Having just finished "Handmaidens Tale" it got me to thinking...

[walkingman]

Are all organized religions misogynistic? I ask this seriously. All organized religions that I have looked at don't seem very good for women, historically always putting women down or making them subservient. Not only do they seem sexist but seem to push a ideology that has a problem with one of nature most basic functions.....sex.

I clearly understand that Handmaidens Tale is just a TV series but it seems so metaphorically true of today's world that I have to question...has it always been this way?

[secondwind]

1. Absolutely...

[LakeArenal]

2. Shakers

Shaker theology held that the sect's eighteenth-century founder, Mother Ann Lee, represented a female embodiment of the Godhead, just as Christ incarnated the male principle. ... Thus, all Shaker leadership positions were shared equally by men and women.Feb 1, 2018
https://daily.jstor.org › the-shaker-fo...
The Shaker Formula for Gender Equality - JSTOR Daily

[walkingman]

6. That's interesting - I'll read up on them. I've heard that a lot of native Americans

were also matriarchal.

[CrispyQ]

3. Man created God in his image.

Any religion where God is male is suspect.

[walkingman]

7. Good point - never thought of it that way.

[ymetca]

4. There's a lot of writing on this subject

but the basic idea is that monotheism is "phallic", as opposed to polytheism, or pantheistic religions, which are more polymorphous in their relationship to gender roles.

Elaine Pagels is a good writer to start with, if you want more information.

[walkingman]

8. Thank you!

[Dale in Laurel MD]

5. In my experience

the Neo-Pagan religions generally -- Wicca in particular -- are generally free of misogyny. That's also the case (though perhaps less universally) of the Unitarian-Universalist church.

Then again, you asked about organized religions, and all the ones above are more or less decentralized.

(Disclosure: I'm double-affiliated, being a UU and a member of a Wiccan circle.)

[walkingman]

9. I've heard a lot of positive things about UU - aren't Wiccan just female?

[Dale in Laurel MD]

10. There are all-female circles/covens,

but others are mixed. (I have heard of all-male groups, but never actually encountered one.)

[slightlv]

11. I have encountered both all male and all female

as well as mixed gender groups. Single gendered groups tend to focus mainly on energies expressed rather than on expressed genders (obviously). But even in mixed groups, some of these groups may focus more on energies expressed rather than on expressed genders. For example, I am female and very much in touch with my Goddess side, but I am very much able to access my male god-oriented side, as well. So much, so, I had no problem switching roles with my "HP" when he wanted to call down the Goddess to more formally address his feminine side. At the time, we were probably 1/2 and 1/2 straight, LGBTQ+, and very open to everyone understanding and expressing energy in their own way. Besides, ours was a teaching coven, anyway. Most of us had been together for over 10 years by that point. But organized? (LOL) Not by a long shot! (Tho the students would probably tell you different!)

Back in the "ancient" days, when Goddess religions were the rule, not the exception, misogynic practices were not as widespread, tho I wouldn't say they weren't around. Nor were all villages who worshipped the Goddess peaceful idylls. There were, after all, warrior goddesses, too. But I honestly believe there was more cooperation between villages than raping and pillaging. But cooperative behavior, while leading to a more peaceful existence for everyone, overall, doesn't lead to technological leaps in thought and practice, as a rule. We generally see that happen in more war-like cultures, where better instruments of death are the driving tools of technology. We see that even still today. However, be it known, I'm one who could do with a little less technology leaps and bounds if it brings a little more cooperation and peace among countries. But then, I'm an old Crone... so, YMMV.

[rurallib]

12. sort of a side comment but I have always found that the "Trinity" -

three persons in one being were defined as three male persons.

What would seem to be more reflective of the human condition - father, mother, son - is skipped over for a totally male combo personna

[old as dirt]

13. It is interesting to me that some Catholic cultures...

...are described by Historians as "la matrilinealidad social, en una sociedad con patrilinealidad legal" ( "social matrilineality, in a society with legal patrilineality" ).

(page 50)

Guerrilla y sociedad en el Patía: Una relación entre clientelismo político y la insurgencia social
by Francisco U. Zuluaga

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9589047831/

Is it possible that the law and the State itself are part of the problem?



Is it possible that our own culture could learn something from such Catholic cultures?