(sorry this is long) I'm creating a fantasy matriarchal society that's a combination of like America post WW2 and like the amazons/valkyries crossed with magical girls. I could use some help figuring out the gender dynamics, since part of my goal is to use the swap to highlight some inequalities that still exist in our gender expectations today by flipping them. I'm trying to figure out if it's better to have the men be primary caregivers (1/?)
since thereâs no reason to assume that the gender that gives birth has to be the caregivers) or if I should go the âmatriarchal society would value childrearing above other jobsâ route. Some thoughts I had: Women are the main magic-users in society (magical girl/amazons blessed directly by the god who rules the city with power)and that perhaps all young women are expected to go through military service of some sort before becoming matrons, politicians and doctors. (2/?)
Maybe women are associated with Life and Death and âimportant dutiesâ that revolve around them, including duties regarding both killing and saving lives. So healing, leading armies, fighting, hunting, childbirth (possibly care?) and politics are feminine jobs, while âlesser dutiesâ that revolve more around menial labor are relegated to men (manual labor, maintenance, âuneducatedâ jobs, support jobs like scribe and secretary, cooking, cleaning, perhaps some jobs like fashion design or art). (3/?)
Do you think this is a good balance? What are some other ways I could divide gender roles? The world situation is a magical land with about early 20th century level tech (trains and private schools and like phones/radios).Also, what is the best way to objectify men in this society? I was thinking of making it so men are seen as useless/only for the purpose of providing sexual pleasure and siring children to women. (4/?)
They donâtâ actually create children or take the âimportant jobsâ (the poor dears just donât have the brains for it, theyâre too simple and direct, men donât have the emotional maturity to handle serious issues, they lack empathy, they only want sex anyway so itâs not like you need to worry about their emotional needs, etc). Iâd love some suggestions on how a society like this might work or if there are other ways to divide the gender roles, (5/?)
as well as some ways men might experience objectification in society. How would fashion be different, and how would this society put pressure on men to look or act in certain ways (and women as well). Any suggestions? Thanks, and sorry for the long question(6/?)
Mod Miri Note: If you have a question that requires multiple asks, please use the google form! That way thereâs no risk of parts of the question being lost.
Tex: âDo you think this is a good balance?â No, I do not. I disagree with the notion that a group of people ought to be objectified, neglected, abused, pigeon-holed, or otherwise mistreated under the guise of inversion as a way to tout a certain prescription of thought. I think this methodology perpetuates stereotypes, and with stereotypes come all the -isms that are used as excuses to treat people poorly just because theyâre different from the originating group.
Iâm going to be radical and say ânone of the aboveâ. Thereâs a few reasons for my answer, but aside from the brief overview in the previous paragraph, let me go through and try responding to all of your points in a more precise manner.
Letâs start with American culture post WWII - and Iâm going to assume that, because of this choice, youâre working from an American perspective. This is important! But Iâll handle that detail in a bit.
Post-WWII culture is heavily influenced by WWII culture. For women, this meant enlistment in the military, as well as filling the gaps in the domestic labor force left by men being shipped off (History.com, The Atlantic). Their service in the military - quite often voluntary - was as critical and crucial as their domestic work (Wikipedia 1, Wikipedia 2, Wikipedia 3). They usually received lower pay than men, true (though interestingly the women in the UK were often treated better; Striking Women), though governments of the time admitted that without women the war effort would have crumpled.
Rosie the Riveter is a popular piece of propaganda (where it was also considered patriotic for women to join the workforce and military service; National Womenâs History Museum), but donât let that dissuade you from thinking that women were not recognized for other types of work during the war. Many women in the US were recognized for their military service (USO), and other womenâs histories endure today - Lyudmila Pavlichenko (Wikipedia), Vitka Kempner (Wikipedia), and Virginia Hall (Wikipedia). Iâm going to toss in the official synopsis of Queen Elizabeth IIâs involvement in her own military to round things out (The Royal Family), complete with a picture of her in uniform (Wikipedia).
Many women after the war went back to strictly domestic duties, and I think that parallels their wartime efforts - both situations are of the âall hands on deckâ type, but the play of gender roles here means that the duties of a functioning society are divvied up by different functional spheres - and make no mistake, men and women relied on each other equally as much to cover the gaps, despite the sexism inherent in modern Western society. The difference between war and non-war time cultures was that the latter wasnât necessarily cultivated by patriotism that could unite the different âfactionsâ. The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History gives a thorough examination of this topic.
