The "Mommy Wars" are as dumb as all of the manufactured conflicts. They keep us at each other's throats instead of coming together to solve common problems. All of this nonsense derives from the absurd notion that there is any "right" way to be a male or a female. When so much of our experience is socially constructed and far removed from nature, all this stuff is just stuff we made up.
I also feel the rights and needs of children are often forgotten in these male-female oriented discussions, so I appreciate your summation, Tereza, which is relevant good advice that pertains to dozens of other divisive cultural issues: "Instead of berating other women, question the stories of superiority. Question the systems that serve a few at the expense of all of us. Especially question anything that doesn’t serve the children."
Katie! How excellent to have your mom wisdom gracing my 'stack!
Coming from a radical Christian perspective, like many of my favorite peeps, I think you'll get this reference. The liberation theologians say that everyone has a bias and it should always be stated. They have a 'preferential option for the poor.' My position is a 'preferential option for mothers.' I don't claim to be unbiased. My bias is that a society that serves mothers also serves the children, and that should be our priority.
You may have already heard my definition of tonic masculinity as a society that puts children at the center, surrounded by women, surrounded by men.
And yes, it didn't occur to me until later that Michael had endorsed the #1 story and #1 system of patriarchy: the OT and capitalism, while saying that we've never had a patriarchal society.
“…a society that serves the mothers also serves the children” resonates real hard with me. Just like any polarity based conversations, I don’t particularly like to lean into what ‘archy’ would make the better leader, there are strengths and weaknesses in both genders, and both masculinity and femininity leaves inside every human. And if we’re bonded to our gender trauma, we will pass it on to the next generation.
Being a mom to three boys does put some things in perspective tho- what can I teach them that I’ve learned didn’t serve me as a woman so they don’t inflict that damage on the girls they have in their lives down the line.
Your video made me lol a few times. Gonna go back now and see them memes.
Those are some memes worth stealing, eh? The cat head was really a stretch to make work but how could I resist? And the deviled egg? I've tried to tell people the vertebrae one and they both said, 'That sounds like a chiropractor meme.' Without getting to see that little face and imagine it holding you up, it just doesn't translate.
Someone pointed out awhile ago to me that matriarchy is just another archy--a word that means archons or rulers. I wonder sometimes if the Matrix movie was a way of discrediting that word. It made a mother-network into the false 'reality' while the 'real' one was vicious and ugly. Especially since learning both Kohn brothers transitioned into women.
It felt good to let the snark fly on this. But every one of the speakers had a kernel of truth. Our compassion has been weaponized or, as I titled one video, Is Our Love Being Pimped for Profit? The feminist movement has been turned into an academic bludgeon against men. And children do belong with their mothers and to their mothers. Nothing makes that clearer than the series I'm working on called Courting Abuse, looking at the legal system.
Hannah, in the interview, talks about her son being happiest running into things and yelling, "Hulk smash!" I didn't experience that side of parenting but I agree with her that our sedentary school system is counter to male energy--and kid energy in general, but boys even more so.
Thats the main reason one of the twins just can’t do institutionalized school. He tried it. He barely lasted two weeks. Simply couldn’t understand why they make you sit still and listen to someone yell at ya day in and day out. I actually need to go back and watch Hannah’s link.
Interesting about Matrix holding etymology from matriarchy. I’m one of Mathew Crawford’s pieces he introduces the word ‘maitreya’ which translates to ‘Messiah’ or something akin to that and it made me think it could be the root for Matrix as well.
I agree with the twin who can't sit still. I'm incapable of listening to a lecture these days. I have to be doing something with my hands or I go stir-crazy. In my deschooling vision, farm chores or painting or building is done while listening to some talk--could be ear buds or a radio. Others prepare lunch. And everyone talks about it while they're eating.
Matri just means mother. So matrix is the simpler form. The archons were all male by definition so 'matriarchy' is really a contradiction in terms.
So interesting about maitreya as the future Bodhisattva or Buddha. And curious that's still referred to as 'he.' I'm working on a collab with Amy, the AI genie-us, for my next feminine post on Round Body Advocate. She's come up with some stunning images, turning my ideas into prompts. I was just thinking that I wanted to do a female Buddha. And here you are, giving me a name for her! One that clearly means Mother ;-)
Oooo, Im looking to read about that! You’re right, why is it a “he”?!?
Your deschooling vision very closely resembles mine. Right before covid, a few friends and I had started doing intense research on purchasing land to start an intentional community where we can have our kids roam nature and learn from one another and us adults would impart our knowledge in an apprenticeship type setting. Of course, those ended up being some of the same people that went hard on the vax and I can help but think that I would have so gotten voted off the island.
I’m excited to read your book, because you speak of fiefdoms and I’m interested in these kinds of parallel societies where the community is integrated and works together to achieve common goals. Throughout my research in seeing how other intentional communities have succeeded or failed, I noticed a pattern: usually religious or faith based communities survived longer and had better relations. It would appear that if the community had a higher goal or commonality that brought them together, they were more likely to weather through internal storms.
Sorry, that’s a bit off topic, but I’m just catching up to my digital life today and it’s what your response brought out of me.
Gonna shut up now and await yours and Amy’s collab. 🙌
😊Thanks for the nuanced explanation. As currently configured, yes, women and children have been abandoned by our society and left to the capitalist wolves.
To realize a healthy and productive future for our grandchildren, our priorities would need to change radically. If we truly valued healthy human development, it would only make sense that children would be cared for and protected as you describe, in concentric circles of both female and male community members.
For sure, matriarchy is certainly no guarantee of achieving a kinder, gentler, more sane society; a certain feminist ideology is not only condescending, myopic and self serving, as you so snarkily describe, but can be downright hostile towards children.
Yes! I want no 'archies' at all. My image of the matrix is the honeycomb, with the purpose of communities being to support families. My economic model is an-archist, rule by rules, not rulers. So it gives the most possible freedom of choice within a design that keeps things fair. It's like raising kids to be responsible adults, but scaling it up to a community--backed by the intergenerational legacy of housing.
Despite the plethora of manly virtues displayed in your last post on cabin construction, your admission that your ex was handier with a hammer than you permanently disqualifies you as a masculine male on the Tsarion scale. The best you can hope for is chivalric. But at least you're not a 'crawled out of the slime' feminine male or a 'fucking loathsome soy boy.' You need to practice your disdain of all women and most other men if you're going to climb that ladder.
But on the 'rock for pillow' scale, Gan from my 3P YT writes, "I do prefer a cave & rock pillow to big brother/nanny state city's" and goes on to say his combat saber club made the front page of the local paper and his pole dancing studio has introduced blacklight roller (skate) pole. So I think you need to include these in your new hobbies, along with taking the long (and hard) way round ;-)
Yes, I do think my ex was pretty awesome in many ways, especially in the hard work she did with me building that house, and the epic backpacking trips she did: the AT (twice), the PCT, the CDT, the Long Trail (twice). The fact that she was also verbally abusive doesn't change that.
I actually may be able to do this cave + rock pillow thing. I have some great rocks here, and this being Gold Country, there are plenty of abandoned mines in the area that could work as caves. Not sure about the pole dancing, though -- too old for that now.
I love that about you, Mark, that you didn't need to throw out everything that was good about your ex while getting out of range of the verbal abuse. It's a very nuanced view that gives you credit for what drew you to her, at the same time as crediting her.
I laughed so much throughout this piece. The men with a rock pillow just killed me. And the anatomy lesson, and the “master baiters” pun, oh so many great parts.
Just want to say HOW COOL that women are learning construction skills!! I too would like to build my dream tiny house one day. Alas I have few construction skills to speak of but am hoping my female friend doing an apprenticeship can teach me a thing or two. Which would basically make me the first meme in your article…just a little older.
I know the anarchist dream is often about living out in the woods with some chooks, pigs, and vegetables - homesteading - and a bizarre fantasy that women “won’t work” in this situation but…I have lived on many an organic farm in the middle of nowhere (including the Amazon and Andes might I add), and it is ALL hands on deck from dawn to dusk! Everyone works. There is plenty of backbreaking work to do and women and men alike do it…on top of raising kids, cooking meals, endless cleaning, chasing chickens (in my case, also chasing escaped llama), fixing up the house, and earning some extra moolah (women and men doing this!) through paid work to get the supplies in, tools, etc. I did all this as well as occasionally insane backbreaking projects like trying to build a hydroelectric vortex in the Amazon for getting some electricity, managing a 25Ha tropical highlands farm by myself, building greywater systems, turning a three ton compost pile every two days, hauling loads of produce around the village markets to sell, and climbing mountains for field work (mountain parrots).
I am baffled that “manual labour” and doing literally anything outside the home is considered “masculine” when it’s just basic stuff everyone needs to do when living out in the bush..But nothing women do is work because women’s work doesn’t count because women don’t count…
And *while* doing those things in communities or homesteads in the wild, I taught nonviolent communication by candlelight, taught partner acrobatics and dance, facilitated workshops, ran cooking classes, organised picnics, taught songs, did arty things, ran community conflict resolution processes, deep cleaned and reorganised the interior literally everywhere I went…what one might consider “feminine” things but things that I did working alongside men and women alike.
I don’t get why tasks like the ones I noted above get coded “feminine” and “masculine” — it’d be better if we stopped categorising them and just let people get on with what they like to do, what they’re good at, what they want to learn, etc.
Lol, I sometimes wonder if men like Tsarion and women like Nixon / Fiamengo have ever *stepped* in a modern day office? All the moral panic and handwringing about pantsuit power women indicates to me neither has any clue what modern day office work is like - women are still *very much* expected to be all nicey nice, kind, smile, not hurt anyone’s feelings, not nag anyone for meeting deadlines, buy the presents for the colleague who’s leaving, organise the cake for the colleague with the birthday, clean up after everyone (because everyone is endlessly leaving their cups lying around), do extra unpaid emotional labour on top of their day jobs, spend endless hours doing hair and makeup and looking pretty every day, do menial administrative tasks that the guy can’t be bothered with because he wants to focus on “strategic” work etc etc. All traditionally “feminine” tasks. And any woman who doesn’t have a constantly kind warm nicey nice facial expression 24/7 is seen as a b**ch even if she’s just concentrating on something for two seconds.
