Sisters.

We look at each other now, thinking it over. Are we sisters, the scribe and I?

I have no hesitation, I would never have come near her without making sure of something like that. If I am thinking, it’s because I sense that she doesn’t trust me, that much. I’m not surprised, there is great turmoil in the scribal mind at this time, fresh wounds in her heart.

She claims now the rights of ancient Sisterhood. She offers evidence in the strange things that keep happening to her- that blur her borders, in her sensitivity to the earth, in her defense of the rights of women. She reminds me that Pandor is a feminist, which seems to fly in the face of everything he writes, but in fact I have heard him say he exercises dominance over all things equally, it being his nature. Certainly women get the best of him, dominance seems to be a shifting force in his own life, whether he admits to it or not.

Leaving him out of it, he can argue his own case, let’s look at some of the things torturing her at this time. I will begin by pointing out that her thoughts are always influenced by what she is reading. She lives through the rigorous Pandoric Process, which you have yet to meet. It involves attacking herself from all angles until she has no choice but to find her own thoughts, all that she accepts as real, explained or not, she must be able to defend it. Absorb the information, tear it to shreds, that’s the standard procedure in the scribal head, and there are those who think her arrogant for it. You, perhaps.

What can you say when accepted wisdom is stupid? What do you do when the contradictions force your mind to extreme cognitive dissonance? When you literally can’t believe your senses, every minute of every day?

We know, the scribe and I, the true nature of misogyny. How the seeds live inside us.

The book* that struck her in the head, poorly named for such a serious subject, is a summary of feminist archeology, anthropology and history. It dishes out the evidence for neolithic matriarchy, a time of peace and plenty, since women ran things. A shortage of war weapons, a proliferation of Goddess statues, this kind of thing. (No, they’re not early porn.) An orderly world that still had rankings, apparently no one minded, but it was brutally destroyed by the forces of Androcracy. Barbarian foreign invaders sweeping through their world and finding them easy prey. Slash and burn, wreck things, look tremendously fierce, that’s all it takes to overthrow millennia of idealistic living.

That’s all it took to convince women that we are less than men.

Forced conversion, a blade literally at your throat, by all means say what you must to live, but how dare you believe it? How dare you hand it all over, en masse, like mindless sheep, are you telling me you had no protests? You that used to rule the world? You deserve to get kicked off your throne if you aren’t willing to fight for it.

The scribe reminds me that not all women are warriors, I remind her that we have been taught to think so. Like we can’t be both givers of life, and fighters. But if fear keeps you chained, I say you need a sister, one of us. I will in stand front of you, he will have to get through me to get to you. That will hurt him. Then we will have to sweep your mind clean of everything that doesn’t actively benefit you. What have you been taught? Do you really believe that men should make decisions for you? Why? How is it working out for you? If you’re content to be ruled, that’s your business, but don’t make your daughters pay for your selfishness, don’t have them.

The naked truth is that men rule us because we let them. We are fully half of the population, they all need to sleep at some point, why haven’t we forced a renegotiation yet? Why haven’t we adopted the, clearly successful, androcratic ideology and picked up a hammer?

Another ugly truth, we are not all sisters. Too many of us betray our own gender to be considered part of the family.

Too many of us are willing to take orders from guys in long robes that throw a few lightning bolts. See this flash of light? Did you hear that thunder? I am a superior being! Worship me and take down what I say, immediately or I will- what? More lightning I guess, make sure you get this down, quick now,

“The essence of everything, and I mean everything, is that those of you with penises are much better than those without. You tainted others will carry seed for them and turn it into little men that have no traces of you. Men that beat you often so you get the message in your skin and bones. They will take the children from you and teach them my Essential Truth. Those who do not Believe must be made to.”

Poof! Guy disappears, man turns to woman and shows her a knife, or his penis, it’s much the same. Woman shrugs and says, ‘okay, whatever, but you have to feed me and give me somewhere to live. You have to feed your kids.’

“Woman, you understand that you’re my property, you know everything I do is wise and just, don’t question it. Are you a true Believer?”

Sure. Whatever you say.

“Underwater”  by HANNA

*“The Chalice and the Blade”  by  Riane Eisler   A sad read.