What Goes Around...
I figure that this is a perfectly apt subject for a post, especially considering the mood in the rest of the fandom right now thanks to the spoilers. You have to go look for them elsewhere on this journal - I don't want any accidents. For those of you who've read the spoilers, THIS IS A SPOILER FREE POST. Do not post them in the comments. For those ( Read more... )
Oh, definitely but it`s always the stranger-rape they are warned about - and the stranger-rape they`re afraid of.
Yes, you often "inherit" these things.
I`ve actually seen this reasoning for circumcision too. And for not having any kind of foreplay.
We`re talking about a long period of time and in many countries but from what I`ve seen of church decrees etc women seemed to be divided into two. The ones who couldn`t control themselves and the ones who could. Since you wouldn`t know which of these groups "your" woman belonged to, you had to keep her under strict supervision. If she belonged to the first group, and was free to roam among men who had their natural "urges", copulation was bound to happen.
There was a class bit to it too. The upper class had much stricter rules when it came to being a virgin, about not selling sex, about infidelity etc than the working class/farmers etc had. I`ve read about church books in Denmark and most women in the 17th century were highly pregnant when they were married. In the 15th century (before we had a lot of church books), the Catholic church issued an incredibly high amount of fines to women for having children out of wedlock (or for whoring). And I just read an interesting article about London in the 18th century where 1/5 of all women were involved in prostitution. 19th century Oslo was the same but the interesting part was that most prostitutes started out selling sex when they were very young, but married when they were over "prostitution age" (which was about 20/21).
These are just unrelated examples. Long story short - the view on women`s purity was not so strict in the lower classes. Unfortunately we know more about the upper classes and thus we think everyone was a virgin.
Yeah, and my grandmother hated being forced to be a house wife (all women working for the city or the government lost their jobs when they married because "men needed them more"). The stories she told me about firing up under the ... well, I have no idea what that pre-washing machine thing is called in English ... every Wednesday and spending all day washing by hand - and telling the kids to go play in the streets.
I would like to change horses now. Could Sam please go buy a Viking sword? ;-)
Tell Mr. Minty that he has ten years (?) more than me to enjoy his pain-free existence. That`ll help, I suppose.
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Stranger rape is the big fear.
It was seen to quell the urges - and the propaganda piece I read was hilarious. It was almost written as if "The Jews have a scam on their women! Let me tell you about it!" Being married to a circumcised man, I know it's complete bullshit.
Oh definitely - a class thing too. Being a virgin wasn't so important to lower classes, and perhaps was at least the standard for everyone, and not strictly adhered to. It makes a difference if they're going to inherit a kingdom or estate, to know that children are in fact, yours.
It's called the mangle in English. My mother told me about how periods were dealt with - by washing them and putting the cloths through the mangle. Personally, I'm never more grateful for pads when I think about that. And the washing day was Monday. So in my family, we change the sheets on a Sunday as a result. :D
Well, I doubt Eric still has his original one. So they're even. :D And horse changes are acceptable in line with Sookie's desires.
He's very easy to depress. :D
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