The following era - typified by the birth of the Baby Boomer generation - saw a marked increase in economic prosperity (Wikipedia). With that came increased social mobility for women (Citation 1), usually catalyzed by the actions of their fathers (Citation 2). This may typically be achieved by consistent, conscientious public policy formation (Citation 3). In short, many cultures - if they havenât already - are realizing that itâs good for business to let women control how they participate in society and the flow of money.
In the US, this was precipitated by the boom of social development (American History; archived version). Aside from the Truman administration negotiating price fixing to prevent inflation, a significant factor was the passing of the Servicemenâs Readjustment Act of 1944 (AKA the G.I. Bill). This primarily benefited the Greatest Generation, though other pertinent legislation by the 79th Congress benefited the Silent Generation onwards: the Fair Deal, Revenue Act of 1948, Taft-Hartley Act, Employment Act of 1946, National School Lunch Act, and Hobbs Act.
Itâs debatable how well this impacted long-term economic development, considering the almost immediate rise of McCarthyism in the US in 1947, which was heavily intertwined with the Truman Doctrine that precipitated the Cold War. The results of the war, at least economically, were⊠mixed (Wikipedia 1, Wikipedia 2). I have no doubt that this impacted the social mobility of women in all affected countries - which is all of them, but Iâm sure hairs could be split on this if you wish.
Now that weâve got that out of the way, letâs tackle the Amazons.
The modern, popular interpretation (that is slow to be shaken by archaeological evidence) is mostly mythological (Wikipedia). While some ideas are thrown in the way of a Minoan Crete ancestry to the myth, there are more similarities drawn to the Scythian and Samartian cultures on the Eurasian Steppe (CNET). Itâs possible that instead of the equally-extreme pole end of the gender dichotomy that is patriarchy-matriarchy, the Scythians just scandalized the Athenians with a comparatively more fluid society (Smithsonian Magazine).
As for Valkyries⊠thereâs been a revival of them in pop culture, probably as a net-casting to see whatâs out there aside from Amazons. TVTropes covers the many, many ways media utilizes them as a trope, to varying degrees of mythological and cultural accuracy. As they state, valkyries are a form of psychopomp, as they decide who among the battlefieldâs dead will go to Valhalla (ruled by Odin) or FĂłlkvangr (ruled by Freya). Freya seems to have assumed the âtypeâ (as opposed to characteristics salient to a particular individual) of a valkyrie, as the female counterpart the warrior archetype. To wit, Freya herself may be a type (Wikipedia).
Hereâs where the issue gets thorny - modern popular understanding of valkyries, and by extension Scandinavian women, is skewed through the modern lens.
@fjorn-the-skald has a lovely series called Viking History: Post-by-Post, or An Informal Crash Course & A Historical Guide to the Vikings, that typically focuses on medieval Iceland. In his post âLesson 13.c - Women in the Viking Age, Part III: Were Women âVikingsâ?â, discusses the particular penchant of modern times to romanticize and/or skew history to their own biases - in this instance, how medieval Icelandic women functioned in their culture, as well as how valkyrie myths play into this.
The TL;DR of that is: âvikingâ women were a societal anomaly, the battlefield was a male domain (and they were expected to die on it), a womanâs prowess of the domestic sphere was highly respected to a level often equivalent to men, and the domestic sphere was the sphere of commerce. Scandinavian culture prized strong women, just as they prized strong men, and their culture rested upon the concept of different genders having their own distinct, complementary, and equal domains.
Fjörn builds upon this history in an ask about gender roles outside the usual dichotomy of male-female. Valkyries, and shield-maidens, may be classed as a third gender in medieval Scandinavian culture, because women were temporarily occupying the male role in their society. While valkyries are of divine origin, shield-maidens are not, though they seem to have taken on a supernatural bent by performing feminine qualities while living in the male sphere (something that they can literally wear, by the donning of their armor).
That probably comes across as distasteful to, especially, a modern American perspective, but many ancient cultures are like that. Thereâs a footnote on that ask about links to a contemporary perspective of same-sex relationships, as well, to round out that talking point.
With those historical and mythological details discussed, letâs move on to magical girls.