Female colleagues I’ve worked with in office settings have by and large been lovely, loving, bubbly, kind, caring, empathetic, supportive and amazing human beings I love to go to work to see. Sure there is the odd lady who is stoic and just wants to get the job done, and the odd “scary” female manager (only scary because she doesn’t smile; whereas a man who doesn’t smile isn’t automatically considered scary!) but certainly exceptions to the rule and not present in any greater numbers than in the general population.
Female employees and managers have transformed workplaces to value care work and have been amazing at letting mothers be more flexible with work, take time off for kids, always checking in about wellbeing and happiness (it’s not all about productivity!!), emphasising putting people first and work second, role modelling good habits like leaving on time to be with family and championing more junior women’s ideas and thought leadership even when men continue to steal the ideas (Eisenstein lol), valuing women’s work and ensuring they are fairly paid for it, encouraging men to pick up more of the “care” work around the office (buy a prezzie for the colleague we all love who’s leaving! Organise the card getting around us all to sign and the whole farewell afternoon tea AND cleanup afterwards!), passing on their advice and wisdom to younger generations of junior staff, helping women who get stuck in difficult employment related situations, role modelling that it’s ok not to wear mega-glam makeup as it’s the work that matters, advocating for private spaces at workplaces for breastfeeding, and for policies that allow for longer leave without pay so women can take more time off and still have some job security without feeling they will be looked down upon after a period of absence from work etc etc
While I would like to see office jobs become increasingly less necessary and I too would like to go back to frolicking in the woods with my machete (while dismantling the empire and capitalism and all that)…I do think the narrative of “women shouldn’t work because they become more like men” is both laughable and simplistic and utterly wrong. If anything, women have to be even MORE “feminine” to survive in the workplace and the caring of women has made office life more bearable (and even enjoyable) for people like me who can’t afford to buy a piece of land in the wilderness and build everything from scratch right this minute.
I’ve worked with amazing female scientists, lawyers, engineers, athletes, economists, who totally get the system is f***ed and are also doing their best to install care values wherever they go…and maybe if we all read your book Tereza, we will figure out how to get ourselves out of this mess!
Just because a woman work on geopolitics, finance or economics doesn’t make her a cold-hearted “masculine “ women. (Like the lovely Tereza!)
Just because a woman is in academia doesn’t make her a masculine woman. (Tereza should have a PhD for all the great research!)
Just because a woman “works” for “pay” (*gasp! Oh my!!*) doesn’t make her masculine. Even in corporate environments.
Just because she does manual labour doesn’t make her more masculine.
Men’s problem isn’t that women are becoming more masculine (aka more uncaring) the more that women work.
(This is patently not true as women do a TON of care work inside and outside the home regardless of whether they work for pay.)
Men’s problem is that women aren’t caring *for them* and aren’t picking up men’s socks and vacuuming under their behinds and keeping kids happy and healthy…because it’s more convenient for men to have a “women appliance” who does all that free work at home so he can buy his free time with her exhaustion.
Rather than asking, “what can I do to make relationships worth staying in,” men like Tsarion dismiss the “feminised” man (I.e. the man who actually cares about his partner) and wonders why women don’t want to live in loveless, uncaring, exploitative slave labour arrangements, isolated and made to feel inferior at home, and why we would prefer the “village” of caring women literally everywhere else (whether it’s university or jobs or hobbies or friendships or…women’s lands!! (Look them up!))
I agree Tereza that the solution is to get men to do more of the care work. The revolution starts at home, and indeed, the personal is political. And all that said, I would like to learn a few more manual tasks like basic bike and car repairs, home repairs, building stuff. And one day learn hunting and fishing. And more about finance. This might sound like “manly” tasks but it’s also care work - caring for my bike, car, etc. I refuse to believe these are things I should *never* learn because I’m a woman - I was always good at maths, science and economics and a martial art, and nowadays take immense pleasure in beating the boys in my one and only mildly competitive activity of cold plunges at 41 degrees Fahrenheit/ 5 degrees C. It is supremely satisfying to see cocky men panic, hyperventilate and leap out again while I sit around for 30-40 minutes chatting away with anyone who can sustain a conversation while the “manly” men’s testicles freeze. Who said we need men’s jackets and can’t handle the cold…women are leading the leaderboard atm and possibly only two men have broken my record so far at the local plunge pool.
And anyway, if it does get cold at night, that’s what hot water bottles are for. They are easy to maintain, don’t complain, can be thrown out of the bed anytime, and don’t snore. 😂😂
Just when I think I can't admire you more, LoWa, you come out with THIS! Triple, quadruple Likes!
My neighbors have told me that I was the busiest, hardest-working non-employed person they've known. I went deep into permaculture and animal husbandry on my little urban farmlet here. I don't regret that, or making sure my daughters were involved, but I'm so happy to not have chickens in my Coop deVille for the first time in 15 yrs. I was just thinking that my dozen+ fruit trees keep me debugging, cleaning up, harvesting, giving away and using up what isn't good enough to give away. The mail lady is practically hacking her way through the jungle, but I asked her yesterday if she minded and she said she loves it. But I do think longingly of buying a couple perfect fruit from the farmer's market every week and not having the burden of abundance.
Yes, I created the feminine in the two companies where I was the Dir of HR, including Borland where Mark and I both worked at different times. My specialty has been empowering women to do what they didn't think they could. I excel at appreciating people, and have turned that into a system that ripples out.
One time when my ex- was on a business call, one of the girls needed him. The woman he was talking to said "Don't you dare apologize. This is why we do what we do!" It meant a lot to him to have her say that so clearly.
My oldest said recently that, looking back, I was always consistent and her dad was not. I had a system for making sure everyone participated in the housework and he was always looking for shortcuts. The youngest was 'Daddy's girl' and sided with him on that, whereas the oldest cares more about a clean house than I do.
I think I've mentioned to you that my ex is now with his HS sweetheart, homecoming queen to his king, head cheerleader to his quarterback. You will forgive me for snickering that she is FAR bossier than I ever was. And my ex has been embarrassed when the youngest comes to visit and strews things everywhere, just like he told her doesn't matter. Although now that she lives with her partner, who's also messy, she's told her boyfriend she needs him to 'grow with her,' by which she means seeing what needs to be done.
I know we already agree on this, LoWa, but I wouldn't say people should do what they're good at. It was a constant trope from my ex that, since I was the one who cared how things looked, I should do more of the work to keep them that way. Or that because I enjoyed cooking, it wasn't work. (And the rebellion of buying Togo's or pizza on his nights to cook is also coming back to haunt him, in his worries about the youngest's sudden weight gain)
I know Mark has experienced very inverted gender roles and, to his credit, has appreciated the good that came along with the bad. But I think all men prefer a feminized environment, once they've found that. And Mark, in doing much of the caring work for his sons, and taking care of his own space in a way that's pleasing and aesthetic, has cultivated the feminine in himself.
And LoWa, you're going to live forever with those 40-min cold plunges. I toast you with my cocktail from my hot tub!
Also glad you liked the manual labour article! Katie has some other interesting articles on similar themes like “How Patriarchy Convinced Us That Women Contributed Little to Society” and “It’s Time for the ‘Weaker Sex’ Myth To Finally Die”.
Ohhhh we share a love of permaculture, so awesome!!! Chickens, ducks and rabbits, was the most I cared / culled for on animal front so am keen to learn about what to do for bigger animals. (Llama terrify me so I might give them a pass!). On a random note, have you ever had guinea pigs ? I hear they make great lawnmowers but haven’t tried it!
And yes it sounds like you also have done your fair share (more than fair!) of backbreaking farm and house work. I had forgotten that about your ex but you must be cackling all the way to Crone Island if his current partner is bossier and the youngest daughter is now embarrassing him 😅😂 You sound like an awesome HR director…now we just need to make sure you live for another hundred years and/or clone you so we know what to do to unf*ck everything (not to put yet more work into your shoulders!! Emotional and intellectual labour for another 100 years must not sound like a great idea at all…so maybe cloning is the better option!)
Yes I was just thinking something didn’t sound right about the doing what we are good at/like bit - I agree it gets weaponised by lazy men who say “Well you should take care of it all as you’re so good at it!” I think I could reframe that sentiment to “it’d be a whole lot more straightforward to get sh*t done around our permaculture paradise if we didn’t gender the tasks — as there SO much to do!!”
I’m planning to come back as a penguin in my next life. So I’m getting a head start with the cold plunges. 😂🐧 Can’t say a woman isn’t prepared!
We also raised rabbits. Which is how my youngest got dubbed by a boy in her class 'bunny killer.' Learning how to cull is when it gets real. I was determined not to have an old hen's home. Plus, you get the occasional rooster. Goddess save me from those people who want to find no-kill shelters for their roosters, where each one needs their private pen.
There are analogies I've drawn between males in domesticated animal herds and human males. As you know, one rooster or bull among 50 females is plenty. Not sure what that says about men.
We only had guinea pigs as starter-pets, a test two of the girls failed. The one who does take responsibility has never been interested in a pet. But we fostered bunnies for a ranch inbetween the time they were old enough to leave the mother but not old enough to cull. They made fine lawnmowers, especially since my ex always felt bad for them in their mobile pens. So we had the nightly activity of herding rabbits, fun for the whole family!
As a mom, it breaks my heart a little that my ex is embarrassed by the daughter who dotes on him. But life has a way of working itself out and I'm sure there are more plot twists in their story.
Thank you for all those sweet compliments in this and the prior comment ;-) I'm planning on a complete turnaround of the world within the next 20 years--so I'll be around to see it. Things feel like they're moving very, very fast.
Are you coming back as an Iowa penguin? When you subbed, I thought I got the joke in your name.
Oh I didn’t think of that - little blue penguins are my favourite. But I also like puffins and dolphins and kākāriki (red crowned parakeet) and wattlebirds and quokkas and…actually must confess I have a rather long list of animals I want to come back as!
Yes I managed to be very diplomatic in asking you about truth/ethics in a range of topics (abortion, meat eating, reparations…) off the back of one of your comments on Crow’s (now deleted) virus substack post…as my question wasn’t really about the issues but about whether we should apply ethical / moral principles consistently or if it depends on the facts. I suppose being Indian, people routinely assume I am vegetarian so it’s all good!
