Peace for the Soul2024-03-29T09:00:13ZEva Librehttps://peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com/profile/Evahttps://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/8527231275?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1https://peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com/forum/topic/listForContributor?groupUrl=voices-of-women&user=1pvzyairvoimi&feed=yes&xn_auth=noGardens of Hopetag:peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com,2023-04-23:5143044:Topic:4540082023-04-23T19:16:26.256ZEva Librehttps://peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com/profile/Eva
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nwWIbZ4xjNs?wmode=opaque" allowfullscreen="" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0"></iframe>
Dr. Vandana Shiva: Wisdom for Our Environmental Crisis</p>
<p>∼ Great speech! ∼</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nwWIbZ4xjNs?wmode=opaque" allowfullscreen="" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0"></iframe>
Dr. Vandana Shiva: Wisdom for Our Environmental Crisis</p>
<p>∼ Great speech! ∼</p>
<p></p>
<p></p> Meghan Markle UN Womentag:peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com,2023-01-07:5143044:Topic:4365912023-01-07T18:24:41.546ZEva Librehttps://peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com/profile/Eva
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Zkb-zg4JCLk?wmode=opaque" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Zkb-zg4JCLk?wmode=opaque" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe> Michelle Obama & Tracee Ellis Ross in Conversation at The 2018 United State of Women Summittag:peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com,2023-01-07:5143044:Topic:4366432023-01-07T18:23:13.862ZEva Librehttps://peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com/profile/Eva
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/boB9modnMYQ?wmode=opaque" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/boB9modnMYQ?wmode=opaque" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe> Why we have too few women leaders | Sheryl Sandberg TED 22.3M subscribers Subscribetag:peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com,2023-01-07:5143044:Topic:4365862023-01-07T18:15:02.796ZEva Librehttps://peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com/profile/Eva
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/18uDutylDa4?wmode=opaque" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/18uDutylDa4?wmode=opaque" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe> Simona Kossak (1943-2007)tag:peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com,2021-09-01:5143044:Topic:3740482021-09-01T15:23:06.949ZEva Librehttps://peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com/profile/Eva
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/9518285268?profile=original" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><img class="align-full" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/9518285268?profile=RESIZE_710x"></img></a> <span class="font-size-1">Foto Lech Wilczek</span></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p>Simona Kossak (1943-2007) Polish biologist, ecologist, author, PhD in forestry, and uncompromising conservation activist.</p>
<p></p>
<p>They called her a witch, because she chatted with animals and owned a terrorist-crow, who stole gold and attacked bicycle riders.</p>
<p></p>
<p>She…</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/9518285268?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/9518285268?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a><span class="font-size-1">Foto Lech Wilczek</span></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p>Simona Kossak (1943-2007) Polish biologist, ecologist, author, PhD in forestry, and uncompromising conservation activist.</p>
<p></p>
<p>They called her a witch, because she chatted with animals and owned a terrorist-crow, who stole gold and attacked bicycle riders.</p>
<p></p>
<p>She spent more than 30 years in a wooden hut in the Białowieża Forest, without electricity or access to running water. A lynx slept in her bed, and a tamed boar lived under the same roof with her. She was a scientist, ecologist and the author of award-winning films, as well as radio broadcasts. She was also an activist who fought for the protection of Europe’s oldest forest. Simona believed that one ought to live simply, and close to nature. Among animals she found that which she never found with humans.</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="https://culture.pl/en/article/the-extraordinary-life-of-simona-kossak" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Here you can read more of this great woman...</a></p>
<p></p> True feminismtag:peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com,2021-01-20:5143044:Topic:3624252021-01-20T18:58:02.944ZEva Librehttps://peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com/profile/Eva
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/8444474097?profile=original" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/8444474097?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="560"></img></a></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p>True feminism</p>
<p>was never about</p>
<p>hating men.</p>
<p></p>
<p>True feminism</p>
<p>is available to anyone</p>
<p>who claims it</p>
<p>who is willing to open</p>
<p>to the power</p>
<p>inside their own chest</p>
