Okay, that's not entirely a real word but I wanted to start a thread about understanding why women are so undermined, and the historical roots behind it. My thoughts were that we could all chuck stuff in and so build a virtual library showcasing the ways in which women have been undermined and pathologised over the last hundred or so years.
First up is Cesare Lombroso, a noted criminologist who was highly respected. He died in 1909 but his ideas were given a huge amount of credibility long after his death. This is what he had to say about women:
"Women have many traits in common with children; that their moral sense is deficient; that they are revengeful, jealous, and inclined to vengeances of a refined cruelty. In ordinary cases, these defects are neutralised by piety, maternity, want of passion, sexual coldness, by weakness and an undeveloped intelligence. But when a morbid activity of the psychical centres intensifies bad qualities of women, and induces them to seek relief in evil deeds; when piety and maternal sentiments are wanting, and in their place are strong passions and intensely erotic tendencies, much muscular strength and a superior intelligence for the conception and eecution of evil, it is clear that the innocuous semi-criminal present in the normal woman must be transformed into a born criminal more terrible than any man."
So in summary, clever, unmarried, childless women are pretty much the epitome of evil.
Feminism: Sex and gender discussions
The pathologicalisation of women
ChristinedePizan · 08/06/2011 19:35
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