#biblical patriarchs

[promptuarium]

ISAAC, son of Abraham and Sarah, was born 14 years after Ishmael. He was offered up as a sacrifice when he was 13, or as others would have it 25, which was the 2073rd year of the world and the 1889th year before Christ was born.

When he was 40 he took as a wife Rebecca, daughter of Bethuel the Syrian, from Mesopotamia, sister of Laban, as his father Abraham had decided. When he was 60 twins were born to him and Rebecca. The first was Esau, red and hairy all over, and the other was Jacob, who came out immediately after, holding his brother's foot in his hand. When Isaac was 180 he died, and was returned to his people. See Genesis ch. 25 and 35, also Josephus, Antiquities book 1, ch. 26 and 28.

[lionofchaeronea]

Abraham and the Three Angels, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, ca. 1770

[haggishlyhagging]

Carol Ochs, in The Myth Behind the Sex of God, discusses the story of Abraham, Isaac and Sarah and finds that in order to prove that Abraham is not rooted in the older tradition, God demands that he renounce the most fundamental tenet of the matriarchal religion and kill his own child. Abraham's choice is between the matriarchal principle of protecting his child and the patriarchal principle of following an abstract ethic, obedience to God. Abraham passes the test and is pronounced fit to be the father of a new, patriarchal religion.

Naomi Goldenberg maintains that giving voice to biblical women cannot save Judaism or the Old Testament for, as she says, "The nature of the religion lies in interplay between a father-God and his Sons. In such a religion, women will always be on the periphery." Some women scholars advocate the complete abandonment of Judaism and Christianity. Others are working to reform these traditions by removing various sexist practices. Goldenberg sees the reformers as engaged in a hopeless effort. She feels that it is futile to defend patriarchal creeds.

-Shirley Ann Ranck, Cakes for the Queen of Heaven

[runthepockets]

I think a big reason I liked Jacob's Ladder as much as I did is just how vulnerable and compassionate it is for a movie about being a fuckin Vietnam War vet.

When Jacob's back home he's working as a postal worker and he's not bitching about how emasculating it is to just be an every day commoner instead of a killer with unlimited access to tactile weaponry and sex with women who don't really have a lot of other options (Vietnamese civilians or sex workers), he's explicitly a pretty humble, insightful, well read dude and has a pretty respectable friendgroup and a lot of luck with women because of it. A lot of the movie is him crying and being observant and inquisitive rather than taking charge of every situation, repressing trauma, and assuming he knows everything. Every character in the film is pretty empathetic to Jacob's struggles, the most vocal being a hippy who was forced to work for the military lest he be shipped of to Riker's Island for (checks notes) doing drugs and giving a shit about other human beings via attending protests, and the ones who shame him for being depressed and severely mentally ill (The nurse at his psych's office, his current girlfriend Jezebel) are coded to be emotionally jarring and semi-unpleasant characters to deal with for being so.

It really struck me at the end when he makes enough peace with his life on Earth to go towards the light and the person waiting to escort him to heaven is his dead son, Gabe, rather than Jezebel or his ex-wife Sarah or a random FWB that they could've thrown in twice and expected us to feel empathy for and remember for the whole movie, cus that's not usually how movies like that end. It's very explicit that he gives a shit about his family-- as people, not status symbols-- from how much time he spends lamenting leaving his wife and crying over pictures and flashbacks of himself hanging out with his Gabe before he got drafted. It was all very refreshing.

[radmalenia]

Completely true, however I think there's another important thing to mention here - not only did the events of the story also directly effect her, and despite that no concern or empathy is given to her - but also none of it had anything to do with her. It was all about Job. It all happened because of him and him alone, right? As far as I remember, the story is all about god testing Job and his faith.

So, neither god nor Job really gave a shit about how Job's wife would feel on having her own children and family and home and life uprooted and taken away like this. To the males of patriarchal religious myths, wives are an afterthought and part of their own property. God doesn't think of the unfairness of hurting Job's wife for his religious test because he doesn't see her with the personhood he gives Job; he sees her as a part of Job's possessions and therefore her own character and her own desires about her own children don't matter in the end. She isn't named, she isn't consulted; no quarter is made for how his sadism to Job will also harm her.

