September 08, 2015
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Well, I was raised by nuns from what used to be called “nursery school” through (now-defunct) grade 13, then worked with them as an adult during peak “liberation theology.” They all had Ph.D.s in this stuff. We all owned “Pope Joan” T-shirts and Hildegard of Bingen CDs”and a thick pink line runs from all that, through a lot of New Agey, Wicca (also lately debunked) hooey, the culturally corrosive Da Vinci Code, and the less sinister yet still socially influential Game of Thrones (with its “kick-ass” females), leading, finally, to women’s ordination and other patent real-world nonsense.
Some of these women taught your children, or taught their teachers. The likes of radical Catholic theologian Mary “no male students in my classroom” Daly turned campuses into the sick-making dystopias they are today. (Note that The New York Times promptly phoned “known irritant” Robin Morgan for comment when Daly died.)
Now, some premodern women did indeed accomplish astonishing things; Teresa of Avila’s autobiography is a jewel of Spanish literature. Catherine of Siena traveled widely and bossed around the pope.
But champions of women can”t seem to control that irrational impulse to make stuff up”to, as it were, gild the filly.
If Findlen’s finding are sound, this compulsion is even older than we ever knew.
It looks like, for once, the feminists were right. This time, a dead white male really is to blame:
While people later recognized that Macchiavelli was a forger, it was true that he brought critical attention to women’s lives.
“Raising awareness”: It’s older than you think.