I was also a vegan once and then killed a chicken in Peru and never looked back! Lierre Keith’s book changed my perception a lot (I read this in the Amazon jungle would you believe it), as well as hanging out with fundamentalist vegans who shunned other friends who weren’t vegan, which put me off the whole thing. Denise Minger’s posts on Western A Price Foundation and her RawFoodSOS blog where she ripped all scientific studies on “meat causes cancer!” / “”sugar will kill you” to shreds (in a hilarious way) snapped me out of it too.
Not to mention feeling crazed around food. In my trauma phase I became less dogmatic about food and discovered this has a name — “intuitive eating”, which is also an anti-diet framework developed by some lovely ladies. I later read Anti-Diet by Christy Harrison which talked about the “life thief” of dieting and how it stole women’s time, happiness, health and money …keeping our heads full of body image concerns was a convenient way to ensure we never had headspace/ time/ energy to smash the patriarchy! (It’s a pity Harrison has been unable to apply her own rigorous analysis of the diet academic journals to the infectious disease journal papers in recent years…rather like Naomi Klein couldn’t apply her own shock doctrine analysis…)
It’s was so amazing a few years ago to find that peaceful relationship I had with food as a child. Nowadays I eat everything. Of course my tastes have changed as I started eating more and more organic so non-organic stuff just doesn’t appeal…but I don’t really berate myself for trying out some nice crackers and cheese or sausage rolls when out etc. And like everyone, I have my own likes and dislikes in terms of taste which are now no longer tied to diet fundamentalism (I have always disliked persimmons; I am a terrible Indian because I can’t handle much spice; I still haven’t found a way to make lamb/beef liver tasty…).
There’s a deeper philosophical question I explored when reading Japanese farmer Fukuoka’s One Straw Revolution about life and death and duality…that is a conversation for another time.
I was thinking you’d make a great PhD supervisor with all your excellent research and list of questions at the end of each chapter of your book… maybe you could be a Masters/PhD supervisor at somewhere like Gaia University? It’s supposed to be a “revolution disguised as a university”, all about “action-learning” and “reflective practice”, permaculture, systems change…right up your alley! Not sure if they were “awake” in recent years as I haven’t followed them closely.
What a well written and fascinating article! The Priory of Sion a female illuminati society!
I haven't finished it, but it's interesting too that it talks about the "Roman branch of the ancient Setian-Atonist "Black Lodge". So there is Set(h) coming back up again. I'll look forward to your analysis, if you're putting that online.
Goodness, deep research here. Absolutely fascinating.
(Frances Leader would love this, or perhaps she's already familiar).
My parents are Belfast-born, so especially nice to learn of Michael. Listened to an interview of his today and am very curious to understand the Druids in irishoriginsofcivilazation.com.
And Tereza "delivers" the "Mother" of all substacks - or at least for the dragon moms and the flying monkey (catz) moms...
You have such a gift - you are a gift, actually, you so often stir me (curse me) inspire me to look at my own life choices - and you pull out of me so much self-reflection.
I could write a book on this one - but I will share this stellar stack and add some comments rather than write a novel here in your comments section.
Thank you for this amazing post, such wisdom and sass...who doesn't love you madly?
Tsarion is an interesting character. He helped Whitehead with his series "Cult of the Medics" which is really good if you haven't seen it. I used to speak at UFO conferences and after one of my lectures Tsarion hunted me down and gave me a copy of The Dulce Papers...👀 👽 YIKES, since I had talked for almost two hours about some ETs -and Reptilian critters. We talked for hours. I've been meaning to give him a spanking for going behind a paywall in the midst of a worldwide democide...but I'd have to charge him for the spanking and he would obviously be a lousy tipper.
And please, never worry about stealing memes, no credit needed - ever...my snarky memes are your memes...
A really smart, fun and thought-provoking stack, and I'll have more to say when I repost it, otherwise I'll never shut up, and I have flying monkeys to tend to...
But, know that I love men too...such awesome alien creatures...I hate that they have been, and are still, taking such a beating...
When I got to "who doesn't love you madly?" I just had to hug myself. I knew that was the response you wanted to invoke ;-)
I can see why Tsarion would be drawn to you--who better exemplifies feminine on the outside and masculine reasoning, drive and research on the inside? If he stuck to the ideas he's critiquing and not the people, there are many places I think we'd agree (well, maybe not on the sexual strangulation ...)
I do see women, in particular, falling into 'muddy thinking' about how to take care of everyone. It's the wrong question--the right one is "How could we enable families and communities to take care of themselves?" But Tsarion doesn't ask either.
The first time I took a Worldanz class, she played the song "It's Raining Men" and I knew I was there to stay. Over the top, campy choreo. If there happens to be a man in class, he gets the adulation treatment. I do so wish for a world where we could just like each other and have fun again! Things have gotten much too serious.
Yep...that was a love bomb!!! And I do have a lot of masculine energy...I like it...
and over the top, campy...I get that...dance classes are always fun and empowering - and men do get special treatment at those type events...
things are pretty fukking serious right now, but we do like each other and we try to have as much fun as we can...while we can...memes help a lot...! Mwah!
Probably off-topic but... we're all children. Humans are just apes who never grow up.
Even our companions display considerable degree of neoteny if you compare them to their wild counterparts – dogs to wolves, cats to wild cats etc. Guinea pigs are probably the most childish of our domestic animals but that's likely a result of several thousand years of adverse self-selection.
Guinea pigs were domesticated long-long ago, according to some as early as 5000 BC. There are few trees in the Andean highlands, and it's somewhat hard to build a secure pen for such small animals. So over the time, all the smart and brave ones ran away, leaving only the stupid and timid behind.
This of course is just a hypothesis but to my knowledge there is no better explanation how they came to be.
From QE2, that I first found in 1980...I thought he wrote them both...surprise! Scroll comments in #2. Haz Empire & haz brazz... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJYVYZWTHYY
By 'these nuts' I was meaning the Tsarion dude...teacher (scuzi, la Professora) and therapist...do with them what you will...but please don't cancel Lady Diana Rigg for that Queen of Sin scene.
In my recent spate of extreme busy-ness compounded by pretty extreme bradycardia that has recently had me fainting, feeling dizzy and has disabled my effective walking, i somehow missed this.
There is too much here to comment on thumb-typing on a phone in a rough-riding Mexican city bus. I will consider more after re-reading. The misanthrope disguised as a social psychologist was extraordinarily funny, being so preposterous.
And I think Jordan and Janice have also largely missed the mark by settling into an odd kind of solution singularity I am more clearly seeing as the expression arising from mostly, I think, an unconscious belief in the necessity for an authoritarian structure. It doesn't matter if it has it roots in patriarchy or matriarchy however they are (mis)perceived or idolised or idealized as positives or negatives.
Absolutely compelling Tereza! You word it so well and so unabashed. Oh I could speak on this subject for hours! Shame about Michael Tsarion - I have always found him rather hubristic and rigid but haven't listened to him much. I want to start by defining feminism. Feminism is women jostling for a seat at the man's table. Whereas where we need to be now is men and women making a whole new table together. Women were never part of public or academic life. Men even coined the language. Everything we think such as "going to work" is man's perspective - women tend to not "go to work", women want to be with their children or families, in or near their home. It is treacherous for women to leave their infants and "go to work". That concept comes from males who want to get away from the noisy household as men find it difficult to juggle two things at the same time. So they create an atmosphere (the workplace) for themselves. Now women have incorporated into that framework.
Men were the only writers of bibles and constitutions. The very idea of writing it down then enforcing it upon others is totally a male's conception. Matrilinear societies just let people handle things for themselves and when problems arose, they would have meetings to solve the problem which is unique to everyone. Special consideration has to be given by considering merit. Whereas with male-made laws, rules just apply "across the board" regardless of justice and is jut another way for sociopaths to lord it over their fellows (when you don't obey the "law")
Men coined the language so we women don't even have a language that can describe our experiences and concepts. So virtually 50% of human wisdom is ignored, neglected and even scoffed at.
The idea of debt-based money and representative government is all male-conceived. Even the calendar is male-conceived and it is anathema to our functioning properly. It may seem insignificant but - just like they changed the calibration of music in the 40's from 432 hz to 440 hz - the calendar changes the calibration of our thinking by butting us out of our natural cycles. Every month has a different number of days. People don't realize how this affects us and that is as designed, like so many things that are done to us under our radar. The 13 moon calendar suits women's cycles, 12 months is an aberration from the natural.
Women were stuck in the past as they relied on men to give them a home and sustenance but now women do have enough sway to make changes. I don't know why women don't initiate something of our own, a currency, adopting a more rhythmic calendar, replacing laws with principles and something like "people's courts": The internet has brought women so many more options but we need to utilize these options and not just go along and continue to perpetrate the patriarchy - which is not even good for men, nor our habitat. Patriarchy wants to dominate everything and take for itself and that is anathema to what is natural. Talking about this is what will cause change and I salute you Tereza for being a splendid crackerjack in getting out these new and challenging ideas!
You put that so well, denise. My daughter and I were just talking about the stay-at-home dad and how, in her observation, the mom still ends up doing most of the parenting but from a distance.
In the comments to my Elizabeth Nickson article, Guy does an excellent job of analyzing how Canada became a profit-driven corporatocracy. And then in his follow-up comment, he changes it to a gynocratic gov't. I think this ugly clinical word has been invented because if you said the government was mother-centric or favored the feminine, at least half of society would laugh in your face. It's this word that makes no intuitive sense that confuses us long enough to not challenge it.
I've been reading Laurent Guyenot on Latin as an administrative language, that abbreviated and compressed meaning, cutting out all of the nuances and flavors of expressive mother tongues like Greek. It was meant for ruling, a perfect language for lawyers and accountants.
The religion completely erases women. Guyenot also presents this with a painting of a full-bodied Isis breastfeeding Horus, with him reaching for the nipple. So opposite the Virgin Mary.
Representative gov't by archons, check. Coinage and taxation, check. The court system--a great point that hadn't occurred to me but so true. Anthropology shows it.
Yes, I've also talked about the 13 month year making so much more sense but I didn't put it together with how our current system unhinges us from women's cycles. And the calibration of music--you're so right.
Is your podcast something that's already happening? If so, please post a link. I am very interested in continuing the conversation. I have no doubt that this is the pivotal issue on which the trajectory of the last 3500 yrs will finally turn.
Loving all of this Tereza. Your sharp wit, the memes, the convos here, and ultimately remembering that anything that pits us against each other is doing what it's supposed to - divide us and keep us busy fighting each other. A distraction.
