Summer Issue 2006

Issue 2, 2003

One evening I was watching the film ‘Pride and Prejudice’, when my husband came home. He ‘suffered’ ten minutes viewing before he got ready to escape upstairs with his toolbox to do something ‘useful’ - the well practiced act of an escape artist. Before vanishing he left me with this ponder, ‘why do women like such films’?

There have been quite a few films based on books from the early period of the Industrial Revolution, ‘Emma’, ‘Sense and Sensibility’, ‘Jane Eyre’, ‘Mansfield Park’ and ‘Persuasion’ to name just a few. What is it that catches many women about that period? This question was one of many that added into a rucksack of questions inquiring into the trace of history that has brought us to where we are today and these are some of the thoughts this quest has offered up so far.

In previous issues of Feminenza Magazine the understanding of 'female', 'woman' and 'lady' as three of the lives within, has been approached from different angles. All three are part of a woman's life that are built upon as she journeys from cradle to grave, from innocence hopefully to wisdom. This journey can also be seen reflected in the history of the human race as a whole, sometimes termed the trace of evolution, at other times the march to civilisation. This article focuses on the women in Europe, and is a snippet of all that has taken place, for history is an enormity to delve into and this subject could easily fill a book or two.

Boadicea

The Female - From Egypt to the 'Dark Ages'
The early years of this epoch stretched from one century to the next with little change. The time span from one Egyptian or Sumerian invention to the next makes our manic dance from one mobile telephone to another, or one computer to a faster version, seem like a lightning flash charging along at the speed of light.

There is little evidence left of these early centuries, and as we find it hard to recall our early years, so mankind finds it hard to recall the early years of its growth. The remnants of the mother goddesses, from an epoch gone by, adorn sites around the world, leaving tantalising half stories and hints of what life might have been like. We find evidence in statues and art of the great Egyptian pharaoh Nefertiti or of the Minoan Priestesses and bull dancers, of times when women and men looked at the world in unison and harmony. As Riane Eisler poses in her well-researched book 'The Chalice and the Blade', from today's perspective looking back, we often read the runes of a time when men did not rule society and think then that societies such as the Minoans must therefore have been matriarchal. But the tantalising ponder is could it be possible that instead of one gender needing to be dominant, there is the possibility for the genders to be equal in influence?

This was a period when there was more harmony with and respect for the planet and the heavens, when gods and religion were at least as important as where your next meal would come from. Still today the majesty of how the pyramids were built and their alignment to specific stars, remains a mystery. The fact that the Dogon tribe in Africa knew of the Sirius star long before our telescopes found it, or that Stonehenge in England was built with enormous rocks from miles away, are things that cannot be satisfactorily explained. A way of life has been lost to the distant recesses of our shared mind, with hints wafting through now and then, like the aroma from your childhood of your grandmother's stew assailing your nostrils.

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Life was more singular and simpler, though perhaps lacking the potent richness of the struggle to evolve that beset later generations. Times overlap, with no clear cut off point from one time to the next, and remnants of this time long gone can be seen in some of the native cultures of, for example, North America and Australia.

Later, more documented periods of the 'female' journey can be found. In the mid 1st century in England we find one of its heroines: Boadicea, Queen of the Icini, a Celtic tribe, who managed to unite several Celtic tribes against a common enemy. The uprising Boadicea led almost threw the Romans out of Britain, with a command of such strength that the Romans were unused too. Goaded into action by violence against herself and her daughters she was a force to be reckoned with. She was not alone as there were many warrior women in this period of history that rose up against oppression, able to unite the surrounding tribes and their countrymen in a way that spoke of a force that could rise above opposing factions to enable unity of purpose.

The Woman - The Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution
The next stage in the human journey is the time of the 'woman'. The first seedlings signalled a sign of change at the time of the ancient Greek Empire and blossomed at the time of the Renaissance. One of its major features in Greece can be seen in the consciousness of choice. People began to think and reason, to make choices as to what they wanted and to debate and theorise. In this next stage astrology broke down into two separate fields: astrology and astronomy. Later still the whole of what the human was able to be and do was separated into such things as feelers and thinkers, faith and reason, science and art. This is the beginning of choice between the religious life and secularism; individual and personal independence emerged, as did the exponential growth of prosperity and luxury and the widening of the social classes. Worldly pleasures replaced religious or family values and the greatest war of all grew to extraordinary proportions, that of man and woman, male and female.

