Such moral outrage and vilification of a young woman who dares to challenge the patriarchy. Surely the men who rape children and perpetrate violence against women are more deserving of your rage.

‘Mary Daly made the claim that up to nine million people, mostly women, were killed as a result of the witchhunts’'

Posted by MLK,

There seems to be a huge debate over this figure with other sources quoting somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000

Also some sources say 5% were men and other sources put the figure as high as 25% male.

It appears though rather than the burning times as being a war against women, it was actually a war against paganism or what some of the leaders of the church deemed to be paganism.

Heretics were also sentenced to death.

I beleive before the burning times, the church was outlawing many pagan behaviours, and making them a sin.

One of the problem with radical feminists is they may be small in number and publish wildly exaggerated statistics or arguements which do get refuted, but people tend to remember the exaggerations as being fact. So urban myth gets accepted as fact, mainly because it is highly emotive. The arguement of the Sophists.

History is littered with case examples of where truly brutal people gain power and commit horrendous crimes, however to judge history from our modern perspective it is easy to distort what happened, add our own meaning in order to understand what happened.

Country Gal wrote about the abuse of children, what worries me is how did we get to this point and what is happening that maybe contribuiting to child sexual abuse. Sometimes it is children behaving in a sexual manner with other children.

One thing I have learnt Country Gal is even other men have different viewpoints to my own and sometimes they are insightful.

"Surely the men who rape children and perpetrate violence against women are more deserving of your rage." - Les those men have been raged against on other threads and places. The horror of their offense does not make this article any the more rational or fair.

The whole concept of gynocide seems to suggest that women have had no role in shaping society, that they are powerless victims. That approach seems to be an insult to both women and men. It ignores the massive role women have played in child rearing throughout history (and most of the research I've seen suggests that formative years are the most significant in shaping values).

It ignores the reality that it's mostly men who die on the job and in war - hardly the actions of those creating a world for their own convenience. It ignores the countless men and women who have given their lives in toil and hardship for the sake of their childrens futures. It ignores far too much for the sake of a simplified view of the world that makes women less able and less responsible.

The truth is much more complex, women and men have both played roles which have provided privilige and hardship. Many of the pressures women face and the things that hold them back seem to be often enforced by other women.

The events the author refers to lie at the extreme in society, they do not represent what many would consider acceptable treatment of women (or of any human being). The authors attempts to use those events to paint a picture of the status of women in society is way off the mark.

R0bert

MLK,

To claim that a person is "vilified" by pointing out their promotion of a falsehood is deserving of ridicule. I certainly hope that if I ever engage in such errors of fact my peers will be as quick to point them out as well. That is how scholarship develops.

The nine million figure that Daly uses was derived from the writings of Matilda Gage from "Woman, Church and State" (1883) - perhaps I erred in not stating that, but merely a modicum of research is required.

The Benjamin Christensen film Häxan (1922) is obviously a work of fantastic fiction (indeed, it has been described as the first mockumentary) and for that I am more than prepared to accept inflation of facts for aesthetic purposes. I shall have to take it from you that Christensen used such a figure as I have only seen stills of demons etc from the film.

The same applies for Charles Murphy's "Burning Time" however your claim that he also used a nine million figure is most certainly wrong, even if he does inflate the actual number some fifteen fold.

The first hit from google on gynocide, contrary to your claim, is someone's livejournal (http://gynocide.livejournal.com/). That is not a porn site, even if it does have an image of a bottom (oh noes!). The second an article from Mother Jones. The third is this thread. The fourth is a blog reporting mass graves and bodies uncovered in Juarez and Basra. So where exactly is this porn site you allegedly found?

It would appear that 'resting your case' is code for 'making stuff up as you go along'.

I suppose I'm now vilifying you as well, right?

but by expressing your personal experiences in this particular context neglects aggregate empirical evidence ie.,

a) domestict(sic) violence is a serious issue, beyond being isolated [1]
b) women than men are victims [2]

Posted by Lev,

Lev it depends on what empirical evidence you want to use.

But for once can we not discuss DV, I sick to death of how interesting debates degenerate down to being about DV.

MLK, is right in pointing out that people have been vilified for pointing out falsehoods.

I rest my case.

‘To claim that a person is "vilified" by pointing out their promotion of a falsehood is deserving of ridicule. I certainly hope that if I ever engage in such errors of fact my peers will be as quick to point them out as well. That is how scholarship develops’.

It is also a good tool to silence the writer and divert attention away from the real issues raised by the work. How many other young women would voluntarily expose themselves to similar treatment? I would suggest very few.

Unfortunately, your falsehoods are facts for too many children and women in our society.