Of course, this is because this god and his behavior was written by the misogynistic men who thought up the myth. And yes - in like turn, all the misogynistic men who follow the religion to this day approach the myth with the same mentality and the same blindness to female experience and humanity; and none of these pastors and theologians who claim to analyze all these biblical stories every way under the sun ever see this tremendous flaw. And if they did see it, they would make up a hundred excuses.

Idk I think Job's wife really went off when she told him to curse God and die. It's interesting how there's no oxygen for her suffering in the narrative. She lost her children too. She lost her home too. Her health was taken from her too. Everything she had was stripped away by God. And yet there's no compassion for her. Not in the narrative nor in the commentaries or the sermons. She isn't even named.

[bills-bible-basics]

BIBLICAL NATIONS OF ABRAHAM -- KJV (King James Version) Bible Verse List #Scriptures #BibleStudy #BibleVerses Visit https://www.billkochman.com/VerseLists/ to see more. In the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament, when the Scriptures speak about the nations descended from Abraham, it is talking about the Twelve Patriarchs of the Twelve Tribes of Israel and their descendants. In other words, a tribe is a nation in a Biblical sense. Thus, the Twelve Tribes were Twelve Nations which comprised the whole nation of Israel. We see the very same thing happening with Ishmael, who was Abraham's son by his Egyptian handmaid, Hagar. Similar to Jacob, Ishmael had twelve sons who were twelve princes, who each ruled over their own nation -- or tribe -- of people. That is, their descendants. At the same time, not to be confused, the word "nations" is also used in the Scriptures to signify non-Israelite nations who did not worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They are also referred to as Gentiles, from the Hebrew "goy", or plural "goyim". "And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and THOU SHALT BE A FATHER OF MANY NATIONS. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; FOR A FATHER OF MANY NATIONS HAVE I MADE THEE. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I WILL MAKE NATIONS OF THEE, and KINGS SHALL COME OUT OF THEE . . . And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and SHE SHALL BE A MOTHER OF NATIONS; KINGS OF PEOPLE SHALL BE OF HER." Genesis 17:1-6, 15-16, KJV "And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; Seeing that Abraham SHALL SURELY BECOME A GREAT AND MIGHTY NATION, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?" Genesis 18:17-18, KJV "And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; TWELVE PRINCES SHALL HE BEGET, and I WILL MAKE HIM A GREAT NATION . . . Now these are the generations of Ishmael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarahs handmaid, bare unto Abraham: And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, according to their generations: the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebajoth; and Kedar, and Adbeel, and Mibsam, And Mishma, and Dumah, and Massa, Hadar, and Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah: These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their towns, and by their castles; TWELVE PRINCES ACCORDING TO THEIR NATIONS." Genesis 17:20, 25:12-16, KJV "And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD. And the LORD said unto her, TWO NATIONS ARE IN THY WOMB, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger." Genesis 25:21-23, KJV "And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed him. And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel. And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; A NATION AND A COMPANY OF NATIONS SHALL BE OF THEE, AND KINGS SHALL COME OUT OF THY LOINS;" Genesis 35:9-11, KJV "And when Joseph saw that his father [Jacob/Israel] laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head unto Manasseh's head. And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father: for this is the firstborn; put thy right hand upon his head. And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it: he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and HIS SEED SHALL BECOME A MULTITUDE OF NATIONS." Genesis 48:17-19, KJV If you would like more info regarding the origin of these KJV Bible verse lists, go to https://www.billkochman.com/VerseLists/. Thank-you! https://www.billkochman.com/Blog/index.php/biblical-nations-of-abraham-kjv-king-james-version-bible-verse-list/?feed_id=242824&BIBLICAL%20NATIONS%20OF%20ABRAHAM%20--%20KJV%20%28King%20James%20Version%29%20Bible%20Verse%20List

[bristolchurch]

Culture Clash: Unmasking the Curry of Unchristian Behaviours in Indian Christianity

Within the tapestry of Indian Christianity, the vibrant colours of culture intermingle with the threads of faith. However, in the midst of this beautiful fusion, we must acknowledge that certain unchristian behaviours have found their way into churches today. Influenced by the cultural landscape of India, these behaviours can distort the true essence of Christianity and hinder its transformative…

[liesmyth]

@moscca you're right and you should say it! Here's a really great compilation of Taz quotes I've been keeping in mind

From an interview where she says that Lovecraft was one of her main inspirations, talks about her relationship with horror vs. sff as a genre author, and wanting to find relatable heroines in horror lit.

