Detour from Matthew

All the writing  about women yesterday made me think of the #metoo meme. And it reminds me that women have to be exceptional to get anywhere or to be thought a person. Even then, women still he harassed, assaulted. Part of the problem is how we've interpreted the Bible for so many centuries. Authoritative, moral guide, God's word, literally. It's a recent phenomenon to look at it more critically. Literal interpretation leads to thinking that there were no women following Jesus instead of asking why they weren't mentioned? Because they were there.

It's not just the Bible, though. For centuries the West has glorified Greek philosophy. What does Greek philosophy say about women? That we are imperfect males. That's Aristotle. They didn't know about reproduction, yet that doesn't let them off the hook. Jesus saw women as people in spite of the attitude of society around him. Thomas Aquinas enshrined Aristotle's philosophy in his Summa Theologica. Based on these sources, women were considered "vain, petty, gossipy, ignorant, and useful for only one thing" as if men were not those things at all.

This make me think of Hypatia. She knew all this and was super respected during her lifetime for her knowledge and her political acumen. She taught men. How was she able to read all that crap about women and persevere? What makes any woman persevere? Did she have to think of herself as a man? Was she asexual? Hypatia, trans man? People claimed she wore the philosopher's tribon, which was men's clothing.

Which brings me to Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman, for all that it was feminist for its time (sort of), shows us how powerful women have to be in order to be respected. She is exceptionally wise, fast, strong and, of course, beautiful. That is always a requirement. Hypatia is always described as beautiful too. It's almost pornographic - they fall in love with her "beauty" as they imagine it to be. We have no pictures or writings from her so we don't really know. The interesting thing is, Hypatia died because she made waves. Cyril of Alexandria was involved somehow. It was parabalani, hospital workers, that killed her, but they were loyal to Cyril. Wonder Woman can't die for making waves. Indeed, she fights for America against Germany in the beginning. She's on our side, of course, she's okay. Just wait til she tries to speak up for women who are oppressed or abused. Then she'll be put in her place like so many before her.