Day 234

I suppose I can take my nose out of my new book for just a few minutes, if only to fulfill my goal of posting every day that Zee is gone.

(Oops! Almost typed her real name!)

I'm starting with "Unprotected Texts" by Jennifer Wright Knust. And, wow, so far, so fabulous. She has me looking at the Bible is a whole new light, and I'm loving it!

And one offhand remark about women's role in childbearing has for once brought me to understand how women were oppressed for centuries.

In a time where increasing the population was imperative to survival, humanity's existence depended on women reproducing.

What an incredible burden. Especially since just one child takes nearly a year to cook. Especially especially when that child could miscarriage, because they didn't know about prenatal vitamins. Especially especially especially when the kid could still die in infancy and childhood because of a myriad of ancient, third-world problems.

How many pregnancies did a single woman have to go through in order to support her family and community? How many times did she have to ravage her body to produce just a few children?

How many women actually lived through even one pregnancy? How many women were able to survive past the age of 26?

And they had little or no choice. Children had to be born.

So when a woman's main purpose in life (back then) is to be, quite literally, human livestock that will likely give out in a matter of years due to the stress of birthing just a few children, not to mentions the every day perils of ancient life, why would you invest time and resources into her education?


I can understand it now. But I don't like it. And I still don't think it excuses the way women were treated like mere property, under the word of the law.

And I am so damn grateful that I was born in this century. Even if I am still oppressed, at least I'm not considered cattle.

Posted with love via Blogaway