I didn’t write Gideon the Ninth for the characters—I wrote it entirely for the structure. I wanted to tell a very specific story, and I needed everything to serve that story.

I want people to realise there are no boundaries. I also want to release people from having to take their universe entirely seriously, if they don’t want to. Science fiction and fantasy reflects ourselves, our anxieties, our joys. I’m just writing to amuse myself, as per usual.

I am writing for my younger self and it would be disgusting of me to try to teach her anything.

(& other quotes from that same interview)

Although love and forgiveness aren’t necessarily the same thing either, Gideon’s frankly divine ability to forgive is a huge core of the novel. [...] Forgiveness is almost the electrical current being able to transmit through love.

The way I personally stay true to the story I started down on is to give myself permission to not teach anyone anything. [...] I know that a lot of people do take enormous pleasure and relief in lines or phrases or ideas from stories that ring true to their own lives, but it’s important for me that I tell a story and that I’m not writing Chicken Soup for the Necromantic Soul.

...the God of the Locked Tomb IS a man; he IS the Father and the Teacher; it’s an inherently masc role played by someone who has an uneasy relationship himself to playing a Biblical patriarch. John falls back on hierarchies and roles because they’re familiar even when he’s struggling not to. But the divine in the Locked Tomb is essentially feminine on multiple axes.

It seems to me that most books by anyone female-adjacent have an expectation that they will comfort the uncomfortable and discomfit the comfortable etc., whereas a guy can just tell an adventure story and be done with it. This ties in with an idea that I think nowadays that good art is moral and bad art is immoral: i.e. if a story is good it must somehow be beautiful on the moral scale. We go looking for why the art we love is moral even if the art we love is a donut.

[weirdlookindog]

John Collier (1850–1934) - Lilith, 1887

“Lilith has had many faces throughout history. Originally, she was worshiped as a Sumerian goddess, who lived with the Snake and the Anzu bird tribe of the World Tree. At the command of the goddess Inana, the tree was split and Lilith fled to an unknown area. In Aramaic legends and incantations, the name Lilith appears as a term for demons that haunt man at night and have been held responsible for the sudden infantile death. While the biblical translation of Martin Luther seeks the name Lilith in vain, it is described in other Bible translations that the home of Lilith is the desert. The modern emancipation has chosen Lilith as a symbol for the independence of the woman. It represents the counterpart to Eve, who submits to patriarchal rule. The roots are in the Jewish-emancipatory theology. Lilith is the learned strong woman who, unlike Eve, resists the temptations of the devil and defies the rule of Adam, the man. As the first woman of Adam, according to another tradition, she has led God to betray his holy name. She asked for wings from God and flew away. In his painting, Collier focuses on the demonic side of Lilith as a sensual and seductive woman and symbol of sexuality. Compositionally as well, apart from Lilith, everything else stays in the shade. Through the serpent, with whom she lives in harmony, Lilith is staged as an antithesis to Eve and as an ally of the dark side. This is her fate in the modern media world, where she usually takes on the role of evil” source

[fairuzfan]

How history directly plays a part in the colonization of Palestine

"The modern claim that Joseph's Tomb is directly related to the biblical Joseph appears to have emerged as a result of claims by William Cooke Taylor in the 1830s. Cooke was an Irish journalist traveling in the area motivated by interest in biblical history but with no expertise in the field. Although in his writings he claims the site was believed be the tomb of the patriarch and that all the religions agreed as much, no other geographers who ventured into the area in the decades that followed reported anything of the sort. And it is unclear from his writings what local Palestinians, the people who were actually living in and around the shrine and worshipping there, believed about the shrine. British geographers subsequently took up Taylor's claim, however, and over the years it was forgotten that it had been more or less made up based on conjecture.