<p>that has nothing to do with seizing it</p>
<p>from another</p>
<p>that has nothing to do with…</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/8444474097?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/8444474097?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="560" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p>True feminism</p>
<p>was never about</p>
<p>hating men.</p>
<p></p>
<p>True feminism</p>
<p>is available to anyone</p>
<p>who claims it</p>
<p>who is willing to open</p>
<p>to the power</p>
<p>inside their own chest</p>
<p>that has nothing to do with seizing it</p>
<p>from another</p>
<p>that has nothing to do with winning.</p>
<p></p>
<p>True feminism</p>
<p>is about activating</p>
<p>our full human potential</p>
<p>to experience the health</p>
<p>of our wholeness</p>
<p>to allow ourselves to finally feel</p>
<p>and become human again</p>
<p>through that</p>
<p>to allow our dreams and desires</p>
<p>to be stronger</p>
<p>than ridicule and fear.</p>
<p></p>
<p>True feminism</p>
<p>is knowing that powerful intelligence</p>
<p>can shine through any frame</p>
<p>that worthy contributions</p>
<p>don't depend on your genitals</p>
<p>that freedom comes from humanizing ourselves</p>
<p>out of objectification</p>
<p>and that we all deserve that.</p>
<p></p>
<p>True feminism is a cause</p>
<p>that liberates the soul</p>
<p>that brings back safety and rest</p>
<p>and desire</p>
<p>it is finally inclusive</p>
<p>its symbol is the circle</p>
<p>it creates space</p>
<p>to breathe, to pursue</p>
<p>and to be exactly who we are.</p>
<p></p>
<p>True feminism</p>
<p>has nothing to do with women</p>
<p>finally succeeding</p>
<p>at mastering the patriarchy</p>
<p>at being better at masculinity</p>
<p>than men.</p>
<p></p>
<p>True feminism is finally softening</p>
<p>into our innate courage</p>
<p>finally trusting</p>
<p>a higher source of restorative energy.</p>
<p></p>
<p>True feminism is beautiful</p>
<p>is necessary</p>
<p>is sacred.</p>
<p></p>
<p>True feminism is standing strong</p>
<p>on a platform of love</p>
<p>to tell the truth.</p>
<p></p>
<p>True feminism is that force</p>
<p>within everyone</p>
<p>just below your breastbone</p>
<p>that is rising so powerfully</p>
<p>in its healing, glorious dominion</p>
<p>right now.</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p> Chelan Harkin</p>
<p></p> Chatelaine Awards ‘Women of the Year’ to Wet’suwet’en Matriarchstag:peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com,2020-11-28:5143044:Topic:3305242020-11-28T11:59:26.824ZEva Librehttps://peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com/profile/Eva
<p><span class="font-size-3">Magazine’s editor cites the significance of a ‘non-violence movement led by female Elders.’</span></p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/8223008874?profile=original" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><img class="align-full" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/8223008874?profile=RESIZE_710x"></img></a> <span style="font-size: 8pt;">Wet’suwet’en matriarchs (L-R) Brenda Michell (Geltiy), Karla Tait and Freda Huson (Howilhkat) sing and drum on the Morice River bridge before being arrested on their house group’s territory…</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Magazine’s editor cites the significance of a ‘non-violence movement led by female Elders.’</span></p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/8223008874?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/8223008874?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Wet’suwet’en matriarchs (L-R) Brenda Michell (Geltiy), Karla Tait and Freda Huson (Howilhkat) sing and drum on the Morice River bridge before being arrested on their house group’s territory on Feb. 10. Photo by Amanda Follett Hosgood.</span></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p>It’s a long way from the Toronto head office of Chatelaine, one of Canada’s most popular women’s magazines, to the Unist’ot’en Healing Centre 66 kilometres down a gravel logging road in northern British Columbia.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Despite the distance, the glossy mag, which is read by more than 3.5 million Canadians, <a href="https://www.chatelaine.com/living/wetsuweten-matriarchs-women-of-the-year-2020/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">recognized</a> three matriarchs from the Unist’ot’en house group of the Wet’suwet’en Nation — Freda Huson, her sister Brenda Michell (Geltiy) and niece Karla Tait — as Women of the Year in its current issue.</p>
<p></p>
<p>“I was surprised,” says Huson, whose traditional name is Howilhkat, her voice breaking up periodically over the satellite internet connection from her home at the healing centre. “They just said it was for women that were protecting the lands. They didn’t say it was for Women of the Year.”</p>
<p></p>
<p>The recognition acknowledges the role of women in the Wet’suwet’en resistance to pipelines through their territory — a resistance that has been both peaceful and powerful, beginning a decade before it caught the attention of the nation earlier this year.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Over five days in February, RCMP <a href="https://thetyee.ca/News/2020/02/10/Emotions-High-Unistoten-Arrests/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">arrested</a> 28 land defenders at a series of camps blocking Coastal GasLink from accessing the route where it is building a 670-kilometre gas pipeline. The arrests came to an end outside the healing centre when Huson, Michell and Tait, along with four supporters, were taken into custody.</p>
