blotsandcreases:

Why did your lot hate women so much?

Like I’m currently taking a course on Southeast Asian Culture and History, with some focus on the Philippines, my motherland. And before the coming of the Spaniards in 1521, the situation in the Philippines was as close to utopia imaginable.

Whilst women in European Middle Ages were being barred from inheriting, from receiving respect, from literacy, in the Philippines people (1) traced their lineage from both mother and father; (2) received equal inheritance regardless of gender and birth order; (3) were not aware of the concepts of virginity and chastity, hence women being as active in courtship and sexual relationships as the men; (4) had long hair and pierced ears regardless of gender; (5) had only a single pronoun; (6) had only a single word for husband and wife; (7) covered only their genitals because they thought that the body is a work of art and meant to be seen, but genitals are to be protected because they’re a source of power; (8) had a very different way of viewing power: it’s about balance, not dominance and violence; (9) viewed menstruation as an excess of power of the women; (10) had the men come live in the house of their new wives; (11) had the men or his family pay the bride price before marriage, which the woman will keep for the rest of her life; (12) allowed both men and women to practice divorce; (13) had women in charge of the money, etc.

And then the Spaniards came, with their new religion, and beheld the natives. The Spaniards were appalled by all these cultural differences. They burned the natives’ records, histories, written literature, to “save” these “uncivilized” “savages.”

But today, even now that preoccupations on virginity are present, rape is still an unspeakably heinous crime, right up there with murder. And when a man commits violence against a woman, he is regarded as less than a human, almost an animal but infinitely beneath even an animal.

When I first studied my readings I cried in anger.

Listen. At least two of my great-grandparents were Spanish themselves, so I have this conflicted feeling of owing my very existence to circumstances in history, but there’s also this anger and resentment. (Similarly mixed-race post-colonial people, I’d appreciate it if you share how you deal with this.)

And it’s a big part of why I love Dornish nationalism and resistance so much (and the North’s, to an extent). Dorne is almost exactly like pre-colonial Philippines except that they were victorious against the conquerors, and I revel in that in fantasy literature.

And so the next time I see “But that’s how it was in the Middle Ages,” in connection to criticisms of sexism and misogyny in fantasy literature (there can be dragons but there can be no different cultures re: women across continents apparently), I’ll be like, “lol, YOUR middle ages, my pal. YOUR history.”