Interestingly, the genre and trope derive from the American TV show Bewitched (Nippon.com). Its evolution reflected Japanâs changing tone about female sexuality, focusing on girls. Â Magical Girl doesnât seem to be intended to attract the male gaze in a sexual light - and in fact was generated as a form of female empowerment by by way of growing up (TVTropes), but it seems to happen anyways (TVTropes).
Magical girls, as a genre, originated in the 1960s - the archetypical Sailor Moon encompasses not only magical girls, but also the kawaii aesthetic. Kawaii, incidentally, followed after the magical girl trope, and plays upon women performing as girls in society.
As magical girls are intended for young girls, a demographic known as shĆjo, it is considered a subgenre of the target audience. Please note that shĆnen'ai (Fanlore) and yaoi (Fanlore) are also subgenres of shĆjo.
For some context, the adult female target audience is known as josei, the young adult men is known as shĆnen, and adult male audience is known as seinen. Many manga and anime are often misattributed to the wrong category, so it helps to know which is which, and why.
Kumiko Saito argues (through an unfortunately paywalled article that Iâm more than willing to disseminate to those without JSTOR access) that magical girls reinforce gender stereotypes as well as fetishize young female bodies. She argues this point more eloquently than I can, so Iâll be quoting a few sections below.
Page 148 (7 of 23 on the PDF):
The 1960s âwitchâ housewife theme waned quickly in the United States, but various cultural symbolisms of magic smoothly translated into the Japanese climate, leading to Japans four-decade-long obsession with the magical girl. Bewitched incorporated the concept of magic as female power to be renounced after marriage, thereby providing âa discursive site in which feminism (as female power) and femininity has been negotiatedâ (Moseley 2002, 403) in the dawning of Americas feminist era. Japans magical girls represented a similar impasse of fitting into female domesticity, continued to fascinate Japanese society, and came to define the magical girl genre. In direct contrast to the American heroines Samantha and Jeannie, however, whose strife arose from the antagonism between magic (as power) and the traditional gender role as wife or fiancĂ©e, the magical girls dilemma usually lies between female adulthood and the juvenile female stage prior to marriage, called shĂ”jo. In other words, the magical girl narratives often revolve around the magical freedom of adolescence prior to the gendered stage of marriage and motherhood, suggesting the difficulty of imagining elements of power and defiance beyond the point of marriage. In fact, these programs were broadcast exactly when the rate of love-based marriage started to surpass that of miai (arranged marriage),4 which implies that the magical girl anime, founded on the strict ideological division between shĂ”jo and wife/mother, may have been an anxious reaction to the emergent phase of romance.
Page 150 (9 of 23 on the PDF):
The combination of magical empowerment and shĂ”jo-ness framed by the doomed nature of transient girlhood naturally created ambivalent, messages in Akko-chan as well. In the societal milieu in which Japan was undergoing the politically turbulent era of Marxist student movements at the largest scale in the postwar era, Akko-chanâs super- human ability to transform into anyone (or anything) is quite revolutionary, implying a sense of womenâs liberation. Despite this potential, her metamorphic ability never threatens gender models, as she typically dreams of becoming a princess, a bride, or a female teacher she respects. The use of magic is also largely limited to humanitarian community services in town. Akko-chanâs symbolic task throughout the series focuses on how to steer her power to serve her friends and family, leading to the final episode in which she relinquishes magic to save her father. Akko-chan embraces the cross-generic mismatch between the radical idea of empowering a girl with superhuman ability and the hahamono [mother genre] sentimentalism idealizing womenâs self-sacrifice. All in all, the new setting adopted in this series, that a mediocre girl accidentally gains magic, became a useful mechanism for the underlying theme that the heroine is foredoomed to say farewell to magic in the end. This rhetorical device transforms latent power of the amorphous girl into the reappreciation of traditional gender norms by equating magic with shĂ”jo-hood to be given up at a certain stage.
Saito discusses the thematic shifts in the magical girl subgenre in the 1980s to a more sexualized view, and the according rise of both an older audience and otaku fans, the latter of whom, she clarifies, make a habit of recontextualizing canon to categorize characters into stereotypes that are stripped of the majority of their original context.
On pages 153-154 (12-13 of 23 on the PDF):
The conventions of the magical girl genre transformed significantly against this paradigm shift. Both Minky Momo and Creamy Mami originally targeted children, recording a decent outcome in business and eventually leading to the revival of the genre. Because the plots are directly built on the genre clichĂ©s, however, the jokes and sarcasm of many episodes appear comprehensible only to adult viewers equipped with the knowledge of the Töei magical girls. The intrigue of these programs largely lies in the way they parody and mock the established genre conventions, especially the restrictive function of magic and the meaning of transformation. The genre is now founded on the expectation that the adult viewer has acquired a diachronic fan perspective to fetishize both the characters and the textâs meanings.