But the claims of biblical archaeologists had a strong role in how the Zionist movement would come to understand and conceive of the landscape.6 As European Jews migrated to Palestine in the first half of the twentieth century, they drew upon biblical archeology's claims. They adopted archeologists' claims that Palestinian holy sites were directly linked to ancient biblical figures. In many cases, they focused on occupying those sites in order to legitimize the colonial endeavor by giving it a sense of deeper history. In many cases, this would mean evicting the Palestinians who actually frequented these holy sites.

When Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967, religious Zionists began flocking to Joseph's Tomb. The tomb, which was previously open to pilgrims of all faiths, began to fall under exclusively Jewish control. As growing numbers of armed Jewish settlers were escorted to the tomb under military escort, the area became increasingly viewed with apprehension by Palestinians living around the site. In 1975, the Israeli military banned Palestinians – that is, the Samaritans, Muslims, and Christians living around the site – from visiting, a ban that has remained in place until this day. When I visited in summer 2015, the tomb was shut closed, but a sympathetic guard allowed me and a friend to look around, under his close watch.

Unsurprisingly, the ban has ignited intense anger over the years. This is true particularly given that frequent visits by Jewish settlers to the shrine are accompanied by hundreds of Israeli soldiers, who enter the area and run atop the rooftops of local Palestinians to “secure” the tomb. As a result, Joseph's Tomb has increasingly become associated with the Israeli military and settlement movement in the eyes of Palestinians. Its presence has become an excuse for frequent military incursions that provoke clashes and lead to arrests and many injuries in the neighborhood.7

Some fear that Israelis will attempt to take over the shrine to build an Israeli settlement around it. This fear is not unfounded, given the fact that Israeli settlers have done exactly that all across the West Bank in places they believe are connected in some way to Jewish biblical history. The notoriously violent Jewish settlements in Hebron, for example, were built there due to the location of the Tomb of the Patriarchs in that southern West Bank town. Following the initial years of settlement, settlers even managed to convince Israeli authorities to physically divide the shrine – which is holy to local Palestinians – and turn the whole area into a heavily-militarized complex. Other shrines have become excuses for the Israeli military to build army bases inside Palestinian towns, like Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem – which is surrounded by twenty-foot high concrete walls on three sides to block Palestinian access. The village of Nabi Samwel near Jerusalem, meanwhile, was demolished in its entirety to provide Jewish settlers access to the tomb at its heart."

—Excerpt from Why Do Palestinians Burn Jewish Holy Sites? The Fraught History of Joseph's Tomb by Alex Shams

[promptuarium]

JACOB, son of Isaac, fleeing to Haran from his brother, was kindly and cheerfully received by his uncle Laban. When he had stayed with him for a month,  it was agreed among them that he would have Rachel as a wife, if Jacob served Laban, Rachel’s father, for seven years. When the seven years were completed, Leah was substituted for Rachel. This deception was done according to custom, for it was not permitted for a younger sister to marry before the elder.

And so Jacob served for Rachel’s sake for another seven years again. Thus he had both sisters as wives, and with them both, and with their two slave-girls, he had twelve sons and one daughter. Joseph was born to him and Rachel in the 2200th year of the world and the 1762nd before Christ was born.

Jacob died on his 147th birthday in Egypt, where Joseph was, who had summoned his father there during seven years of famine. From there he was transported to Hebron, where his forefathers were buried. Genesis ch. 29 to the end. Josephus book 1, ch. 27.

[lionofchaeronea]

Joseph in Egypt, Jacopo Pontormo, 1515-18

[direquail]

One of the many things I find funny and irritating is the slant of a lot of interpretations of Alecto's name (that it's about feminine rage)--on this here wlw internet in the year of our lord 2024, it's easily made to figure as rage against God, or rage against patriarchy, or religious oppression, and therefore an allusion to the idea that she's going to get her vengeance on John for betraying and oppressing her somehow, but like

John is the one who named her Alecto. He's the one who named her that. So, naming her "Alecto" is alluding to the embodiment of John's rage--their rage, since they are joined inseparably (John even explicitly says that when he first perceives her: "You wouldn't stop screaming. You were so scared. You were so goddamn mad").

He says of Alecto to Harrow, "In a very real way, you are [Alecto's] children". At a very surface level, Alecto is (depending on the text or tradition), one of the Furies--famously, in several surviving Greek tragedies, who punish Orestes for the crime of killing his mother. In fact, in Aeschylus' Oresteia, they declare that they are specifically bound to avenge matricide.