I don't have much wise to say, other than two things I'm thinking about. One, I've rebelled against getting another advanced degree, even though I've been rather immersed in Internal Family Systems for over 10 years. I could have gone back to school to get a therapy license, I could have also gotten certified. But something in me HATES jumping through hoops now. And now i have two more trainings in energy work, and technically I'm "certified" in these, but what the heck is a certification? A shorthand for saying "TRUST ME"? You probably have a better way of saying this, something about it being built on an old system of designating the officially trustworthy people? Tell me why I feel so rebellious against degrees and certifications now?
And the other thing I'll add, not sure if it's actually relevant or not, but I just adore watching my 9 year old using his whole body for screaming with glee LETS GO!!!! It seems like healthy masculinity to me. I've also heard it described as healthy fight response in the nervous system - activating that kind of competitiveness for joy and energy. Which is something we can all use, it's not a gender thing, it's a healthy masculine energy thing. It inspires me to help my own nervous system and activation in this way - I need more healthy fight response.
Thanks so much, marta! I was just talking with my daughter Veronica about jumping through those hoops. For her, it's getting the supervised hours to be licensed. In California, it's upwards of 2000 hrs required, with one hr of supervision per 10, at an average rate of $100. So that's another $20K after you get the Master's and are working where you are doing counseling. And there are a lot of little bureaucratic rules to it. She's found ways to do it without the cost, mostly, but I think it's along the lines of what you're saying.
For her husband, after a year of looking for another job as a mechanical engineer, he decided to change paths rather than an expensive advanced degree in that. So he's now doing an intensive EMT program and looking at paramedic school in order to be more competitive as a firefighter--probably two years before he's employed.
My point is that we all want to do useful work for our communities. So they make those jobs increasingly out of reach by requiring more and more 'credentials'. What people will pay the most for is something that promises to give them a way to make money. And smart, young, hardworking, energetic, skilled people are flailing around, fulfilling requirements, rather than learning and working, doing the jobs we all want and need.
We have to change this. And YES on your son's whole body glee! What a great mom you are. It's how boys are, I hear it from every mom of boys. Definitely healthy masculinity.
Sheesh, those hoops upon hoops! So much money and time, just to keep on proving and proving, just for the privilege of getting a paper. We've all probably come across terrible therapists, who had the papers and certifications and yet were terrible and/or downright harmful. I wonder if all these hoops are part of "safetyism", trying to avoid harming people by more and more of the hoops, but ironically it's hurting us all because it keeps useful people from being on the ground and helping?
My son inspired me to enjoy the splash pad yesterday. I ran around with him and yelled and flexed my muscles and it helped me endure the cold water and enjoy myself!
Yes, I could mention one of those therapists who I hired because I wanted to improve my relationship with my middle daughter and was worried about her having an eating disorder. The therapist decided it was my fault because I was manipulative with my program where they earned money, and told her she thought she was a 9 out of 10 in looks and she could see her with an older man. This was HS.
The other daughters were indignant and wanted to tell the therapist why my system worked and it actually did turn things around because my middle daughter agreed.
But having other therapists to talk to about your confidential cases is a great thing. Veronica met with the 'bereavement babes' once a week, including a death doula and a somatic therapist. But they're all MFTs and she's a Social Work Master's. So they only allow so many hours to be with an MFT.
I think safetyism is just their PR tagline. They make money on all the education and certs, they make money by having the ability to talk to someone cost $150/ hr, and they make money from the insurances. It's a win-win-win--for them.
Gah, bad therapist stories! Love that it had a happy ending in a round about way.
Off topic - watching Niki Skye and her free video series. She mentions Yeshua being the real person we associate with the christ story, and that he was a "flame bearer" and was not actually crucified.
Sharing in case you are interested. And no pressure to watch or like it - I'm always impressed by the amount of content you are able to take in a discern and filter out in a cogent way!
I'll have to read this one again Tereza, so I can better understand it. I love the quote about dragon-slaying and waking up in the morning.
Unrelated, but may be interesting to you: I've made definitions of 'champion' and 'hero', in which 'champion' would be one who represents others, for example, the village selects a champion, to represent them. Thus, championship, which is not 'i'm the best', but to see who might be qualified. Hero on the other hand is an agent (as in agency, the nature of life) who does substantive things for others, not so different from a champion. But let's just say, that a hero/ine is one who slays monsters.
Here's the rhetorical question: would you/i rather be a hero among champions, or a champion among heroes? If you could only choose one, and adjust the context however.
Thanks shaqer. The word hero is one I've started to think of as another trick. It's used to indicate the one divinely appointed to rule in hierarchy. It's the earthly incarnation of god in Heiros gamos. Jerusalem was Hieropolis. Are hieroglyphics part of this?
So many of the laudatory (case in point) words we have subconsciously bow to the rulers. We say someone's intentions are noble or honorable, both terms granted by the king. We talk about 'regal bearing' even when most kings were rotund. It's actually hard to find words of praise that don't harken back.
And I think 'hero' may be a complete inversion. It took the sneaky and ruthless theocracy behind the throne and made them into the 'champions' of the people. And I'd bet that word too would have an etymological story behind it.
I didn't know that about the word hero. I always took it mean the simple storybook definition and never looked further i.e. "one who slays monsters", or "one who does incredible things".
Personally, I think I prefer hero among champions, rather than champion among heroes.
It's more egotistical maybe.
(Aside, I read somewhere that Jerusalem is _coincidentally_ a major city in Palestine/Canaan (and that the name Canaan actually applies to Syria in general, not just Palestine in the sense it is used today). Something about the sacking of another city, resulting in the growth of (what became) Jerusalem. I am certain of this. But I wouldn't trust a Zionist archaeologist / historian if any can be called archaeologist / historian, and I don't think any truly can.
Maybe, Jerusalem's providence is comparable to how 1200s CE Russia proper, other settlements were more vulnerable to raids compared to Muscovy, so that post-Mongol, Muscovy became a central city. A lot of what happens is random, I think.)
Excellent smack down. Tsarion has some wonderfully provocative theories (and his book on Astrotheology is highly recommended) but I find something about him very unpalatable.
Thank you, Isaac. There seems to be a lot of anger in Tsarion. More directed towards other men who don't live up to his standards than even towards women. Why say anyone 'just crawled out of the slime' or is 'fucking loathsome'? If I were to say those things about men, all three speakers would accuse me of man-bashing. And they'd be right!
Interesting concept of astrotheology--I'm not even sure what it means. I'll wait for you to explain the concepts in your stack, where I can get thorough research, clever word play and deep insight, all without putting anyone down (except in such a nuanced way we're left guessing--is slippery good or bad? ;-)
Astrotheology argues that Ancient religious/spiritual texts have their ultimate origins in the telling of the movement of the Skyclock (i.e. the birth of Jesus to a Virgin mother is an allusion to the interplay between the Sun and the Constellation of Virgo. "Astrotheology and Sidereal Mythology" is excellent at summarising that argument, however even then he can't help but to ridicule and speak down to anyone who interprets these stories as historical.
Well: we aren't even half way through the Slippery One's chart, but I would say for now that the only appropriate way to explore a highly ambiguous character is through similarly ambiguous means...
Ah, yes I have seen that before. It imparts a charming innocence to stories that were the justification for bloodshed, torture, enslavement and rule over all by divine right. Just a lovely bedtime story written in the stars that's been misunderstood for 2000 yrs. Not a vicious psyops at all that deified the most ruthless magalomaniacs (sic) and forced us to bow down to them.
I wonder why Tsarion doesn't apply the theory of astrotheology to the 'crimes of women in the OT'? He seems to take that literally, not as Virgo cavorting with the belt of Orion (is there a snake constellation?) Despite his ridicule of those who take the Bible as history, he seems to do the same when it suits his purpose.
I like it when you're fixin to get into trouble, Tereza.
And appreciate the summary of Tsarion's talk which I know I don't have the patience to listen to.
Too fun, very insightful, particularly when you include direct quote and then translate meaning. Ouch. And, yes!
I look forward to humanity growing up, so that these kinds of debates, and theories, steeped in bias and idiocy, are something we look back and at laugh about. Soon would be good.
Children surrounded by women surround by men - love it.
"Soon would be good." From your lips to dog's ears.
It always encourages my sass when I think of you listening, Kathleen. Isn't that you in the ten-gallon hat? It's just how I'd picture a pint-sized Kathleen, gumption and all.
😊 Oh, 'sass-encourager' is good. I'll put that up there with 'ambiance-elevator' which was (when I worked full time) often how I answered the question, 'what do you do?' with.
lol. It's such a great meme. I think we both have that pint-sized kid in us with that uncontainable spirit behind it.
The "Mommy Wars" are as dumb as all of the manufactured conflicts. They keep us at each other's throats instead of coming together to solve common problems. All of this nonsense derives from the absurd notion that there is any "right" way to be a male or a female. When so much of our experience is socially constructed and far removed from nature, all this stuff is just stuff we made up.
I also feel the rights and needs of children are often forgotten in these male-female oriented discussions, so I appreciate your summation, Tereza, which is relevant good advice that pertains to dozens of other divisive cultural issues: "Instead of berating other women, question the stories of superiority. Question the systems that serve a few at the expense of all of us. Especially question anything that doesn’t serve the children."
Katie! How excellent to have your mom wisdom gracing my 'stack!
Coming from a radical Christian perspective, like many of my favorite peeps, I think you'll get this reference. The liberation theologians say that everyone has a bias and it should always be stated. They have a 'preferential option for the poor.' My position is a 'preferential option for mothers.' I don't claim to be unbiased. My bias is that a society that serves mothers also serves the children, and that should be our priority.
You may have already heard my definition of tonic masculinity as a society that puts children at the center, surrounded by women, surrounded by men.
And yes, it didn't occur to me until later that Michael had endorsed the #1 story and #1 system of patriarchy: the OT and capitalism, while saying that we've never had a patriarchal society.
Thanks for your clarity!
“…a society that serves the mothers also serves the children” resonates real hard with me. Just like any polarity based conversations, I don’t particularly like to lean into what ‘archy’ would make the better leader, there are strengths and weaknesses in both genders, and both masculinity and femininity leaves inside every human. And if we’re bonded to our gender trauma, we will pass it on to the next generation.