Creamy Mami presents the story of fourth-grader YĆ«, who gains magical power that enables her to turn into a sixteen-year-old girl. YĆ«âs magical power is more restrictive than Momoâs, for her superhuman capacity simply means metamorphosis into her adult form, who happens to become an idol singer called Mami. Given that the magicâs ability is self-oriented cosmetic effect and bodily maturation, the heroineâs ultimate goal by means of magic is to grow old enough to attract her male friend Toshio, who neglects YĆ«âs latent charm but falls in love with the idol Mami. The series concludes when YĆ« loses her magic, which correlates to Toshioâs realization that YĆ« is his real love. Mamiâs thematic messages teach the idea that magic does not bring much advantage or power after all, or rather, magic serves as an obstacle for the appreciation of the truly magical period called shĂ”jo. The heroine gains magic to prove, although retroactively, the importance of adolescence preceding the possession of âmagicâ that enables (and forces) female maturation.
Itâs noted in the article that the 1990s-2000s period received criticism for showing a physical maturation of girls, so codified euphemisms via garment changes such as additional frills and curled hair were used instead. This âthird-waveâ magical girl challenged standing norms of its predecessors by doing things such as likening adult responsibilities (âchildrearing and job trainingâ) as a sort of game, as well as the transformation implying that the characterâs power is in being herself, something that juxtaposes previous norms.
Due to shifting power dynamics and other changes in Japanâs culture, it became more common for boys to become magical girls as well, further separating the magical girl concept from a strict reflection of gender roles. As such, Japanese culture - insofar as my English-based research can guide me - no longer immediately implies a direct and distinct correlation between magical girls and the female gender.
An analysis of Puella Magi Madoka Magica (PMMM) by Tate James (2017; PDF) discusses an additional dimension of the magical girl genre. Two pertinent points of the piece is that 1.) PMMM dismantles archetypes pitting women against girls, and 2.) PMMM reinforces the gender stereotype that the best type of girl is a passive girl.
Now for the issue youâve raised about who ought to be the primary caregiver of children.
Consistent, immediate, and continuous interaction between a mother and her child benefits both of them (Citation 4, Scientific American 1, Live Science, Citation 5, Scientific American 2, UNICEF, WHO). Mothers have a distinct neurobiological makeup that predisposes them toward caring for infants (Citation 6), and likewise infants have a predisposed preference to their motherâs voice and heartbeat (Citation 7). I would like to think that is sufficient evidence as to why nearly all cultures encourage mothers as the primary caregivers.
This said, cultivation of a father-child dyad is immensely beneficial to the child (Citation 8, Citation 9), and can alleviate the effect of maternal depression on the child (ScienceDaily). Partnered men residing with children have lower levels of testosterone but a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and adiposity (Citation 10). Itâs interesting to note that higher prolactin levels in the motherâs breastmilk has a correspondingly higher level of sociosexual activity with their partner in cotton-top tamarins, which stimulates pair bonding (Citation 11), as well as in other species (Citation 12).
Paternal postpartum depression is recently recognized in fathers, to severe and reverberating deleterious effects on themselves and their family (Citation 13). Screening tools for detecting depression in Swedish fathers is not sufficiently developed, and many men may be passed over despite reaching cut-off suggestions in other criteria for depression (Citation 14).
It has been observed that while human mother and fathers have the similar oxytocin pathways, the exhibit different parenting behaviours when exposed to elevated levels of oxytocin - primarily that fathers will react with high stimulatory behaviour and exploratory play (Wikipedia).
Men being socialized in a culture of stoicism and an encouraged reaction pattern to violence have poor mental health that can culminate into death and other long-term effects (Citation 15). Suicide in the US is currently the leading cause of death at time of posting this response, that the total suicide rate increased 31% from 2001-2017, and in 2017 male rates were nearly four times higher than females (NIMH).
On the topic of magical culture: itâs incredibly difficult to research because itâs a component of overall culture, and one thatâs not typically available to strangers/foreigners/the uninitiated. As such, a lot of authors default to what they already know. Itâs not a bad thing, but if someone wants to reach outside their comfort zone, theyâre going to have some trouble.