So the name "Alecto" alludes to the nature of John's mission and how he sees it.

It also implies that his divine rage, the rage that gives him power, the power that makes him divine, that he either represents or wants to represent, is feminine rage. He was chosen by Earth (which, Furies are sometimes the daughters of Gaia); he is her champion, however he's managed to fuck that up. Once the truth of that comes out, it becomes clear that all of his power comes from her.

And that's why you get statements from Tamsyn Muir like:

“[T]he God of the Locked Tomb IS a man; he IS the Father and the Teacher; it’s an inherently masc role played by someone who has an uneasy relationship himself to playing a Biblical patriarch. John falls back on hierarchies and roles because they’re familiar even when he’s struggling not to. Even he identifies himself as the God who became man and the man who became God. But the divine in the Locked Tomb is essentially feminine on multiple axes – I think Nona will illuminate that a little bit more."

So yes, he plays the role of Emperor and God and Teacher, with all of the things that implies. And I don't think it should be discounted. But he also is (and partly sees himself as) the chosen champion of a goddess, or what is for all intents & purposes for a human like him a goddess. He is her avenger, and while she sleeps, her avatar.

And I don't think we're meant to read him purely as a parasite who's taking advantage of her to gain power for himself, either. Or an oppressive, Kronos-like figure. Especially if you consider Palamedes' theory of the Grand Lysis, even if he was purely motivated by desire for power before (which I really doubt), there are parts of each in the other, now. What was clear and separate before is uncertain and interpenetrated. Is his rage his own, or hers? Is his mission of revenge his, or hers? If he wants power, is that his own selfishness, or her desire to survive?

And does it matter?

[infiniteglitterfall]

About 30 years ago, an American botanist dug into the mud of a dried-up lake in China and found 1,000-year-old lotus seeds. She studied them carefully and put them in a pot on her lab's windowsill. They sprouted a few weeks later. "That took no effort. I thought that if she could do it, so can we," says Dr. Sarah Sallon, a pediatrician at Hadassah Medical Center, where she founded the Natural Medicine Research Center 25 years ago. The lotus that flowered on that windowsill in the United States sent Sallon on a years-long journey of raising date palms based on 2,000-year-old seeds. She even ate the fruit and then carried on with her botanical detective thriller.

At the end of her quest she proposed a solution to intriguing historical questions: What are the biblical plants tsori and afarsimon? What links them? And where did they disappear to?

....The fact that the Commiphora that sprouted [from their 1,000-year-old seed] resembled varieties found in Madagascar, not far from Sheba, adds to the hope that maybe the small plant is the legendary afarsimon that vanished from history in the eighth century. But alas, the plant at Kibbutz Ketura produced no aroma.

"We waited several years hoping that as it grew it might become fragrant. And we also sent specimens to chemists at the University of Western Australia and the University of Strasbourg in France," Sallon says. "What they found were almost no compounds associated with fragrance but many very medicinal ones including those with anti-inflammatory compounds."

Sallon, therefore, has a few key questions about the afarsimon. How is it that a plant that thrived for 1,000 years on large farms at the Dead Sea vanished without a trace? How is it that no archaeological excavation in the region, from Qumran in the north to Masada in the south, has found any afarsimon seeds?

....Cautiously, Sallon proposed a hypothesis for all the mysteries. She believes that the plant she found is a Commiphora that grew naturally at the Dead Sea, and that it may be the healing tsori mentioned in the Bible and known since the time of the Patriarchs.... [and that] ancient farmers used it as the stock for the aromatic Commiphora – the legendary afarsimon. This grafting gave Judean farmers the ability to grow large afarsimon fields and become a perfume powerhouse. This solution solves all the mysteries: Grafted plants often don't bear seeds, so no afarsimon seeds have been found at archaeological digs.

This is so cool. I can't believe people are sprouting seeds from archaeological digs and bringing extinct species back to life to learn about!

And it's so appropriate that it's two of the oldest cultures in the world that are doing this. I can't wait to see what else people will sprout!