Hildegard von Bingen; from a mural in the Abbey, Rüdesheim (Germany)

As if to combat this great divergence that was appearing, which was causing chasms that could hardly be crossed, the notion of what some called 'homo universalis' - the total human - emerged, the person of many talents. One early example of this is Hildegard Von Bingen, the twelfth century German Abbess who was a visionary, composer, leader, writer of plays, poetry, letters and medical treatises. A woman with her own mind and her own connections, she had views about life that were both religious and human.

As the Renaissance arrived, so great art, literature and poetry began to flourish. It was a time when new things were possible for those who were able to tap into them; a time of great movement, standing between the superstitious yet religious Dark Ages and the time of scientific, technical and critical Modernism. This was a time marked by the humanist movement, which lasted through the Renaissance from 1400 to 1650 A.D and it was a time when human beings became the central point from which they measured all else.

Throughout the Dark Ages and the Renaissance, women were pushed further into the role of the subordinate, so that even the great 12th century French-English Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine could be locked in prison for 17 years by a husband tired of her anger and conniving caused by his infidelity. But Eleanor managed to leave a legacy that included her patronage of courtly love, and attempts at upgrading the relationship between men and women.

Christine de Pisan in her study

It was also a time when some women broke through this role and showed greatness through their produce, such as the late 14th century French Christine de Pisan who, after the early death of her husband, managed to provide for her children and was the first woman known to have lived from her writing, and also the 16th century Italian artist, Sofonisba Anguisola, who was internationally renowned for the portraits she painted.

One of the things that marks moments of change, is a movement towards freedom. During the Renaissance there was a new permission, something gifting the human race with a new genius, a new freedom. How this freedom was mostly translated was in the serf breaking away from being a possession of the lord to become the owner of his own land, the common man becoming independent from the oppressive wealthy, the slave from his master. It seemed to be a time where it was possible to say, no one is my master. The English nun Mary Ward, living at the tail end of the Renaissance believed that no man or woman should have to communicate with God through a priest. She fought the established church, enduring prison and arguments with the Pope and clergy, setting up schools, working so that girls would be able to learn Latin and play a role in the church. She was a great enemy of ignorance and fought for girls to be educated, so they could perform God's work and communicate with God directly.

Could it be that the time of the 'female' had to do with the mother or female religion, with the collective and tribal way of life as a main feature, and that the time of the 'woman', with the Renaissance as its greatest growth opportunity, was the time of the father or male religion with the aspect of personal religion as a major feature?

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The Lady - the Industrial Revolution up and until today and beyond...
The time of the 'lady' was heralded at the time of the Industrial Revolution and continues to our time and is still unfolding. The Industrial Revolution removed us further from the land and from natural harmony and balance. Many people left the land and moved to the cities. They went to work in factories seven days a week, 12 hours a day. Watches telling us what time we have to get to work were introduced and the foundations for burn-out, stress were laid. Today the World Health Organisation predicts depression will soon be one of the main causes of illness worldwide. Like the North American Indians who went from proud warriors to depressed alcoholics in one generation, Europe went from being an agricultural society to industrial in the time it takes to spin a wheel.

Yet turning the clock back can't be the way forward, but we can learn from the past. The urge for freedom that is a thread through the Industrial Revolution was also the cry of women to be free. Our ancestors no longer wanted to be seen as second-class citizens who could not divorce, own land, keep their earnings, take a role in the direction of the government or decide about their own future. The Suffragettes progressed to the Feminists and the Feminists talk of the first and second wave of liberation, and many are wondering if today there is a third wave, and what form it will take. Is it enough that 30% of the female gender in the world has arrived at equality or is there something more to be won?