Iâm going to go off the three, four-ish, cultures youâve already come to us with: American, Scandinavian, Scythian/Samartian, and Japanese just to round things out.
For a very, very rough overview of America, we have:
Native Americans of the contiguous US
Whatever the colonizing peoples brought over (including, but not limited to, English, Scottish, Irish, Norwegian, German, and Italian)
Whatever the myriad cultures of Africa brought over as slaves
NB: Iâve put Hawaiâi and Alaska as separate items because theyâre not part of the contiguous US.
European settlers were of a few groups:
The merchants working on charters
Indentured servants from the merchantsâ homelands
Immigrants in post-colonial eras
This is an important distinction because 1.) contemporary culture matters a lot politically, 2.) how people came to the US determined how they and their family were treated, and 3.) the contemporary job culture determined their social class.
(Slavs, as a note, are the origin of the English word âslaveâ, something that Western Europeans historically liked to propagate.)
Iâm not going to go into the details of everything the US has to offer in terms of cultural diversity aside from a nudge in the direction of SanterĂa. What you pick up to research is up to you.
Scandinavian folk magic is known as âtrolldomâ (Swedish-language Wikipedia), and the region was known for their cunningfolk. Please note that klok/-a, klog/-e, and related words relates to the English word cloak, and these people are so named because wearing one was an integral part of how they interacted with the supernatural.
The InternetArchive has a book (albeit in Swedish) about the history of magic in Sweden, which is available in multiple formats. If youâd prefer to have something in English, you can either buy this book, or inform your library youâd like to them to buy it for you.
Iâm a little surprised you hadnât mentioned either the völva (Swedish Wikipedia, English Wikipedia) or seiĂ°r (Wikipedia), as theyâre quite a well-known part of Scandinavian folk culture. Fjörn, as always, is my first stop for this area of research, with the post âLesson 7 - Viking Spiritualityâ, the VĂkingabĂłk Database, the tag of Old Norse words, and the post âNorĂ°urbĂłk: A List of the Tales and Sagas of Icelandersâ as incredibly good starting points. I encourage you to peruse them, especially because the words you learn will help you be more precise during research.
The Scythian culture is quite far reaching, as they had occupied most of the Eurasian Steppe during the Iron Age, and much of this area can be found in modern-day countries such as Russia, Iran, and China, among others. Because of how far their peoples spread out, the Scythians intermixed with their neighbors, and as such there are sub-groups to the culture.
The Sarmatians were more Russian, as thatâs where a large amount of their territory laid, and were absorbed into early Slavic culture. Both their and the overall Scythian language group is eastern Iranian.
In order to help you orient yourself, hereâs a map from Wikipedia:
Description: Historical spread of Iranian peoples/languages: Scythia, Sarmatia, Bactria and the Parthian Empire in about 170 BC (evidently before the Yuezhi invaded Bactria). Modern political boundaries are shown to facilitate orientation.
Japanese magical culture is intrinsically tied to their religion, and as such it would be beneficial to read about Shintoism and Japanese Buddhism. The wiki for Japanese mythology is a thorough primer, though if you get stuck, then Iâm sure @scriptmyth would be glad to help you on not only this culture, but others.
As for the jobs youâve proposed - Iâm going to jump right into scribes because the irony of that is itâs historically a male-dominated job, and is the progenitor of jobs such as âpublic servants, journalists, accountants, bookkeepers, typists, and lawyersâ. It is, with even greater irony, European women that are noted in Wikipedia, and that medieval women are increasingly thought to have played an integral part in manuscript writing (New Scientist, Science Advances).
Iâm not the best person to ask for medieval culture, unfortunately, so youâll need someone more knowledgeable than me on the subject to direct you to the finer points.
The wiki for women in war links to a lot of lists, so I would suggest poking around for historical references by era (that will likely lead to by culture) to orient yourself on how women have participated in war in the past. Thereâs quite a bit of mythology to be found there, as well, so if you pick up some specific goddesses you get stuck on, then pop over to @scriptmyth.
Likewise, the wiki for women in government is an interesting read, as is women in positions of power. Since both are primarily modern-times oriented, I would suggest looking at the list of queens regnant for a more historical perspective. I would have difficulty giving you more than that, as you would need to pinpoint your reference cultures first.
