The Feminine Dilemma

Philippa Abang 0:00
Hi lovelies, and welcome to our first official episode. Can we just get a squeal for this? I am so, so excited. I hope your week has been great, because my week has been amazing and I'm very happy. Hope you can hear the happiness my voice, and I hope the happiness is contagious to you as well. You can just get a little bit of it. If your week has not been good, I am sending you some of my happiness so you can have it as well. So to start off this podcast, our podcast is geared towards women and women issues, a woman faces. We will be discussing it on this podcast. I hope you have already listened to our trailer. If you haven't listened to our trailer, I would advise you to go back and listen to it , to give you, like, a spill of what this podcast is going to be about. And to kick up everything we are going to be talking about, women's rights, gender equality, and how did we get into this dilemma of it all you know. So let's just begin. So like one of the biggest questions we ask ourselves when we see a new law being passed, or, even worse, a law that was protecting our rights being removed, it's like, how did we get here? Everybody's favorite question, including mine, when it comes to women's rights, particularly around fertility, autonomy and social rules, that question becomes even more pressing. Like, how did we in the 21st freaking century arrive at a place where we are still debating women's rights to make decisions over their own bodies, their futures and their roles in society? Like, who? Why? Why? You know, like, why? So, where did women start losing our rights? Is there like a hallmark somewhere, Hallmark movies somewhere, that is like, oh yeah, this is the time, day, place, address that a woman first lost her rights. So and then it set in motion series of events, unfortunate events that led to women always being questioned about our rights to just be human beings. You know, crazy. How did we get here? First of all, when it comes to women's rights, particularly around fertility and autonomy, we will need to go back way back before we can even discuss gender roles as we know them today. We have to ask ourselves, like, when do women start losing their rights? When were women stripped of the ability to make choices for themselves? When did they lose their places, leadership and decision making? And like, who decided that women's function was only just biological, just to make children. Basically, that's what it has boiled down to today. As we all know it is just to make offspring, to bring more human beings into the world, to be worker bees, basically, because if we go far enough, we can see the patterns, one where women were not always restricted to just a single role. So let's think about like women in early societies, like women who were in like Africa, Asia and indigenous country, cultures in North America, women often held substantial positions in their communities. Leadership wasn't solely a man's domain. Women were warriors. Women were healers. Women were spiritual guides and decision makers. They were not just confined to the idea that our only purpose was to reproduce or domestic labour like if you were good at something, you did it, like if you had wisdom, people listened, or you were put into positions that helped you expand your knowledge and build upon that knowledge and influence your societies to make them better. And if you were strong, you fought. It's like when I talk to my moms and tells me like stories about like our community, and back in the days before colonialism, you hear so many stories about how women had so many powers. Women had so many roles in society. Women were the cornerstones of our society, but now things have shifted away from that, and things are not as they were before, which is very, very sad when I hear stories and I look at my community like whole 180 different so like, when did this shift happen? Like when this western society begin enforcing strict gender roles, limiting women's choices and pushing those who stepped outside of that assigned place. So I did, like, a little investigation into, like, some punishments and some women that were punished, to think about, just to think about how crazy that is. We're punished for just being human beings, literally, you think about it, every human being has the ability to do more than just a biological function. So we think about, we always know, like, we always hear about, like the witch trials of the 1800s and all of that women who practice medicine, midwives, and even had knowledge of herbs and other things, were labeled witches. 1000s were tortured, burnt, hang. But suppose witchcraft like being a healer, you are a witch. I was also like, put in, like a little anime story in here. If you guys have ever seen Castlevania, like the first episode, first season, where Dracula's wife was being killed, literally, basically she was labeled a witch, basically, witch trials, they were literally burnt her alive because she was, what a doctor, yes. So another thing I found out was, like, in Scotland, they had this scold bridle. Was like a mental noose that was locked onto women's head to silence those who spoke like women that would talk and discuss in public about like public issues they like, or be loud to their husbands, or their socities or reject norms they'll be like they're talking too much. Give her the bridle. The bridle silence her immediately that. Think that's how they said it. But I'm just saying, you know, also the duck's stool, was also the 1800s was used when women were accused of being argumentative or rebellious, they were strapped to a chair and submerged in water. I think this one was one I really kind of got more aware to, like, two years ago when I saw, like a video on tick tock where they should like, things that were being done to women, inhumane things that were being done to women. Like I saw. The story that I saw that made me aware of this ducking stool was the woman, I think she was like, someone's wife, and she was being like, asking questions, and he just, like, tied her to the chair, they dunk her in the water. I was like, dang. That is just crazy. Like, why would you just do that to a human being? Like, did they do anything wrong? Also foot binding. Foot binding is like the Chinese one, where they tied a woman's foot, so the woman's foot can be small, and it's also still being practiced. Until today, I saw a documentary about it, like last year, where women are still being in certain communities. It's like a very niche small group of women, course, it