<p></p>
<p>The standoff reverberated across the nation, leading to dozens of solidarity actions that shut down roads, railways and shipping routes. But opposition to pipelines began on Unist’ot’en territory years before the $40-billion Coastal GasLink pipeline, which would pass within a kilometre of the healing centre, was proposed.</p>
<p></p>
<p>When Huson first made her home at the centre 11 years ago, it was Enbridge’s Northern Gateway, a diluted bitumen pipeline that has since been cancelled, that was on the table. A gate at the Morice River bridge — the boundary between Unist’ot’en and neighbouring Gidimt’en territory — kept workers out.</p>
<p></p>
<p>For nearly a decade, Huson hosted culture camps at the site, which was chosen for its proximity to clean water, abundant wildlife and cultural significance.</p>
<p></p>
<p>But in December 2018, the courts granted an interim injunction to Coastal GasLink, and early in the new year RCMP removed barricades set up by Gidimt’en clan members and arrested seven people. Three days later, hereditary chiefs allowed pipeline workers into the territory while a permanent injunction was before the court.</p>
<p></p>
<p>On Dec. 31, 2019, the B.C. Supreme Court granted that injunction and hereditary chiefs responded by closing the Morice forestry road and evicting Coastal GasLink, beginning the five-week standoff that took place earlier this year.</p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/8223018659?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/8223018659?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Wet’suwet’en matriarchs (L-R) Brenda Michell (Geltiy), Karla Tait and Freda Huson (Howilhkat) drum and sing to call in the ancestors in the days leading up to their arrest at the Unist’ot’en Healing Centre on Feb. 10. <span class="caption__media--credit">Photo by Amanda Follett Hosgood.</span></span></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p>When Huson, Michell and Tait were arrested on Feb. 10, they were singing and drumming traditional songs to call on their ancestors. Huson says that while protecting the land and water is everyone’s responsibility in Wet’suwet’en culture, the matrilineal clan system gives women a unique role in sustaining the resources for future generations.</p>
<p>“Because our ancestors sustained them for us, it’s our job to do the same for the next generation, to ensure they have water, the salmon that spawn in this river and everything that our lives depends on,” she says.</p>
<p></p>
<p>“We don’t want our children to tell historical stories of what used to be. We want them to enjoy the same benefits we’re enjoying because the women before us did the same for us, and now they’ve handed up the torch to us to do the same for the next descendants.”</p>
<p></p>
<p>In addition, the women honoured murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls, a social issue often linked with industrial work camps, by hanging dozens of red dresses along the road as RCMP were making arrests last winter.</p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/8223020054?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/8223020054?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Red dresses were strung along the Morice West Forest Service Road on Unist’ot’en territory early this year to recognize missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. <span class="caption__media--credit">Photo by Amanda Follett Hosgood.</span></span></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p>In addition to recipes and beauty tips, Chatelaine’s editorial department tackles social issues including, according to the magazine, “portraits and interviews with inspiring women… highlighting current topics from a feminine — and even feminist — perspective.”</p>
<p></p>
<p>In an email, the magazine’s executive editor, Denise Balkissoon, said the matriarchs were an obvious choice.</p>
<p></p>
<p>“The pandemic has overshadowed almost everything, but we didn’t want anyone to forget how powerful the Wet’suwet’en standoff was last winter,” she says. “The matriarchs led a resistance that shook the entire country. The turnout at cross-country actions was huge — non-Indigenous people in Canada are starting to get what ‘unceded’ means and understand that Indigenous rights are crucial to climate action.</p>
<p></p>
<p>“There was also real, broad discussion about the links between resource extraction and the tragedy of murdered and missing women. All this, from a non-violence movement led by female Elders. Clearly, they’re women of the year.”</p>
<p></p>
<p>Chatelaine’s <a href="https://www.chatelaine.com/living/women-of-the-year-2020/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">full list</a> includes 15 influential women, such as Canada’s chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam, <em>Schitt’s Creek</em> actor Annie Murphy and recently elected federal Green Party Leader Annamie Paul.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Huson says Coastal GasLink is going “full force” with pipeline construction. In its <a href="https://www.coastalgaslink.com/whats-new/news-stories/2020/november-construction-update/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">November update</a>, the pipeline builder says 9A Lodge, a labour camp located near the healing centre, is now accommodating 81 workers and that traffic in the area is expected to increase as pipe is transported from a storage site to the project route.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Meanwhile, the healing centre continues to operate with modified programming due to the pandemic. Guests are required to self-isolate before arriving and divided into pods at the centre, and social distancing and masks are required. Huson says activities are done outdoors.</p>