Being a mom to three boys does put some things in perspective tho- what can I teach them that I’ve learned didn’t serve me as a woman so they don’t inflict that damage on the girls they have in their lives down the line.
Your video made me lol a few times. Gonna go back now and see them memes.
Those are some memes worth stealing, eh? The cat head was really a stretch to make work but how could I resist? And the deviled egg? I've tried to tell people the vertebrae one and they both said, 'That sounds like a chiropractor meme.' Without getting to see that little face and imagine it holding you up, it just doesn't translate.
Someone pointed out awhile ago to me that matriarchy is just another archy--a word that means archons or rulers. I wonder sometimes if the Matrix movie was a way of discrediting that word. It made a mother-network into the false 'reality' while the 'real' one was vicious and ugly. Especially since learning both Kohn brothers transitioned into women.
It felt good to let the snark fly on this. But every one of the speakers had a kernel of truth. Our compassion has been weaponized or, as I titled one video, Is Our Love Being Pimped for Profit? The feminist movement has been turned into an academic bludgeon against men. And children do belong with their mothers and to their mothers. Nothing makes that clearer than the series I'm working on called Courting Abuse, looking at the legal system.
Hannah, in the interview, talks about her son being happiest running into things and yelling, "Hulk smash!" I didn't experience that side of parenting but I agree with her that our sedentary school system is counter to male energy--and kid energy in general, but boys even more so.
Thats the main reason one of the twins just can’t do institutionalized school. He tried it. He barely lasted two weeks. Simply couldn’t understand why they make you sit still and listen to someone yell at ya day in and day out. I actually need to go back and watch Hannah’s link.
Interesting about Matrix holding etymology from matriarchy. I’m one of Mathew Crawford’s pieces he introduces the word ‘maitreya’ which translates to ‘Messiah’ or something akin to that and it made me think it could be the root for Matrix as well.
The deviled egg made me giggle. So clever.
I agree with the twin who can't sit still. I'm incapable of listening to a lecture these days. I have to be doing something with my hands or I go stir-crazy. In my deschooling vision, farm chores or painting or building is done while listening to some talk--could be ear buds or a radio. Others prepare lunch. And everyone talks about it while they're eating.
Matri just means mother. So matrix is the simpler form. The archons were all male by definition so 'matriarchy' is really a contradiction in terms.
So interesting about maitreya as the future Bodhisattva or Buddha. And curious that's still referred to as 'he.' I'm working on a collab with Amy, the AI genie-us, for my next feminine post on Round Body Advocate. She's come up with some stunning images, turning my ideas into prompts. I was just thinking that I wanted to do a female Buddha. And here you are, giving me a name for her! One that clearly means Mother ;-)
Oooo, Im looking to read about that! You’re right, why is it a “he”?!?
Your deschooling vision very closely resembles mine. Right before covid, a few friends and I had started doing intense research on purchasing land to start an intentional community where we can have our kids roam nature and learn from one another and us adults would impart our knowledge in an apprenticeship type setting. Of course, those ended up being some of the same people that went hard on the vax and I can help but think that I would have so gotten voted off the island.
I’m excited to read your book, because you speak of fiefdoms and I’m interested in these kinds of parallel societies where the community is integrated and works together to achieve common goals. Throughout my research in seeing how other intentional communities have succeeded or failed, I noticed a pattern: usually religious or faith based communities survived longer and had better relations. It would appear that if the community had a higher goal or commonality that brought them together, they were more likely to weather through internal storms.
Sorry, that’s a bit off topic, but I’m just catching up to my digital life today and it’s what your response brought out of me.
Gonna shut up now and await yours and Amy’s collab. 🙌
Enough with the male vs female nonsense -- it's just bear baiting, and I refuse to engage anymore.
PS LOVE the devilled egg!!
Ope! Stole a few!
😊Thanks for the nuanced explanation. As currently configured, yes, women and children have been abandoned by our society and left to the capitalist wolves.
To realize a healthy and productive future for our grandchildren, our priorities would need to change radically. If we truly valued healthy human development, it would only make sense that children would be cared for and protected as you describe, in concentric circles of both female and male community members.
For sure, matriarchy is certainly no guarantee of achieving a kinder, gentler, more sane society; a certain feminist ideology is not only condescending, myopic and self serving, as you so snarkily describe, but can be downright hostile towards children.
Yes! I want no 'archies' at all. My image of the matrix is the honeycomb, with the purpose of communities being to support families. My economic model is an-archist, rule by rules, not rulers. So it gives the most possible freedom of choice within a design that keeps things fair. It's like raising kids to be responsible adults, but scaling it up to a community--backed by the intergenerational legacy of housing.
"Real men sleep in caves with a rock for a pillow."
Damn! I knew I was doing something wrong! Thanks for the correction.
Despite the plethora of manly virtues displayed in your last post on cabin construction, your admission that your ex was handier with a hammer than you permanently disqualifies you as a masculine male on the Tsarion scale. The best you can hope for is chivalric. But at least you're not a 'crawled out of the slime' feminine male or a 'fucking loathsome soy boy.' You need to practice your disdain of all women and most other men if you're going to climb that ladder.
But on the 'rock for pillow' scale, Gan from my 3P YT writes, "I do prefer a cave & rock pillow to big brother/nanny state city's" and goes on to say his combat saber club made the front page of the local paper and his pole dancing studio has introduced blacklight roller (skate) pole. So I think you need to include these in your new hobbies, along with taking the long (and hard) way round ;-)
Yes, I do think my ex was pretty awesome in many ways, especially in the hard work she did with me building that house, and the epic backpacking trips she did: the AT (twice), the PCT, the CDT, the Long Trail (twice). The fact that she was also verbally abusive doesn't change that.
I actually may be able to do this cave + rock pillow thing. I have some great rocks here, and this being Gold Country, there are plenty of abandoned mines in the area that could work as caves. Not sure about the pole dancing, though -- too old for that now.
I love that about you, Mark, that you didn't need to throw out everything that was good about your ex while getting out of range of the verbal abuse. It's a very nuanced view that gives you credit for what drew you to her, at the same time as crediting her.
I laughed so much throughout this piece. The men with a rock pillow just killed me. And the anatomy lesson, and the “master baiters” pun, oh so many great parts.
Just want to say HOW COOL that women are learning construction skills!! I too would like to build my dream tiny house one day. Alas I have few construction skills to speak of but am hoping my female friend doing an apprenticeship can teach me a thing or two. Which would basically make me the first meme in your article…just a little older.
You might like this interesting article on women historically doing quite a bit of heavy lifting / manual labour: https://open.substack.com/pub/thenoosphere/p/women-have-always-done-societys-heavy?r=qdiky&utm_medium=ios
I know the anarchist dream is often about living out in the woods with some chooks, pigs, and vegetables - homesteading - and a bizarre fantasy that women “won’t work” in this situation but…I have lived on many an organic farm in the middle of nowhere (including the Amazon and Andes might I add), and it is ALL hands on deck from dawn to dusk! Everyone works. There is plenty of backbreaking work to do and women and men alike do it…on top of raising kids, cooking meals, endless cleaning, chasing chickens (in my case, also chasing escaped llama), fixing up the house, and earning some extra moolah (women and men doing this!) through paid work to get the supplies in, tools, etc. I did all this as well as occasionally insane backbreaking projects like trying to build a hydroelectric vortex in the Amazon for getting some electricity, managing a 25Ha tropical highlands farm by myself, building greywater systems, turning a three ton compost pile every two days, hauling loads of produce around the village markets to sell, and climbing mountains for field work (mountain parrots).
I am baffled that “manual labour” and doing literally anything outside the home is considered “masculine” when it’s just basic stuff everyone needs to do when living out in the bush..But nothing women do is work because women’s work doesn’t count because women don’t count…
And *while* doing those things in communities or homesteads in the wild, I taught nonviolent communication by candlelight, taught partner acrobatics and dance, facilitated workshops, ran cooking classes, organised picnics, taught songs, did arty things, ran community conflict resolution processes, deep cleaned and reorganised the interior literally everywhere I went…what one might consider “feminine” things but things that I did working alongside men and women alike.
I don’t get why tasks like the ones I noted above get coded “feminine” and “masculine” — it’d be better if we stopped categorising them and just let people get on with what they like to do, what they’re good at, what they want to learn, etc.
Lol, I sometimes wonder if men like Tsarion and women like Nixon / Fiamengo have ever *stepped* in a modern day office? All the moral panic and handwringing about pantsuit power women indicates to me neither has any clue what modern day office work is like - women are still *very much* expected to be all nicey nice, kind, smile, not hurt anyone’s feelings, not nag anyone for meeting deadlines, buy the presents for the colleague who’s leaving, organise the cake for the colleague with the birthday, clean up after everyone (because everyone is endlessly leaving their cups lying around), do extra unpaid emotional labour on top of their day jobs, spend endless hours doing hair and makeup and looking pretty every day, do menial administrative tasks that the guy can’t be bothered with because he wants to focus on “strategic” work etc etc. All traditionally “feminine” tasks. And any woman who doesn’t have a constantly kind warm nicey nice facial expression 24/7 is seen as a b**ch even if she’s just concentrating on something for two seconds.
Female colleagues I’ve worked with in office settings have by and large been lovely, loving, bubbly, kind, caring, empathetic, supportive and amazing human beings I love to go to work to see. Sure there is the odd lady who is stoic and just wants to get the job done, and the odd “scary” female manager (only scary because she doesn’t smile; whereas a man who doesn’t smile isn’t automatically considered scary!) but certainly exceptions to the rule and not present in any greater numbers than in the general population.
Female employees and managers have transformed workplaces to value care work and have been amazing at letting mothers be more flexible with work, take time off for kids, always checking in about wellbeing and happiness (it’s not all about productivity!!), emphasising putting people first and work second, role modelling good habits like leaving on time to be with family and championing more junior women’s ideas and thought leadership even when men continue to steal the ideas (Eisenstein lol), valuing women’s work and ensuring they are fairly paid for it, encouraging men to pick up more of the “care” work around the office (buy a prezzie for the colleague we all love who’s leaving! Organise the card getting around us all to sign and the whole farewell afternoon tea AND cleanup afterwards!), passing on their advice and wisdom to younger generations of junior staff, helping women who get stuck in difficult employment related situations, role modelling that it’s ok not to wear mega-glam makeup as it’s the work that matters, advocating for private spaces at workplaces for breastfeeding, and for policies that allow for longer leave without pay so women can take more time off and still have some job security without feeling they will be looked down upon after a period of absence from work etc etc
While I would like to see office jobs become increasingly less necessary and I too would like to go back to frolicking in the woods with my machete (while dismantling the empire and capitalism and all that)…I do think the narrative of “women shouldn’t work because they become more like men” is both laughable and simplistic and utterly wrong. If anything, women have to be even MORE “feminine” to survive in the workplace and the caring of women has made office life more bearable (and even enjoyable) for people like me who can’t afford to buy a piece of land in the wilderness and build everything from scratch right this minute.