As history often neglects womenâs contributions to society if they werenât a ruler or similarly powerful ruler - and, frankly, that frequently applied to men as well the further back you go - Iâm going to toss a couple of starting points at you for the area of medicine:
Women in medicine § Ancient medicine - Wikipedia
Women in medicine - Science Museum: History of Medicine
One thing to keep in mind is that as goalposts changed for medicine - the standardization of knowledge and the need to attend a medical school to be legally allowed to perform medicine - the availability of women to participate went down.
Another is that medicine, historically, relied upon herbal medicine, and Wikipedia itself notes that thereâs a heavy overlap with food history - something thatâs traditionally a domain of women. This abstract by Marcia RamosâeâSilva MD, PhD, talks about Saint Hildegard von Bingen, and the first page available tells you that medieval women were in charge of quite a lot despite not being allowed to participate in the male-dominated sphere of war. The Herbal Academy dips briefly into not only the saint, but other historical aspects of herbalism that might interest you.
The wiki of women in the Middle Ages, along with that of Hildegard of Bingen, nicely rounds out this particular topic.
I need to bring out the fact that Ancient Egypt was and is well-known for the equality and respect afforded to their women - in the interest of staying on subject, particularly in the field of medicine (Ancient History Encyclopedia). Isis was well-known as a goddess of healing (Wikipedia), an aspect she has in common with goddesses in many other cultures (Wikipedia). As an added side-note, Merit Ptah in her popularly-known context has been concluded to be an inflated misunderstanding - and misconstrued interpretation - of a historical figure with significant fabrication (LiveScience, Oxford).
The presence of women in medicine fluctuated in every culture, an in ancient times often shared some correlation with the use of magic (Citation 16). Healing, historically, has a high correlation with the supernatural - and if you care to look, women are usually responsible for the domain of the supernatural. (Or at least the feminine part, which was complementary and complemented by the masculine part.)
Iâm going to hop back to politics real quick to bring up abbesses, particularly the social power they exercised as women heading religious orders. An article by Alixe Bovey for the British Library gives the TL;DR of medieval women and abbeys, though if youâd like something with a bit more detail, Medieval English Nunneries c. 1275 to 1535 by Eileen Edna Power is also available.
Abbeys, with their rise and fall, are important to modern American culture. Midwives, to be even more particular, have the most direct impact. In Western Europe, a midwife may under certain circumstances perform baptisms. This was a debated topic of its time, as baptisms were rituals of the Church, and the Church had strict regulations allowing only men to perform their rituals.
During the 1500s - and up to the 1800s, in some cases - midwives were defamed to be witches. Youâll notice that this corresponds to a standardization of medical knowledge, with its corresponding legal restrictions on who may practice medicine. For the Church, the politics playing behind the scenes of midwifery and female physicians fluctuated with their observations about womenâs power relative to their own (Citation 16).
Malta is an excellent case study of this phenomenon (Citation 17), and encapsulates the movement of witchcraft accusations that took place throughout this period - something historians noted as corresponding to the rise of Protestantism (ThoughtCo). Thereâs some debate that the increasing orientation to wages in contemporary economy facilitated this adverse behaviour against women, as well as various other social pressures as politically mitigated by the Catholic Church (Wikipedia).
As the practice of medicine was segregated according to sex - male patients to male physicians, female patients to female physicians - there were proportionally fewer men in trades such as midwifery than women despite the medieval shift toward male encroachment of territory (Wikipedia). This corresponding money- and thus male-oriented intrusion into the female sphere of medicine can be seen with the invention of the obstetric forceps (JSTOR). The rising culture of appropriation constituted the witchcraft trials that, incidentally, influenced American culture during their colonization years.
A pertinent name to remember for American history of the witchcraft trials is Margaret Jones, a Puritan midwife and the first person to be accused of witchcraft in the trails taking place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (Wikipedia).
The Salem Witch Trials, as an offhand note, could well be an anomaly due to ergotism (Citation 18).
One thing Iâm willing to bend on - a little bit - is manual labor, but mostly because youâre describing something very similar to whatâs already been invented: corvĂ©e labor. Thereâs plenty of other forms depending on what culture youâre going for, though unlike what youâre proposing, does not necessarily imply the direct and permanent subjugation of people.
I will absolutely quibble with the idea of âuneducatedâ labor equating to âless valuableâ labor - universities offer non-vocational degrees, typically in the areas of research and/or religion, and guilds were created as a means of quality control (that unfortunately got out of hand and committed crimes such as rent-seeking). Women in guilds were a thing, vulnerable to the same fluctuations as their other occupations outside the house.
