Less than sixty years later, a land mark text in the the history of misogyny appeared to explain why it was that more and more women were apparently leaving the Church and throwing themselves into the arms of Satan and his demons. It is not that Malleus Maleficarum, or ‘Hammer of the Witches'(1487), has anything original to say about misogyny – it has not; it merely repeats all the abuse heaped upon women in the Bible and the Classical authors. But what it does do for the first time is explicitly link the supposed weakness of women’s nature to their propensity to fall for the Devil, and thus become Witches. Its influence was hugely augmented by a new invention – the printing press. There is more than a little irony in the fact that the invention that would revolutionize people’s access to information should be so instrumental in spreading one of the most lethal forms of ignorance, fear and prejudice ever to manifest itself.”
-A Brief History of Misogyny:The World’s Oldest Prejudice by Jack Holland p.116-117
Just a brief snippet from the chapter titled: “From Queen of Heaven to Devil Woman”. Sadly, there is much, much more, to discuss when it comes for the Christian hatred of women.
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
3 comments
July 13, 2014 at 7:17 am
N℮üґ☼N☮☂℮ṧ
Thanks for this post. I still haven’t read Holland’s book, but it’s on my “must read” list. Reading about the printing press, I was reminded of an article on Genocide Watch.org: Case Study:
The European Witch-Hunts, c. 1450-1750
“The classic evocation of this deranged misogyny is the Malleus maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches), published by Catholic inquisition authorities in 1485-86. “All wickedness,” write the authors, “is but little to the wickedness of a woman. … What else is woman but a foe to friendship, an unescapable punishment, a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a desirable calamity, domestic danger, a delectable detriment, an evil nature, painted with fair colours. … Women are by nature instruments of Satan — they are by nature carnal, a structural defect rooted in the original creation.” (Quoted in Katz, The Holocaust in Historical Context, Vol. I, pp. 438-39.)
“The importance of the Malleus cannot be overstated,” argues Ben-Yehuda:
It was to become the most influential and widely used handbook on witchcraft. … Its enormous influence was practically guaranteed, owing not only to its authoritative appearance but also to its extremely wide distribution. It was one of the first books to be printed on the recently invented printing press and appeared in no fewer than 20 editions. … The moral backing had been provided for a horrible, endless march of suffering, torture, and human disgrace inflicted on thousands of women. (Ben-Yehuda, “The European Witch Craze,” p. 11.)”
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““What sane species would treat half of its members — and the very half which gives birth to the whole species — with such contempt and injustice?”
Steve Taylor
Psychology Today
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July 13, 2014 at 7:40 am
The Arbourist
@NN
I’m almost done. It’s not the most cheerful of reads, let me assure you. What I have found useful is the ‘evolution’ of the tropes (virgin/whore etc) we see against women today.
Thank you for the link to the case study. From the quoted material it looks like a good read.
Have you read ‘Why Does He Do That‘ by Lundy Bancroft? I’ve seen in referenced several times on various feminist websites.
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July 13, 2014 at 9:22 am
N℮üґ☼N☮☂℮ṧ
My pleasure, Arb. You mentioning the virgin/whore tropes really shows how uneducated our culture is about sexuality, no thanks to religion. Also the sick need to control women’s sexuality. And we can’t forget the Madonna/whore complex where a guy no longer sees his partner as a sexual being after she’s given birth and views her more as his mother than lover.
The quote from Catholic men that “women are by nature instruments of Satan — they are by nature carnal, a necessary evil, a natural temptation,” reminds me of what they, themselves, are/were experiencing and are/were projecting this urge onto women — the urge to fuck, fuck, fuck with novelty females. It’s a natural phenomena called The Coolidge Effect and it’s observed in all mammals (more common in males than females) who’ve been tested.
It’s a primitive biological urge — to ensure gene diversity.
I doubt the heavy influence of the Dark Ages is going to go away any time soon and especially in America where it’s getting darker and darker for women.
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