I’ve worked with amazing female scientists, lawyers, engineers, athletes, economists, who totally get the system is f***ed and are also doing their best to install care values wherever they go…and maybe if we all read your book Tereza, we will figure out how to get ourselves out of this mess!
Just because a woman work on geopolitics, finance or economics doesn’t make her a cold-hearted “masculine “ women. (Like the lovely Tereza!)
Just because a woman is in academia doesn’t make her a masculine woman. (Tereza should have a PhD for all the great research!)
Just because a woman “works” for “pay” (*gasp! Oh my!!*) doesn’t make her masculine. Even in corporate environments.
Just because she does manual labour doesn’t make her more masculine.
Men’s problem isn’t that women are becoming more masculine (aka more uncaring) the more that women work.
(This is patently not true as women do a TON of care work inside and outside the home regardless of whether they work for pay.)
Men’s problem is that women aren’t caring *for them* and aren’t picking up men’s socks and vacuuming under their behinds and keeping kids happy and healthy…because it’s more convenient for men to have a “women appliance” who does all that free work at home so he can buy his free time with her exhaustion.
Rather than asking, “what can I do to make relationships worth staying in,” men like Tsarion dismiss the “feminised” man (I.e. the man who actually cares about his partner) and wonders why women don’t want to live in loveless, uncaring, exploitative slave labour arrangements, isolated and made to feel inferior at home, and why we would prefer the “village” of caring women literally everywhere else (whether it’s university or jobs or hobbies or friendships or…women’s lands!! (Look them up!))
I agree Tereza that the solution is to get men to do more of the care work. The revolution starts at home, and indeed, the personal is political. And all that said, I would like to learn a few more manual tasks like basic bike and car repairs, home repairs, building stuff. And one day learn hunting and fishing. And more about finance. This might sound like “manly” tasks but it’s also care work - caring for my bike, car, etc. I refuse to believe these are things I should *never* learn because I’m a woman - I was always good at maths, science and economics and a martial art, and nowadays take immense pleasure in beating the boys in my one and only mildly competitive activity of cold plunges at 41 degrees Fahrenheit/ 5 degrees C. It is supremely satisfying to see cocky men panic, hyperventilate and leap out again while I sit around for 30-40 minutes chatting away with anyone who can sustain a conversation while the “manly” men’s testicles freeze. Who said we need men’s jackets and can’t handle the cold…women are leading the leaderboard atm and possibly only two men have broken my record so far at the local plunge pool.
And anyway, if it does get cold at night, that’s what hot water bottles are for. They are easy to maintain, don’t complain, can be thrown out of the bed anytime, and don’t snore. 😂😂
Just when I think I can't admire you more, LoWa, you come out with THIS! Triple, quadruple Likes!
My neighbors have told me that I was the busiest, hardest-working non-employed person they've known. I went deep into permaculture and animal husbandry on my little urban farmlet here. I don't regret that, or making sure my daughters were involved, but I'm so happy to not have chickens in my Coop deVille for the first time in 15 yrs. I was just thinking that my dozen+ fruit trees keep me debugging, cleaning up, harvesting, giving away and using up what isn't good enough to give away. The mail lady is practically hacking her way through the jungle, but I asked her yesterday if she minded and she said she loves it. But I do think longingly of buying a couple perfect fruit from the farmer's market every week and not having the burden of abundance.
Yes, I created the feminine in the two companies where I was the Dir of HR, including Borland where Mark and I both worked at different times. My specialty has been empowering women to do what they didn't think they could. I excel at appreciating people, and have turned that into a system that ripples out.
One time when my ex- was on a business call, one of the girls needed him. The woman he was talking to said "Don't you dare apologize. This is why we do what we do!" It meant a lot to him to have her say that so clearly.
My oldest said recently that, looking back, I was always consistent and her dad was not. I had a system for making sure everyone participated in the housework and he was always looking for shortcuts. The youngest was 'Daddy's girl' and sided with him on that, whereas the oldest cares more about a clean house than I do.
I think I've mentioned to you that my ex is now with his HS sweetheart, homecoming queen to his king, head cheerleader to his quarterback. You will forgive me for snickering that she is FAR bossier than I ever was. And my ex has been embarrassed when the youngest comes to visit and strews things everywhere, just like he told her doesn't matter. Although now that she lives with her partner, who's also messy, she's told her boyfriend she needs him to 'grow with her,' by which she means seeing what needs to be done.
I know we already agree on this, LoWa, but I wouldn't say people should do what they're good at. It was a constant trope from my ex that, since I was the one who cared how things looked, I should do more of the work to keep them that way. Or that because I enjoyed cooking, it wasn't work. (And the rebellion of buying Togo's or pizza on his nights to cook is also coming back to haunt him, in his worries about the youngest's sudden weight gain)
I know Mark has experienced very inverted gender roles and, to his credit, has appreciated the good that came along with the bad. But I think all men prefer a feminized environment, once they've found that. And Mark, in doing much of the caring work for his sons, and taking care of his own space in a way that's pleasing and aesthetic, has cultivated the feminine in himself.
And LoWa, you're going to live forever with those 40-min cold plunges. I toast you with my cocktail from my hot tub!
Also glad you liked the manual labour article! Katie has some other interesting articles on similar themes like “How Patriarchy Convinced Us That Women Contributed Little to Society” and “It’s Time for the ‘Weaker Sex’ Myth To Finally Die”.
One piece that made me very happy recently was this one on women in computing - without these badass ladies who “cracked the code”, you and I might not be communicating at distance! https://open.substack.com/pub/eliseunleashed/p/fcking-brilliant-totally-forgotten?r=qdiky&utm_medium=ios I only just discovered Elise’s substack a few days ago and it’s sharp and brilliant.
I’m saving these up in my arsenal of stacks for the men who claim, “But men built everything!”
Ohhhh we share a love of permaculture, so awesome!!! Chickens, ducks and rabbits, was the most I cared / culled for on animal front so am keen to learn about what to do for bigger animals. (Llama terrify me so I might give them a pass!). On a random note, have you ever had guinea pigs ? I hear they make great lawnmowers but haven’t tried it!
And yes it sounds like you also have done your fair share (more than fair!) of backbreaking farm and house work. I had forgotten that about your ex but you must be cackling all the way to Crone Island if his current partner is bossier and the youngest daughter is now embarrassing him 😅😂 You sound like an awesome HR director…now we just need to make sure you live for another hundred years and/or clone you so we know what to do to unf*ck everything (not to put yet more work into your shoulders!! Emotional and intellectual labour for another 100 years must not sound like a great idea at all…so maybe cloning is the better option!)
Yes I was just thinking something didn’t sound right about the doing what we are good at/like bit - I agree it gets weaponised by lazy men who say “Well you should take care of it all as you’re so good at it!” I think I could reframe that sentiment to “it’d be a whole lot more straightforward to get sh*t done around our permaculture paradise if we didn’t gender the tasks — as there SO much to do!!”
I’m planning to come back as a penguin in my next life. So I’m getting a head start with the cold plunges. 😂🐧 Can’t say a woman isn’t prepared!
Oh I thought you were vegetarian from one of your comments. And I can't remember if I refrained or not from sending you this: https://thirdparadigm.substack.com/p/animal-husbandry-is-the-new-vegetarian.
We also raised rabbits. Which is how my youngest got dubbed by a boy in her class 'bunny killer.' Learning how to cull is when it gets real. I was determined not to have an old hen's home. Plus, you get the occasional rooster. Goddess save me from those people who want to find no-kill shelters for their roosters, where each one needs their private pen.
There are analogies I've drawn between males in domesticated animal herds and human males. As you know, one rooster or bull among 50 females is plenty. Not sure what that says about men.
We only had guinea pigs as starter-pets, a test two of the girls failed. The one who does take responsibility has never been interested in a pet. But we fostered bunnies for a ranch inbetween the time they were old enough to leave the mother but not old enough to cull. They made fine lawnmowers, especially since my ex always felt bad for them in their mobile pens. So we had the nightly activity of herding rabbits, fun for the whole family!
As a mom, it breaks my heart a little that my ex is embarrassed by the daughter who dotes on him. But life has a way of working itself out and I'm sure there are more plot twists in their story.
Thank you for all those sweet compliments in this and the prior comment ;-) I'm planning on a complete turnaround of the world within the next 20 years--so I'll be around to see it. Things feel like they're moving very, very fast.
Are you coming back as an Iowa penguin? When you subbed, I thought I got the joke in your name.
Oh I didn’t think of that - little blue penguins are my favourite. But I also like puffins and dolphins and kākāriki (red crowned parakeet) and wattlebirds and quokkas and…actually must confess I have a rather long list of animals I want to come back as!
Yes I managed to be very diplomatic in asking you about truth/ethics in a range of topics (abortion, meat eating, reparations…) off the back of one of your comments on Crow’s (now deleted) virus substack post…as my question wasn’t really about the issues but about whether we should apply ethical / moral principles consistently or if it depends on the facts. I suppose being Indian, people routinely assume I am vegetarian so it’s all good!
I was also a vegan once and then killed a chicken in Peru and never looked back! Lierre Keith’s book changed my perception a lot (I read this in the Amazon jungle would you believe it), as well as hanging out with fundamentalist vegans who shunned other friends who weren’t vegan, which put me off the whole thing. Denise Minger’s posts on Western A Price Foundation and her RawFoodSOS blog where she ripped all scientific studies on “meat causes cancer!” / “”sugar will kill you” to shreds (in a hilarious way) snapped me out of it too.