<p></p>
<p>With court actions and blockades behind them, she says she’s relying on her spiritual beliefs moving forward.</p>
<p></p>
<p>“I just keep relying on my prayers, and I have faith and believe that justice will be done and that this project is not going to destroy our water, it’s not going to destroy our way of life. That it will be there for the next generation,” she says.</p>
<p></p>
<p>“More and more people will wake up.”</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p><a class="contrib-link" title="Bio page for Amanda Follett Hosgood" href="https://thetyee.ca/Bios/Amanda_Follett_Hosgood/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Amanda Follett Hosgood</a></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Amanda Follett Hosgood is The Tyee’s northern B.C. reporter. She lives amidst the stunning mountains and rivers of Wet’suwet’en territory.</span></p>
<p></p> The Land of No Men: Inside Kenya's Women-Only Villagetag:peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com,2020-06-26:5143044:Topic:2848582020-06-26T23:13:45.104ZEva Librehttps://peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com/profile/Eva
<p>An inspiring story of brave women who lead a significant change in their life, and of some men who joined them.</p>
<p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UrnmBLB-UX4?wmode=opaque" width="853"></iframe>
</p>
<p></p>
<p>Where the foothills of Mount Kenya merge into the desert, the people of Samburu have maintained a strict patriarchy for over 500 years in northern Kenya. That is, until 25 years ago, when Rebecca Lolosoli founded Umoja…</p>
<p>An inspiring story of brave women who lead a significant change in their life, and of some men who joined them.</p>
<p><iframe width="853" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UrnmBLB-UX4?wmode=opaque" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</p>
<p></p>
<p>Where the foothills of Mount Kenya merge into the desert, the people of Samburu have maintained a strict patriarchy for over 500 years in northern Kenya. That is, until 25 years ago, when Rebecca Lolosoli founded Umoja village as a safe haven for the region's women. Umoja, which means "unity" in Swahili, is quite literally a no man's land, and the matriarchal refuge is now home to the Samburu women who no longer want to suffer abuses, like genital mutilation and forced marriages, at the hands of men.</p>
<p>Throughout the years, it has also empowered other women in the districts surrounding Samburu to start their own men-excluding villages. Broadly visited Umoja and the villages it inspired to meet with the women who were fed up with living in a violent patriarchy.</p>
<p></p> ~ honoring beauty ~ poemtag:peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com,2020-03-10:5143044:Topic:2824122020-03-10T02:28:21.749ZEva Librehttps://peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com/profile/Eva
<p>~ honoring beauty ~</p>
<p>there are hardships and softships in life<br></br> times of plenty , abundance<br></br> times of little , none<br></br> of joy and sorrow<br></br>
of kindness and anger<br></br>
of calm , of upset<br></br>
but we can work it to be decent<br></br>
to ourselves and each other<br></br>
we have choice<br></br>
we don't have to be hateful , mean<br></br>
we can be compassionate , kind<br></br>
have understanding</p>
<p>many things we may not like<br></br> some things we can change<br></br> some we must work with ,…</p>
<p>~ honoring beauty ~</p>
<p>there are hardships and softships in life<br/> times of plenty , abundance<br/> times of little , none<br/>
of joy and sorrow<br/>
of kindness and anger<br/>
of calm , of upset<br/>
but we can work it to be decent<br/>
to ourselves and each other<br/>
we have choice<br/>
we don't have to be hateful , mean<br/>
we can be compassionate , kind<br/>
have understanding</p>
<p>many things we may not like<br/> some things we can change<br/> some we must work with , accept<br/>
gaining wisdom<br/>
to bloom in the joy of peace<br/>
no matter what , to flower in gratitude<br/>
rejoice in life alive<br/>
honoring the beauty of our being<br/>
honoring the magnificence in each one of us<br/>
encouraging everyone to celebrate<br/>
the gift of life on earth<br/>
long or short the magic is in all life forms<br/>
some for only one day , others for 100's of years<br/>
here's to having the eyes to see<br/>
the awesomeness of existence its self</p>
<p>~ janice barden wilson</p> How Capitalism Turned Women Into Witchestag:peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com,2019-04-11:5143044:Topic:2705412019-04-11T14:07:02.935ZEva Librehttps://peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com/profile/Eva
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1889376823?profile=original" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><img class="align-full" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1889376823?profile=RESIZE_710x"></img></a> <strong><span class="font-size-1">Illustration by Johnny Miller</span></strong></p>