was definitely banned, that are still actually doing them just, and I just see their foot, I'm just like, Oh my goodness. Just very, very like, squished, and they can't even walk properly either, too. So it's like, what is the the means to an end of this whole practice? Like there was no comfort to be gotten from this at the end of it, just like a beautification thing, I guess. I guess also the beauty is subjective to whoever is the admirer of that art form, I guess. But to me, I was just like, that looks very, very painful, and they start from a very young age too, as well, also honour killings. Oh, my goodness. This is something that is still going on till today. Literally yesterday, my sister was telling me a story about how a woman was being killed. Was it in Dubai or Saudi Arabia? One of those Middle Eastern countries. Was being killed by her brother. Was killed by her brother, I said being killed like she was killed by her brothers, like the honor killing for I think that she exposed herself. It's not , like she was naked, naked. I've I've forgotten what exactly she did, but yeah, she was exposed. Basically, she didn't follow the norms of the religion and how you should dress, and yeah, they literally killed her to preserve face. That what it was literally just preserves faces. She was not she didn't commit a crime. She just wasn't appropriate to their standards. Crazy, crazy, crazy. If you look as like you want to look at America specifically. So many women who were killed , hung, drug put in barrels. I was like this. I found out so many different ways women were being tortured, not just women, mostly, but people back in the days those very creative ways of torturing people, especially us. My own deep dive was just for women were being tortured for crimes that were just insignificant, insignificantly stupid

that you will accuse anybody of committing such a thing. Women that were midwives, were doctors, were killed, women that some of the slave women that brought their knowledge from Africa into America, they were using the knowledge of herbs and just childbirth and everything that they knew, trying to help the white women and themselves to make their lives and their pregnancies better. Were killed treated in the most inhumane way because the men didn't like what they didn't like that they were smarter than them. Basically. That was it was more like a jealousy thing, not like, Oh, you're hurting anybody. Was more of a jealousy thing that, how dare you know this? How dare you shine more than me in this in this area, very crazy, even Native American. I think something that we don't really talk about is like, how Native Americans as well were being killed for such things as were also being killed in the witch trials as well. I think that's not a topic that has been like people don't really think about, but yeah, Native American women were also being killed for witch trials because they too. Remember when Native American women held substantial positions in the society. They were not just seen as, Oh, baby making machines. They were seen as whole human beings that had autonomy and had the ability to think function and make educated contributions into the society. So they held positions of power they haunted. They did everything that they needed there was not like, oh, a sexual thing. Oh, your body a woman, you're weak this and that it was like, Oh, you're part of community. You have something to offer the community. Let us hear you out. That was it. So they held positions of power in their community. So when those women would try to, like, help the white women, the white men were having issues with it, and some white women too as well. I have issues with it. And they would report those women. Those women were being killed too as well. Like one of the one of the punishments that I read into that was kind of new to me to hear, for the first time, was being pressed. Like, what the heck is being pressed? I was thinking like juice presser. But if you think about it too, it was actually like a juice presser. So basically, they would lay the person on the floor, and they will put like a large wooden plank over you, that will cover your whole surface of the person, and they will put stones upon you like every day depends on, depending if they won't do like every day to kill you or torture you slowly, or they will do like over a period of time, basically that they of their choosing, and they will add stones over you gradually and gradually until it's squished you. Oh, my goodness. This isn't that just crazy, horrible. Think about it. You'll literally be dying slowly, such a freaking painful death. Like the people that came up with this thing are just very insidious kind of people. Like, why would anybody sit down and think of such a horrible crime, a horrible punishment to give to somebody that's just wow. But anyway, back to what we're talking about. I just went on a little spill there. If you can see the real question is, like, who decided this? Who was a person who decided, I feel like we could all think in our heads like it's a man that's began this. I know, I know that's what I think. So I think a man that was angry at a woman for doing something more than him, that was more intelligent than him. He got mad, and then he called her, witch, and then, you know, that was it. That was it. That's all he needed to say. And everybody else, foolishly, without thinking, followed him. So the decisions were reinforced, they were justified, and they were passed down until it became a deeply ingrained in people, and people forgot to question all these horrific acts. Women did not just fall into oppression. It was built, it was structured, it was maintained, and it was intentional, which means what it can be undone. So what comes next? If history has shown us anything, it is that oppression is never permanent. The fight for gender equality isn't about giving women's rights. It's about restoring what was taken. So as we continue to see new laws, new debates, new restrictions, let us always ask, who is benefiting from this? Who profits from controlling women? And most importantly, how do we break the cycle? Because history doesn't end with the first punishment, and neither does our fight. So ladies, that was a little intense first episode, I think, or maybe it was light and airy. Who knows? Depends on you. Depends on what your take is. I don't know, but let me know down in the comment section, I will catch you guys in our next episode. I am so excited. I hope you guys have a lovely rest of your week and a lovely weekend bye.