If we are defining âuneducatedâ labour as âmenialâ labour, then this set of occupations inherently varies by culture, as does its relative weight of importance. One example of this would be writing; it may be menial but important, whereas holding negotiations could be a âmajorâ role but wouldnât exist without the support of workers âless thanâ them.
Correspondingly, gender divisions may not necessarily mean an assignation of âlesserâ or âgreaterâ when compared against each other. In medieval Europe, at least, the creation of textiles was split along the general lines of spinning and weaving. Women held the former (hence âspinsterâ), and men held the latter. Spinning was often not formalized into guilds then, but it was an important cornerstone of the economy that could support entire families. A guest post on The Freelance History Writerâs blog seems to indicate that this gender division was due to influence by the Bible, which seems to corroborate with the history of both professions as detailed on Wikipedia - the further back we go, and also the less connected to Christianity, the more textile work women presided over. This granted them greater control over their presence in society, since the selling of textiles was useful leverage to support themselves and others.
A similar discrepancy can be found with agriculture. Hamer women in Ethiopia are traditionally the one to cultivate sorghum, a cornerstone crop to their diet, and they exhibit preferences in which varieties they grow according to criteria such as which is easiest to grind and long-term storage feasibility (Citation 19). Accordingly, thereâs been an increasing orientation around the growing of crops rather than the pastoralist habits of their men, with trading standards occuring at one goat for one Dore (âpile of maize or sorghumâ) (Citation 19).
A study examining the male sphere of hunting within a society discusses the various cultural implications of defendable vs non-defendable meat sharing, with respect to how the meat is distributed and its corresponding social range (e.g. immediate social circle vs entire community), something I find interesting given that the kilocalories obtained from meat is roughly equal to that of the female sphere-acquired agriculture/gathering (Citation 20). The division of labour along gender lines when it comes to food flow in a community seems, historically, to be both comparable and compatible to each other - a recurring theme with many of the topics Iâve already covered.
Gender roles in their historical perspective - especially the further back you go - are often complimentary to each other, and are an economical way to divide up the burden of maintaining a society to a functional level. There are plenty of exceptions to this (see: third genders), as well, and many cultures exhibit the idea that a productive person is good for society; their roles may look a little different from the person next to them, and not only is the work considered equal in terms of importance, but also with a bit of poking around, youâll find that few cultures have harsh punishments for anyone âstepping outsideâ their predicted roles.
Men are already objectified plenty. That their treatment by society looks different than womenâs, or other genders, is by no means an excuse to sweep things under the room and pretend that they have it best - or worse, purposefully ostracize them in a fictional work to further mock, ridicule, and isolate them. This contributes to the societal issues in your culture that you wish to address, and stems from a uniquely pervasive perspective from modern American culture that differs from many other cultures in the world.
TL;DR - The way you wish to objectify men is already being done, especially in American culture. It is harmful, and will have an impact that will reach further than you might anticipate. This approach is counterproductive to your goals, and the cultures/media you cite either directly contradict your beliefs of said sources or otherwise undermine your beliefs. It is vastly more productive to take a deeper look at the origins of the issues you wish to address in your writing, as well as the reference material that you wish to use. Learning perspectives outside your native culture will benefit you immensely, and the results could surprise you.
Citation 1 - Â PDF - Doepke, M., Tertilt, M., Voena, A.. (2012). âThe Economics and Politics of Womenâs Rights,â Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 4(1), pages 339-372, 07.
Citation 2 - PDF - FernĂĄndez, R.. (2014). âWomenâs rights and development,â Journal of Economic Growth, vol 19(1), pages 37-80.
Citation 3 - PDF - Â Duflo, E. (2012). âWomenâs Empowerment and Economic Developmentâ, Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. 50, No. 4: 1051-79.
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Medieval Icelandic Law (The GrĂĄgĂĄs) â Womenâs Rights: On Reclaiming Property during Separation. By @fjorn-the-skald
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Feral: So, obviously, everything Tex just said- round of effing applause!
I do want to hone in on one specific part of your ask, âsince part of my goal is to use the swap to highlight some inequalities that still exist in our gender expectations today by flipping themâ and direct you to this blog post on Mythcreants specifically addressing the Persecution Flip Story and why itâs not a great idea from a social justice perspective.
