One of my favorite quotes was one the presenters used on page 183: "All wickedness is but little to the wickedness of a woman." What we can learn from this quote: Women are wicked. Women are more wicked than the devil. The mere fact that they are women makes them crazy, therefore they must be wicked and do magical things.
(I apologize if this picture offends anyone.)
Women are created in a defective manner because they are "formed from a bent rib" and that is "in a contrary direction to a man" (Kors/Peter, 184). Oh, that makes sense. Men are perfect beings, so women must be the crazy ones who do evil things just for fun. NEVER MIND THAT THE DEVIL IS A MAN. Or does he not count because he goes against mankind? Oh, never mind. Basically, men can do no harm. Therefore, in my mind, all men must be Ryan Gosling.
Now, is that really the case? I think not. This section of the book loves to explain how women are inferior to men and that's why they are more susceptible to practicing magic. But where does their information come from? Women are "more credulous" than men, they are "naturally more impressionable" and have "slippery tongues" (Kors/Peter, 183). Slippery tongues? Really? Women like to gossip which means they must practice magic. Makes perfect sense. Did Kramer and Sprenger do research on this topic? Or did they just look at the people around them and decide men are superior to women? I'm voting for the latter. This whole chapter focuses on the imperfections of women, which implies that men are better than women because, remember, women are created in the opposite direction of men. We all know the reality of the situation:
In relation to the bent rib bit, that was a rather odd justification to use for the whole 'women are inherently wicked' argument.
ReplyDelete"...there was a defect in the formation of the first woman, since she was formed from a bent rib, that is, rib of the breast, which is a contrary direction to a men. And since through this defect she is an imperfect animal, she always deceives." (Page 184)
After I read that, my first thought was "Are these guys mocking God's craftsmanship? Wouldn't that be blasphemy? Or at least frowned upon by the Church?"
My next though was, "because Eve, the first woman, was made using a bent rib, all women are corrupt.... But, wouldn't that mean that the rib is inherently corrupt? This argument does not state that God made women wicked after the fact. It was because of the rib; so the rib must be inherently corrupt. However, if that was true, shouldn't men be just as corrupt? After all the bent rib came from a man, and he had a lot more where that one came from."
Therefore, following this logic, bent ribs may be the root of all human wickedness... who know?
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ReplyDeleteI agree, I'm just like where did they get the idea that this was legitimate. I'm sure the two authors told lies before they wrote this and told many more lies before they passed. I mean we are all human! I honestly think (and I could be wrong but i think) that some tragic event occurred where they were growing up and had like awful dates with women and just horrible experience or just did not get along with them and they plotted revenge and wrote this book about it.
ReplyDeleteExactly! These guys have no real solid arguments against women. I think that they are forgetting several crucial things about women like, um...who raises the kids? Women probably have so much work to do around the house that they wouldn't likely spend their nights meeting other witches and going to the sabbat. If I were a peasant women having to take care of like 6 kids I probably wouldn't waste my time. And it was completely unfair of them to target women because men are just as likely to do these things too. I agree with Samuel - maybe there was a bad experience or two in their lives that had to do with women. Some of the things that they said made me think, "Whoa, what did women ever do to you?"
ReplyDeleteWhat's great about this is that it's written from a feminist point of view. And it doesn't make me angry (which is weird because I have thrown a copy of "The Yellow Wallpaper" across the room a few times). So, NICE. But more on topic, it's fascinating how no matter if you read books by writers of our time, you still get THOSE people. In fact, if I was a woman in the middle ages who had to do that much house work with no technology, I wouldn't go to Sabbath either...
ReplyDeleteI read a quote the other day that I think goes well with this bent rib topic. "Women were not made from mens feet to be walked on, nor from their heads to be superior. They were made from man's rib in order to be protected by his arms and close to his heart."
ReplyDeleteI don't think medieval men agreed with the sentiment... But it would certainly be nice if all men were perfect instead of fighting wars or any of the other devious acts more closely associated with the male gender.
"If the world was run by women, instead of war there would be hundreds of countries...just not talking to one another."