#they conduct marriages and keep records and engage in Theological debate and advise the Priest | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

hedge-rambles · 5 months ago

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Y'know, this really kinda works because I was thinking along the lines of a sort of...religious function? Like, at yes, Honourables are vital to the spiritual wellbeing of society and the household, somehow???

And it might be tough to reconcile a patriarchal religious structure which was a kinda important part of the development of Victorian ideals, with it being run by non-binary individuals. Which, yeah I don't have a solid answer for that currently, but it would lead neatly into the idea established above though.

A lot of local administration and record keeping in Europe before that era was the purview of the church. They recorded marriages, births and deaths for example. And they also made up the vast majority of the literate and educated class for hundreds of years. Many early academics of all bents were, first and foremost, clergy. Early universities were religious institutions first, evolving from church and monastic schools.

So it kinda makes sense for it to move from a more spiritual (but still administrative and advisory) role to academia, admin and advise.

I don’t think adding nonbinary to Victorian’s gender system would’ve fixed their weird sexism. If anything I think it would’ve made them weirder and sexismier

#writing #worldbuilding #on the church structure though I can kinda see it like a tiered system with reserved roles?#like you don't work your way up from priest to bishop to cardinal or whatever #higher ranks are reserved for Men because those are Leadership Roles #however you'd have like...the sermon is led by a Priest but there's the Honorable Whatever as an important part #they conduct marriages and keep records and engage in Theological debate and advise the Priest #a lot of institutions I think would require dual teams of men and honourables actually #men are important to lead and make the final call on important matters #but good lord you wouldn't want one to be making those decisions on their own - they need an honourable or two to advise them #also thinking about how this would work with aristocrats and nobles #like there's the tradition of an heir and a spare and one more sent to the clergy #but there's always talk about so and so noble house #did you hear? their firstborn was actually a son not an honourable #yes I heard quite the scandal he wanted to read books all day so they quite made it up - can you imagine the shame?#20th century rancid feminist discourse is forever arguing over which famous Honorable was really a Lady who pretended so she could study #groundbreaking figures of the gender equality movements include people coming out as cis #Famed researcher Dr Smith reveals ''I've always been a man but back then I felt I had to pretend to be Mx Smith to be taken seriously''

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