Maundy bloody Maundy

Well, the Queen's dealing with that one - she distributes her Maundy money today, Goddess bless her. She gives to remind us of the Last Supper and the treachery of poor old maligned Judas Iscariot. Ok, and I could get a whole blog out of that but for the fact that I'm on a feminist tear again.

Firstly, there was an interview in the Guardian last week with an American author, Catherine MacKinnon. She asks, 'Are women human?' and goes on to argue that we certainly aren't treated as such. Quoting from Stuart Jeffries' article,

"Of all the provocative passages in Catharine MacKinnon's new book Are Women Human? the following hit me hardest. She writes: "[T]he fact that the law of rape protects rapists and is written from their point of view to guarantee impunity for most rapes is officially regarded as a violation of the law of sex equality, national or international, by virtually nobody." "

It's this sexual aspect of relations between men and women that has been the subject of three films we have seen recently.
'Memoirs of a Geisha' I found interesting, certainly fascinating to see that whole culture laid out, although in my opinion, it dragged a bit as a film. However the Geisha culture that was portrayed there perpetuated the view that women are put on this earth to serve men and they can only reach some level of success by doing so. The girl's virginity was auctioned off to the highest bidder, some vile old toad that no young girl would want to be entered by. There was a competitiveness that was encouraged and served to keep the girls even more enslaved. Vile. But the second world war came along and as ever, women were now needed to go and work in the rice fields - off you go, don't come back until we tell you.

Two films by writer and director Deepa Mehta have also left us horrified. We have been unable so far to get hold of her first film, 'Earth' but the video rental shop were pushing 'Fire' because her most recent film, 'Water' has just been released on DVD.
'Fire' deals with how women in a particular layer of Indian society are at the mercy of their husbands' whim. An arranged marriage is a sham because the new husband has a girlfriend whom he loves. The wife is there to produce babies and to help out in the extended family, especially looking after the ageing grandmother who has had a stroke. In the household is the wife of, I think, the brother, who has decided to be celibate irrespective of what his wife wants. The two women, rejected by their husbands, discover their sexuality with each other. The film was banned in India.

'Water', another powerful film, dealt again with how marriage does not serve women in India. A twelve year old girl arrives at an ashram, delivered there by her family because she has been widowed on the death of a man she had never even met. All the women in the house are widows, many widowed as young girls and they will spend the rest of their life in the ashram. One of them supports the household through prostitution. We see one of her clients, a married man, who ignores his wife and informs his son that since he is a Brahmin, he can sleep with whoever he wants. It gets worse but I'll let you see the film.
It is the teachings of Ghandi that offer any hope at all to these women. The film is set in 1938 and we are told that a law has just been passed allowing widows to re-marry. At the end of the film, Mehta tells us that there are 34 million widows in India and many still live in the conditions portrayed in the film. I suppose it is hard to let go when your religion tells you that you will be re-born into the belly of a jackal.

It really makes me think back to that article I quoted a week or so ago about how feminism has failed Muslim women. It certainly sends me back to the title of Catharine MacKinnon's book, 'Are Women Human?' You have to wonder really.

Change has to come from two sources, it has to be enabled, facilitated by people outside the problem, those who hold the power, for the most part men, but not always. Those women who do hold power and authority have a responsibility towards other women.

But it must also come from within, women have to free themselves and when you have been well and truly brainwashed for your entire life, that's the most difficult thing in the world.

Perhaps the Queen could, like her own son, look beyond the pensioners she's giving money to and start muddying the waters a bit. Monarchy is doomed anyway, but by heck they could go down fighting.