[gffa]

Tamsyn Muir: “It’s undeniable that the Locked Tomb books are going to include my personal relationship to faith: 'being a gay Catholic' is like the book’s logline. That said, the God of the Locked Tomb IS a man; he IS the Father and the Teacher; it’s an inherently masc role played by someone who has an uneasy relationship himself to playing a Biblical patriarch. John falls back on hierarchies and roles because they’re familiar even when he’s struggling not to. Even he identifies himself as the God who became man and the man who became God. But the divine in the Locked Tomb is essentially feminine on multiple axes – I think Nona will illuminate that a little bit more. “I mean, before this all sounds too theological I fundamentally believe one of the internal engines of the whole series is what if the magical girl . . . was a guy in his thirties with some very weird friends?” This quote absolutely has me by the throat because it’s a fascinating insight into the themes of the book, but also a 100% hilariously accurate take. WHAT IF ONE OF THE INTERNAL ENGINES OF THE WHOLE SERIES WAS THAT THE MAGICAL GIRL OF THE SERIES WAS JUST SOME FUCKING GUY IN HIS 30S WITH A BUNCH OF WEIRD FRIENDS? Stellar.  Phenomenal.  Absolutely zero notes.  100/10 character choices.

[hadesoftheladies]

choice feminists consistently misattribute insult. feminist analysis is often taken to be infantilization, and doing so ironically shows a lack of maturity. but by far the most insidious thing about choice feminism is how it perverts the concept of empowerment to the point that women go to war fighting for dogshit treatment. they conflate being respected like a man with being like a man, which totally masks the fact that they are ritualistically disempowering themselves in an eternally rigged game.

bdsm choice feminists will say "pain gives me pleasure and i'm an adult!" and yet your male dom hisses and whines when he feels even the tiniest scrape of your teeth on his member. why does men's pleasure centre around their comfort? is he not empowered because he hasn't rationalized and eroticized his discomfort? why are you the exception?

christian choice feminists will say "i have a right to worship whomever i want" and yet your fellow male observers froth at the mouth whenever god is referred to as she. you see male as neutral and male and female as equal, yet your male leaders consistently do not. female is sexual or domestic. they can't stomach calling a metaphysically transcendent being she. why is "she" the exception? why are female biblical heroes exceptions?

muslim choice feminists will say "i get to wear the hijab" and yet male observers are not treated as inherently provocative for existing. why are you the exception?

female rappers or celebrities and women like them that dress in exceedingly impractical and revealing outfits say "my body my choice" and yet their more powerful and rich counterparts never have to do any of that on the red carpet or in their music videos. why are they the exception?

tradwives will say "it's my right to marry" and it is, but why do so few men marry without an education or job? why are they never told to do it young or quit their jobs to raise their kids? why is no man advocating for men's right to be stay-at-home dads? why are you the exception?

pro-makeup choice feminists will say "i choose to do this for fun!" and yet male counterparts have never once felt a need to shave or decorate their faces to minimize facial "flaws." they can walk anywhere, attend any party or job, without any performance or effort outside of hygiene and basic decorum. why are you the exception?

anti-separatist choice feminists will say "i have a right to pursue romantic relationships with men" and yet the men in their dating pool have zero interest in romance itself and pursue women for very different reasons. they don't risk their lives to date you, neither do they tolerate disrespect or disagreement with whoever they're dating. they don't allow themselves to be talked down to. they don't tolerate anyone they don't find exceedingly attractive unless they want a quick fuck. they don't patty-cake their opinions or tone police themselves or praise women for being women or fanboy about female sex characteristics, especially not for women they don't know. they don't defend the integrity of women. why are you the exception?

instead of asking this question, most of them would rather say that it is feminists that are insulting and infantilizing them for pointing out the way they are being insulted and infantilized by men via femininity and the performance of female socialization.

which makes it ironic. because it is immature for an adult to refuse to reflect on their choices. it is immature for an adult to invest in something they have been told time and time again is unstable and rife with fraud with poor returns. holding onto things that harm you because of peer pressure is something we hopefully outgrow post highschool. it is immature to believe something based on unsubstantiated evidence. to refuse to examine something potentially harmful simply because it gives you comfort.

i'm not going to be complicit in validating women's internalized masochism and misogyny because i refuse to agree with any patriarch on what a woman is or should be.