The importance of what it means to be a woman at this time can be opened up further as it is has many depths and layers. It is for this reason that the Feminenza
members in Holland organised two activities in March, to further explore some of the ingredients in our quest into what ways, opportunities and qualities are now open for us to develop, and what the nature of the 'lady life' may be. We touched on the importance of the inner journey; to find and trust what lives within us and to make our feelings more conscious through specific mental and reasoning processes. We found that the one challenge is to bring to light what is dormant and hidden within us and that needs personal development. Generally we have not been educated to take seriously what is going on inside us. But when we do listen to our inner processes, we can also apply our reasoning and come out from what this tells us. Towards the end of our process together a strong concern was voiced about the state of the world, and we searched for what women can do in world affairs which, together with the men who also care, can help to put things right. By going inwards can we be more effective outwards.

One of the qualities that our gender has often given expression to is that of working together, of unity. Today more than any other time in history we can be aware of our sisters in different places around the world and feel a compassion for their situation, and know that our thoughts can make a difference. From this standpoint one of the activities of our gathering was to make a collective painting of what we wish to see for women in the world. Over 30 women contributed to the painting and it is now on view in the Leiden library for all to see and those who want to, can add their wishes to it.

Meanwhile some men are exploring the fact of whether there should also be a men's liberation and if they may not have missed something. The book 'Manhood' by Steve Biddulph gives some fascinating insights into this new revolution that is quietly happening amongst some of the men in the world and gives some insights into what it's like to be a man. Steve Biddulph claims that "Society is disintegrating primarily because men are not initiating boys into manhood" and that " Women had to overcome oppression, but men's difficulties are with isolation... The loneliness of men is something women rarely understand." He humorously proposes that men "burn your ties or use them to stake up garden trees" and for them to explore the responsibilities of growing into a man.

Perhaps one of the most important aspects of this time is that it is both the time of the 'lady' and the 'gentleman'. There seems to be something very important knocking on our door to do with the relationship between the two genders, where both are searching for the freedom now offered to the human race.

So we come to the films that I mentioned at the beginning of this article. Is there something about the period at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution that we yearn for? Or perhaps something that started then but didn't happen? We know that the relationship between men and women then was far from perfect, and thank goodness so much has changed on that score. Yet there is a suggestion of a respect and quality of dealing between the genders that appeared, but was quashed by the rush to the factory and the office.

I would like to end with a ponder. The period I have attributed to the 'female' (and 'male') was, I suggest, the time of the female religion, the mother goddess, and the period of the 'woman' (and 'man'), was the time of the male and father religion. (St. Peters in Rome is a good example of the movement from one to the other, where it abounds with paintings of Mary as the central feature, but became surrounded by men as Christianity moved towards being a masculine religion).

On International Women’s Day a collective painting was made about the qualities women want to see in the world.

So what would the religion of this time be? Might it be that the time of the Industrial Revolution was the birth of a new religion that still needs to happen - the religion of the genders, the 'mother' and 'father' together?

Throughout history there are two major forces that have driven humans the world over, from one continent to another, from one century to another. The first is the quest and worship of some form of higher entity or creator. The second is the search for one's soul mate, the need for a partner, the drive for the genders to mix and marry. Both have led to some of our greatest art - from poetry, paintings, sculpture and buildings, and to some of the worst things one human can inflict upon another. Isn't it true that sex born from love, respect and mutuality can cause similar sensations to an uplifting religious feeling? Might it be that if the genders can join in union of purpose, bring both religions of male and female together, live with respect and value and honour for each other and for themselves, that the way of history can, like a caterpillar, metamorphosing into a butterfly, produce a brand new way of life? Perhaps this is possible when we can develop above the 'lady' and 'gentleman', where being human is a third and binding factor between us.

This was touched upon further when Petra Ummenthun and myself recently met 15 girls, aged 18 years, just starting full womanhood. After opening up the area of 'understanding men' we asked them for their thoughts and we agreed that in the coming issue they will write about their views on being women and how they see the nature of the 'lady' and today's possibilities. I also hope some of you readers may want to open up this debate and write to me to share what you think might be awaiting us, and what this third life, 'the lady', is unfolding into.

Return to article index for issue 1, 2004 of Feminenza Magazine