Queen Hatshepsut
Mummy Reveals Egyptian Queen Was Fat, Balding and Bearded
My favorite quote from this article was
"More startling, the descriptions of Hatshepsut suggest that women haven't changed all that much over the centuries."
It makes me wonder if women haven't been struggling against misogyny all this time, and only now have the free time to be effective? A friend just told me that Ancient Egyptian women may have been better off than many women of the past.
Egyptian women owned property, were equal to men under the law (could file divorce, sue, appear in court. etc.), could become literate and professional (there were female doctors and office workers), seem to have been sexually empowered, and had the right to rule (right of rule was matriarchal, but the queen usually transferred power to her husband--a Hatshepsut and other ruling queens refused to transfer power or refused to marry).
And that is why the fight for women's rights will never end - women had rights then, but we lost it.
But this article is more about the Queen's physical features. You'd have to be an idiot or complete misogynist to actually be surprised that human women have not changed in such a short span of time. But if you can't make women feel bad that they aren't as great as they used to be, and you reveal that obesity and hair loss are normal, then suddenly, women might stop starving themselves. No one wants that.
Wikipedia's article on Malnutrition has this to say:
An array of afflictions ranging from stunted growth, reduced intelligence and various cognitive abilities, reduced sociability, reduced leadership and assertiveness, reduced activity and energy, reduced muscle growth and strength, and poorer health overall are directly implicated to nutrient deficiencies.
Women are accused of not being good leaders, they are traditionally shorter and have less muscle mass than men. They did not participate in sports, and our capacity for rational thought is put into question all the time.
Women and men may not be that different physically after all. I read, in my second Women's Studies class, that our society has systematically malnourished women (and here, when I say society, I mean world society) - first due to lack of resources, and now as a way to keep women buth "fuckable" (want to be a size 0?) and suffering the effects of hunger.
Note the attempts to erase this woman from the history.
2 comments:
I learned in my Southeast Asian History class in undergrad that women were considered equal to men until the Christians and Muslims infiltrated that part of the world. Women initiated over half the divorces and were considered better merchants. When Europeans would go to trade, the dudes would get all pissed because they had to deal with women.
That's somewhat similar to what I read in the book "When God Was A Woman". Apparently the Middle Eastern religions were matriarchal/equitable and also polytheistic until Judaism and Christianity took hold.
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