Not to mention feeling crazed around food. In my trauma phase I became less dogmatic about food and discovered this has a name — “intuitive eating”, which is also an anti-diet framework developed by some lovely ladies. I later read Anti-Diet by Christy Harrison which talked about the “life thief” of dieting and how it stole women’s time, happiness, health and money …keeping our heads full of body image concerns was a convenient way to ensure we never had headspace/ time/ energy to smash the patriarchy! (It’s a pity Harrison has been unable to apply her own rigorous analysis of the diet academic journals to the infectious disease journal papers in recent years…rather like Naomi Klein couldn’t apply her own shock doctrine analysis…)
It’s was so amazing a few years ago to find that peaceful relationship I had with food as a child. Nowadays I eat everything. Of course my tastes have changed as I started eating more and more organic so non-organic stuff just doesn’t appeal…but I don’t really berate myself for trying out some nice crackers and cheese or sausage rolls when out etc. And like everyone, I have my own likes and dislikes in terms of taste which are now no longer tied to diet fundamentalism (I have always disliked persimmons; I am a terrible Indian because I can’t handle much spice; I still haven’t found a way to make lamb/beef liver tasty…).
There’s a deeper philosophical question I explored when reading Japanese farmer Fukuoka’s One Straw Revolution about life and death and duality…that is a conversation for another time.
I was thinking you’d make a great PhD supervisor with all your excellent research and list of questions at the end of each chapter of your book… maybe you could be a Masters/PhD supervisor at somewhere like Gaia University? It’s supposed to be a “revolution disguised as a university”, all about “action-learning” and “reflective practice”, permaculture, systems change…right up your alley! Not sure if they were “awake” in recent years as I haven’t followed them closely.
“I am permanently morally outraged, which doesn’t require me to be logical.”
SNAP! Incredible that a friend just invited me to join him in reading and analysing this …
• The Female Illuminati & Other Secret Societies (Article 1 of 8)
https://www.femaleilluminati.com/article-1.html
So I blame Yolande de Anjou (Duchess of Lorraine) and the Order of Sion.
What a well written and fascinating article! The Priory of Sion a female illuminati society!
I haven't finished it, but it's interesting too that it talks about the "Roman branch of the ancient Setian-Atonist "Black Lodge". So there is Set(h) coming back up again. I'll look forward to your analysis, if you're putting that online.
Goodness, deep research here. Absolutely fascinating.
(Frances Leader would love this, or perhaps she's already familiar).
My parents are Belfast-born, so especially nice to learn of Michael. Listened to an interview of his today and am very curious to understand the Druids in irishoriginsofcivilazation.com.
You're a finder of gems :-)
Thank you (as well as Tereza).
Small change in the spelling brought it up: https://www.irishoriginsofcivilization.com/.
Interesting site!
Oops! Ty
I am going to absorb what I can and not form any opinions just yet.
“Listen to everyone, read everything; believe absolutely nothing unless you can prove it in your own right!” - Milton William Cooper
• William Cooper (Hour of the Time) Collection
https://www.hourofthetime.com/milton-william-bill-cooper-mp3-collection/
And Tereza "delivers" the "Mother" of all substacks - or at least for the dragon moms and the flying monkey (catz) moms...
You have such a gift - you are a gift, actually, you so often stir me (curse me) inspire me to look at my own life choices - and you pull out of me so much self-reflection.
I could write a book on this one - but I will share this stellar stack and add some comments rather than write a novel here in your comments section.
Thank you for this amazing post, such wisdom and sass...who doesn't love you madly?
Tsarion is an interesting character. He helped Whitehead with his series "Cult of the Medics" which is really good if you haven't seen it. I used to speak at UFO conferences and after one of my lectures Tsarion hunted me down and gave me a copy of The Dulce Papers...👀 👽 YIKES, since I had talked for almost two hours about some ETs -and Reptilian critters. We talked for hours. I've been meaning to give him a spanking for going behind a paywall in the midst of a worldwide democide...but I'd have to charge him for the spanking and he would obviously be a lousy tipper.
And please, never worry about stealing memes, no credit needed - ever...my snarky memes are your memes...
A really smart, fun and thought-provoking stack, and I'll have more to say when I repost it, otherwise I'll never shut up, and I have flying monkeys to tend to...
But, know that I love men too...such awesome alien creatures...I hate that they have been, and are still, taking such a beating...
Here's to the cabana boyz in our lives...🍸
thx again...just great! 💖💞
When I got to "who doesn't love you madly?" I just had to hug myself. I knew that was the response you wanted to invoke ;-)
I can see why Tsarion would be drawn to you--who better exemplifies feminine on the outside and masculine reasoning, drive and research on the inside? If he stuck to the ideas he's critiquing and not the people, there are many places I think we'd agree (well, maybe not on the sexual strangulation ...)
I do see women, in particular, falling into 'muddy thinking' about how to take care of everyone. It's the wrong question--the right one is "How could we enable families and communities to take care of themselves?" But Tsarion doesn't ask either.
The first time I took a Worldanz class, she played the song "It's Raining Men" and I knew I was there to stay. Over the top, campy choreo. If there happens to be a man in class, he gets the adulation treatment. I do so wish for a world where we could just like each other and have fun again! Things have gotten much too serious.
Can't wait to read your stack!
Yep...that was a love bomb!!! And I do have a lot of masculine energy...I like it...
and over the top, campy...I get that...dance classes are always fun and empowering - and men do get special treatment at those type events...
things are pretty fukking serious right now, but we do like each other and we try to have as much fun as we can...while we can...memes help a lot...! Mwah!
Probably off-topic but... we're all children. Humans are just apes who never grow up.
Even our companions display considerable degree of neoteny if you compare them to their wild counterparts – dogs to wolves, cats to wild cats etc. Guinea pigs are probably the most childish of our domestic animals but that's likely a result of several thousand years of adverse self-selection.
Adverse self-selection! Meaning that they're bred as pets because they lack the intelligence of rats to live free and have humans serve them?
I just mentioned today's cartoon of yours to Kevin Barrett, who had an excellent piece of satire: https://kevinbarrett.substack.com/p/nyt-urges-biden-to-die-run-as-corpse
Guinea pigs were domesticated long-long ago, according to some as early as 5000 BC. There are few trees in the Andean highlands, and it's somewhat hard to build a secure pen for such small animals. So over the time, all the smart and brave ones ran away, leaving only the stupid and timid behind.
This of course is just a hypothesis but to my knowledge there is no better explanation how they came to be.
To quote King Ferdinand, "Isabella, when are you gonna quit fooling around with these nuts?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qiqdb518wZ8 (If you stop at 3:19 in, you'll miss the musical #.) www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAQE36oX-8s www.youtube.com/watch?v=saZIl-VHbvw
From QE2, that I first found in 1980...I thought he wrote them both...surprise! Scroll comments in #2. Haz Empire & haz brazz... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJYVYZWTHYY
By 'these nuts' I was meaning the Tsarion dude...teacher (scuzi, la Professora) and therapist...do with them what you will...but please don't cancel Lady Diana Rigg for that Queen of Sin scene.
Excellent Tereza 🏆
Listened throughout with a smile :-)
Glad to have made you smile, Pauline, and even chuckle ;-)
Hola.
In my recent spate of extreme busy-ness compounded by pretty extreme bradycardia that has recently had me fainting, feeling dizzy and has disabled my effective walking, i somehow missed this.
There is too much here to comment on thumb-typing on a phone in a rough-riding Mexican city bus. I will consider more after re-reading. The misanthrope disguised as a social psychologist was extraordinarily funny, being so preposterous.
And I think Jordan and Janice have also largely missed the mark by settling into an odd kind of solution singularity I am more clearly seeing as the expression arising from mostly, I think, an unconscious belief in the necessity for an authoritarian structure. It doesn't matter if it has it roots in patriarchy or matriarchy however they are (mis)perceived or idolised or idealized as positives or negatives.
Another provocative and helpful read.
Absolutely compelling Tereza! You word it so well and so unabashed. Oh I could speak on this subject for hours! Shame about Michael Tsarion - I have always found him rather hubristic and rigid but haven't listened to him much. I want to start by defining feminism. Feminism is women jostling for a seat at the man's table. Whereas where we need to be now is men and women making a whole new table together. Women were never part of public or academic life. Men even coined the language. Everything we think such as "going to work" is man's perspective - women tend to not "go to work", women want to be with their children or families, in or near their home. It is treacherous for women to leave their infants and "go to work". That concept comes from males who want to get away from the noisy household as men find it difficult to juggle two things at the same time. So they create an atmosphere (the workplace) for themselves. Now women have incorporated into that framework.
Men were the only writers of bibles and constitutions. The very idea of writing it down then enforcing it upon others is totally a male's conception. Matrilinear societies just let people handle things for themselves and when problems arose, they would have meetings to solve the problem which is unique to everyone. Special consideration has to be given by considering merit. Whereas with male-made laws, rules just apply "across the board" regardless of justice and is jut another way for sociopaths to lord it over their fellows (when you don't obey the "law")
Men coined the language so we women don't even have a language that can describe our experiences and concepts. So virtually 50% of human wisdom is ignored, neglected and even scoffed at.
The idea of debt-based money and representative government is all male-conceived. Even the calendar is male-conceived and it is anathema to our functioning properly. It may seem insignificant but - just like they changed the calibration of music in the 40's from 432 hz to 440 hz - the calendar changes the calibration of our thinking by butting us out of our natural cycles. Every month has a different number of days. People don't realize how this affects us and that is as designed, like so many things that are done to us under our radar. The 13 moon calendar suits women's cycles, 12 months is an aberration from the natural.
Women were stuck in the past as they relied on men to give them a home and sustenance but now women do have enough sway to make changes. I don't know why women don't initiate something of our own, a currency, adopting a more rhythmic calendar, replacing laws with principles and something like "people's courts": The internet has brought women so many more options but we need to utilize these options and not just go along and continue to perpetrate the patriarchy - which is not even good for men, nor our habitat. Patriarchy wants to dominate everything and take for itself and that is anathema to what is natural. Talking about this is what will cause change and I salute you Tereza for being a splendid crackerjack in getting out these new and challenging ideas!
You put that so well, denise. My daughter and I were just talking about the stay-at-home dad and how, in her observation, the mom still ends up doing most of the parenting but from a distance.
In the comments to my Elizabeth Nickson article, Guy does an excellent job of analyzing how Canada became a profit-driven corporatocracy. And then in his follow-up comment, he changes it to a gynocratic gov't. I think this ugly clinical word has been invented because if you said the government was mother-centric or favored the feminine, at least half of society would laugh in your face. It's this word that makes no intuitive sense that confuses us long enough to not challenge it.