<p></p>
<p class="article-deck"></p>
<p class="article-deck"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Sylvia Federici’s new book explains how violence against women was a necessary precondition for capitalism.</span></p>
<p class="article-deck"></p>
<p>The Italian socialist feminist…</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1889376823?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1889376823?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a><strong><span class="font-size-1">Illustration by Johnny Miller</span></strong></p>
<p></p>
<p class="article-deck"></p>
<p class="article-deck"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Sylvia Federici’s new book explains how violence against women was a necessary precondition for capitalism.</span></p>
<p class="article-deck"></p>
<p>The Italian socialist feminist Silvia Federici is mandatory reading to understand gender politics in 2019. The opening sentences of her 1975 pamphlet “Wages Against Housework”—“They say it is love. We say it is unwaged work”—will stick in your head and change your whole concept of family.<em><span> </span>Caliban and the Witch</em>, her titanic 1998 work on witch trials as a tool of early capitalism, will take your head apart and put it back together.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Federici is not just relevant but getting more so every second. Throughout her work, she traces how capitalism affects and infects the “private,” feminine sphere of unwaged domestic and reproductive work; she excavates intimacy, uncovering all its toxic layers of lead paint and asbestos, until its exploitative foundations are clear. Her work is essential to decoding the present moment, as capitalism and patriarchy entwine to produce increasingly grotesque offspring: predatory adoption agencies coercing women into giving up their babies; the exorbitant cost of childcare causing single working mothers to go bankrupt; entire industries where the opportunity to abuse women with impunity is a perk for the powerful men up top. And, thank goodness, we seem to know it; half the young leftist women writing today are riffing on Federici’s work.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Federici’s latest,<em><span> </span><a href="https://secure.pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=960" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Witches, Witch-Hunting and Women</a>,</em><span> </span>updates and expands the core thesis of<span> </span><em>Caliban</em>, in which she argued that “witch hunts” were a way to alienate women from the means of reproduction. In the transition from feudalism to capitalism, Federici argues, there was an intervening revolutionary push toward communalism. Communalist groups often embraced “free love” and sexual egalitarianism—unmarried men and women lived together, and some communes were all-women—and even the Catholic church only punished abortion with a few years’ penance.</p>
<p></p>
<p>For serfs, who tilled the land in exchange for a share of its crops, home was work, and vice versa; men and women grew the potatoes together. But in capitalism, waged laborers have to work outside the home all the time, which means someone else needs to be at home all the time, doing the domestic work. Gender roles, and the subjugation of women, became newly necessary.</p>
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<p>Early feudal elites in rural Europe enclosed public land, rendering it private and controllable, and patriarchy enclosed women in “private” marriages, imposing on them the reproductive servitude of bearing men’s children and the emotional labor of caring for men’s every need. Pregnancy and childbirth, once a natural function, became a job that women did for their male husband-bosses—that is to say, childbirth became alienated labor. “Witches,” according to witch-hunting texts like the<em><span> </span>Malleus Maleficarum</em>, were women who kept childbirth and pregnancy in female hands: midwives, abortionists, herbalists who provided contraception. They were killed to cement patriarchal power and create the subjugated, domestic labor class necessary for capitalism. </p>
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<p>“The body has been for women in capitalist society what the factory has been for male waged workers,” Federici writes in<span> </span><em>Caliban</em>, “the primary ground of their exploitation and resistance.” </p>
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<p>The elegance of this argument, the neat way it knots together public and private, is thrilling. There are moments when Federici makes sense like no one else. In this passage, she explains how sexuality—once demonized “to protect the cohesiveness of the Church as a patriarchal, masculine clan”—became subjugated within capitalism: “Once exorcised, denied its subversive potential through the witch hunt, female sexuality could be recuperated in a matrimonial context and for procreative ends. …In capitalism, sex can exist but only as a productive force at the service of procreation and the regeneration of the waged/male worker and as a means of social appeasement and compensation for the misery of everyday existence.” </p>
