Italian Priest to [battered] Women Everywhere: Stop Hitting Yourself

[MADem]

39. I always thought that story was a bad translation, and the guy (I'm thinking it was a guy) who wrote

it was a boastful little so-and-so, saying Adam tempted Eve with his "Big Snake." But hey, she'd have to be a wanton hussy in that case, wouldn't she?

There's definitely a power struggle going on in terms of sexual politics--the fundy fellahs do want to control the women when it comes to not just reproduction, but opportunities and freedom. That's why so many fundamentalist religious practices feel a need to lock the women up, keep 'em covered and in their place, and in the kitchen, barefoot, pregnant and up to their elbows in dishwater...apparently, way too many fellers think their little serpents are completely irresistible!

It's not just Judeo-Xtian philosophy; conservative Islam has the same vibe working (they're all coming from an Abrahamic POV, after all). A common theme that runs through fundamentalist thinking in Islam is that women are temptresses, and that men are "not responsible" if they see a woman, because the women have "powers" that render a man helpless...ergo, if a guy rapes a female person, it's not his fault, because she did something wrong (was out alone, didn't wear her chador/chaderi/burqua properly, said something "provocative" or wore tempting perfume) and was, in essence "asking for it." She "made him crazy" and therefore, she's to blame and he's not at fault--that's pretty much how it works. That's the rule in fundamentalist Islam, too--not the exception.