I've been reading Laurent Guyenot on Latin as an administrative language, that abbreviated and compressed meaning, cutting out all of the nuances and flavors of expressive mother tongues like Greek. It was meant for ruling, a perfect language for lawyers and accountants.
The religion completely erases women. Guyenot also presents this with a painting of a full-bodied Isis breastfeeding Horus, with him reaching for the nipple. So opposite the Virgin Mary.
Representative gov't by archons, check. Coinage and taxation, check. The court system--a great point that hadn't occurred to me but so true. Anthropology shows it.
Yes, I've also talked about the 13 month year making so much more sense but I didn't put it together with how our current system unhinges us from women's cycles. And the calibration of music--you're so right.
Is your podcast something that's already happening? If so, please post a link. I am very interested in continuing the conversation. I have no doubt that this is the pivotal issue on which the trajectory of the last 3500 yrs will finally turn.
Loving all of this Tereza. Your sharp wit, the memes, the convos here, and ultimately remembering that anything that pits us against each other is doing what it's supposed to - divide us and keep us busy fighting each other. A distraction.
I don't have much wise to say, other than two things I'm thinking about. One, I've rebelled against getting another advanced degree, even though I've been rather immersed in Internal Family Systems for over 10 years. I could have gone back to school to get a therapy license, I could have also gotten certified. But something in me HATES jumping through hoops now. And now i have two more trainings in energy work, and technically I'm "certified" in these, but what the heck is a certification? A shorthand for saying "TRUST ME"? You probably have a better way of saying this, something about it being built on an old system of designating the officially trustworthy people? Tell me why I feel so rebellious against degrees and certifications now?
And the other thing I'll add, not sure if it's actually relevant or not, but I just adore watching my 9 year old using his whole body for screaming with glee LETS GO!!!! It seems like healthy masculinity to me. I've also heard it described as healthy fight response in the nervous system - activating that kind of competitiveness for joy and energy. Which is something we can all use, it's not a gender thing, it's a healthy masculine energy thing. It inspires me to help my own nervous system and activation in this way - I need more healthy fight response.
Thanks so much, marta! I was just talking with my daughter Veronica about jumping through those hoops. For her, it's getting the supervised hours to be licensed. In California, it's upwards of 2000 hrs required, with one hr of supervision per 10, at an average rate of $100. So that's another $20K after you get the Master's and are working where you are doing counseling. And there are a lot of little bureaucratic rules to it. She's found ways to do it without the cost, mostly, but I think it's along the lines of what you're saying.
For her husband, after a year of looking for another job as a mechanical engineer, he decided to change paths rather than an expensive advanced degree in that. So he's now doing an intensive EMT program and looking at paramedic school in order to be more competitive as a firefighter--probably two years before he's employed.
My point is that we all want to do useful work for our communities. So they make those jobs increasingly out of reach by requiring more and more 'credentials'. What people will pay the most for is something that promises to give them a way to make money. And smart, young, hardworking, energetic, skilled people are flailing around, fulfilling requirements, rather than learning and working, doing the jobs we all want and need.
We have to change this. And YES on your son's whole body glee! What a great mom you are. It's how boys are, I hear it from every mom of boys. Definitely healthy masculinity.
Sheesh, those hoops upon hoops! So much money and time, just to keep on proving and proving, just for the privilege of getting a paper. We've all probably come across terrible therapists, who had the papers and certifications and yet were terrible and/or downright harmful. I wonder if all these hoops are part of "safetyism", trying to avoid harming people by more and more of the hoops, but ironically it's hurting us all because it keeps useful people from being on the ground and helping?
My son inspired me to enjoy the splash pad yesterday. I ran around with him and yelled and flexed my muscles and it helped me endure the cold water and enjoy myself!
Yes, I could mention one of those therapists who I hired because I wanted to improve my relationship with my middle daughter and was worried about her having an eating disorder. The therapist decided it was my fault because I was manipulative with my program where they earned money, and told her she thought she was a 9 out of 10 in looks and she could see her with an older man. This was HS.
The other daughters were indignant and wanted to tell the therapist why my system worked and it actually did turn things around because my middle daughter agreed.
But having other therapists to talk to about your confidential cases is a great thing. Veronica met with the 'bereavement babes' once a week, including a death doula and a somatic therapist. But they're all MFTs and she's a Social Work Master's. So they only allow so many hours to be with an MFT.
I think safetyism is just their PR tagline. They make money on all the education and certs, they make money by having the ability to talk to someone cost $150/ hr, and they make money from the insurances. It's a win-win-win--for them.
Gah, bad therapist stories! Love that it had a happy ending in a round about way.
Off topic - watching Niki Skye and her free video series. She mentions Yeshua being the real person we associate with the christ story, and that he was a "flame bearer" and was not actually crucified.
https://nikiskye.com/ascension-teachings-video-3/
Sharing in case you are interested. And no pressure to watch or like it - I'm always impressed by the amount of content you are able to take in a discern and filter out in a cogent way!
Lots more about the old testament (connection to annunaki) at 1:50.
I'll have to read this one again Tereza, so I can better understand it. I love the quote about dragon-slaying and waking up in the morning.
Unrelated, but may be interesting to you: I've made definitions of 'champion' and 'hero', in which 'champion' would be one who represents others, for example, the village selects a champion, to represent them. Thus, championship, which is not 'i'm the best', but to see who might be qualified. Hero on the other hand is an agent (as in agency, the nature of life) who does substantive things for others, not so different from a champion. But let's just say, that a hero/ine is one who slays monsters.
Here's the rhetorical question: would you/i rather be a hero among champions, or a champion among heroes? If you could only choose one, and adjust the context however.
Thanks shaqer. The word hero is one I've started to think of as another trick. It's used to indicate the one divinely appointed to rule in hierarchy. It's the earthly incarnation of god in Heiros gamos. Jerusalem was Hieropolis. Are hieroglyphics part of this?
So many of the laudatory (case in point) words we have subconsciously bow to the rulers. We say someone's intentions are noble or honorable, both terms granted by the king. We talk about 'regal bearing' even when most kings were rotund. It's actually hard to find words of praise that don't harken back.
And I think 'hero' may be a complete inversion. It took the sneaky and ruthless theocracy behind the throne and made them into the 'champions' of the people. And I'd bet that word too would have an etymological story behind it.
I didn't know that about the word hero. I always took it mean the simple storybook definition and never looked further i.e. "one who slays monsters", or "one who does incredible things".
Personally, I think I prefer hero among champions, rather than champion among heroes.
It's more egotistical maybe.
(Aside, I read somewhere that Jerusalem is _coincidentally_ a major city in Palestine/Canaan (and that the name Canaan actually applies to Syria in general, not just Palestine in the sense it is used today). Something about the sacking of another city, resulting in the growth of (what became) Jerusalem. I am certain of this. But I wouldn't trust a Zionist archaeologist / historian if any can be called archaeologist / historian, and I don't think any truly can.
Maybe, Jerusalem's providence is comparable to how 1200s CE Russia proper, other settlements were more vulnerable to raids compared to Muscovy, so that post-Mongol, Muscovy became a central city. A lot of what happens is random, I think.)
Excellent smack down. Tsarion has some wonderfully provocative theories (and his book on Astrotheology is highly recommended) but I find something about him very unpalatable.
Thank you, Isaac. There seems to be a lot of anger in Tsarion. More directed towards other men who don't live up to his standards than even towards women. Why say anyone 'just crawled out of the slime' or is 'fucking loathsome'? If I were to say those things about men, all three speakers would accuse me of man-bashing. And they'd be right!
Interesting concept of astrotheology--I'm not even sure what it means. I'll wait for you to explain the concepts in your stack, where I can get thorough research, clever word play and deep insight, all without putting anyone down (except in such a nuanced way we're left guessing--is slippery good or bad? ;-)
Astrotheology argues that Ancient religious/spiritual texts have their ultimate origins in the telling of the movement of the Skyclock (i.e. the birth of Jesus to a Virgin mother is an allusion to the interplay between the Sun and the Constellation of Virgo. "Astrotheology and Sidereal Mythology" is excellent at summarising that argument, however even then he can't help but to ridicule and speak down to anyone who interprets these stories as historical.
Well: we aren't even half way through the Slippery One's chart, but I would say for now that the only appropriate way to explore a highly ambiguous character is through similarly ambiguous means...
Ah, yes I have seen that before. It imparts a charming innocence to stories that were the justification for bloodshed, torture, enslavement and rule over all by divine right. Just a lovely bedtime story written in the stars that's been misunderstood for 2000 yrs. Not a vicious psyops at all that deified the most ruthless magalomaniacs (sic) and forced us to bow down to them.
I wonder why Tsarion doesn't apply the theory of astrotheology to the 'crimes of women in the OT'? He seems to take that literally, not as Virgo cavorting with the belt of Orion (is there a snake constellation?) Despite his ridicule of those who take the Bible as history, he seems to do the same when it suits his purpose.
And yes on ambiguous means for ambiguous characters! Being specifically ambiguous is the key to a good horoscope, as I analyzed with my FORMER favorite astrologer: https://thirdparadigm.substack.com/p/tonic-masculinity-and-feminine-wiles. Thanks, Isaac!
That 10th House Mars 🔥
I like it when you're fixin to get into trouble, Tereza.
And appreciate the summary of Tsarion's talk which I know I don't have the patience to listen to.
Too fun, very insightful, particularly when you include direct quote and then translate meaning. Ouch. And, yes!
I look forward to humanity growing up, so that these kinds of debates, and theories, steeped in bias and idiocy, are something we look back and at laugh about. Soon would be good.
Children surrounded by women surround by men - love it.
Thanks for an excellent read and fun memes.
Best.
"Soon would be good." From your lips to dog's ears.
It always encourages my sass when I think of you listening, Kathleen. Isn't that you in the ten-gallon hat? It's just how I'd picture a pint-sized Kathleen, gumption and all.
😊 Oh, 'sass-encourager' is good. I'll put that up there with 'ambiance-elevator' which was (when I worked full time) often how I answered the question, 'what do you do?' with.
lol. It's such a great meme. I think we both have that pint-sized kid in us with that uncontainable spirit behind it.