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<p>In other words: A man can fuck his wife to produce a son and heir, and he can fuck a sex worker to blow off steam, but it serves him well to keep the sex worker criminalized and the wife dependent; both are workers, and he, as the boss, does not want them to start making demands. See: the<span> </span><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43988586" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stormy Daniels-Donald Trump saga</a>, or men’s panicked reaction to #MeToo when the women they’ve treated as luxury goods start talking back. </p>
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<p>The pleasures of<span> </span><em>Witches<span> </span></em>occur in quick little bursts of illumination. Federici dips in and out of her famous argument, expanding it, updating it and finding new angles on it. Some essays work better than others. Her exploration of gossip and its criminalization is a stand-out; she traces a concise and damning history of how “a term commonly indicating a close female friend turned into one signifying idle, backbiting talk,” and how that act of women speaking to each other—often about men, and in a way those men might not like—became punishable by torture and public humiliation, as in the case of the “scold’s bridle.” This torture device, which was used until the early 1800s, was a mask with a bit (sometimes lined with spikes) that kept a woman from moving her tongue. Gossips, like witches, were criminalized for being women. Federici is always timely: Today’s “whisper networks,” in which women share the identities of abusers and harassers to keep each other safe, are gossip too. And, as accused rapist<span> </span><a href="https://www.thecut.com/2018/10/stephen-elliott-sues-moira-donegan.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stephen Elliott’s lawsuit against Moira Donegan</a><span> </span>and the Shitty Media Men list proves, plenty of men still want gossips hauled into court. </p>
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<p>In other spots, I’m less convinced. Federici spends lots of time analyzing contemporary African witch-hunting in the context of globalism. Though she is deeply invested in African politics, I wished she had spent more time exploring the differences between Medieval Europe and present-day Africa. </p>
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<p>The concept of “witch,” or evil magic user, varies by culture. A Ghanaian man, a Navajo woman and a white Evangelical preacher in Louisiana will all define “witchcraft” differently. Federici often seems to be exporting to Africa the European medieval template—wherein witches are women who supposedly gained their powers by having sex with Satan and eating babies, and whose threat was inherently tied to “deviant,” independent female sexuality—to a cultural context that does not quite fit it. </p>
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<p>I don’t doubt Federici when she says that African witch-killings come from the same sources as medieval panics: capitalism, an influx of fundamentalist Christianity, the need to seize land by eliminating its owners. But the differences do matter. In parts of Central and West Africa, the prototypical accused witch is not an old woman (as in Europe) but a child, often the child of a recently divorced or widowed parent. There is something vital to be said about how capitalism cruelly eliminates children who strain their community’s resources, and by treating “witch hunts” as one unified cross-cultural phenomenon, the chance is lost. </p>
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<p>These are quibbles about a book that I suspect readers will love regardless. The point of reading Federici is not to agree with her at all times—it’s to let her knock the dust and cobwebs out of your mind, to open up new roads of thought and spark new curiosities. Opening this book at random will always bring you to a sentence that does that, as when Federici explains why witches are commonly old: “Older women [can] no longer provide children or sexual services and, therefore, appear to be a drain on the creation of wealth”; or ties witches to other historical insurrections: “the portrayal of women’s earthly challenges to the power structures as a demonic conspiracy is a phenomenon that has played out over and over in history down to our times” (<em>Witches</em>was published a few weeks before a <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/catholic-exorcist-holding-special-mass-counter-witches-hex-kavanaugh-1176666" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Catholic exorcist held a special mass<span> </span></a>to protect accused sexual predator Brett Kavanaugh from … witches). Each sentence will also open doors into her other work. This is not the Federici book to end with, but it may be the one to pick up when you’re ready to start.</p>
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<p><em>Read a <a href="http://inthesetimes.com/article/21707/the-subversive-feminist-power-of-gossip">chapter</a>, “On the Meaning of 'Gossip,'” from Silvia Federici's book,<span> </span><a href="http://secure.pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=960">Witches, Witch-Hunting, and Women</a>.</em></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong><span class="author">BY <a href="http://inthesetimes.com/community/profile/159877" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SADY DOYLE</a></span></strong></span></p>
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