The first time I read this article I wrote a very meandering piece that I later pillaged and destroyed. It resulted in my first piece about Sigyn on this blog. The piece has been republished because of the #havamalwitches movement that is currently trending in witchcraft and heathen communities.
I've checked out the # and it definitely has some push and some stories worth reading. Despite all of the woman positive posts from heathen groups, there is still very much of a Bro culture in heathenry. A recent polling of the demographics in the community shows about 60% identity as white and male. Most of the culture of heathenry is warrior archetype aligned. So these elements definitely contribute to a very masculine, aggressive, and homophobic culture.
( http://www.heathenhof.com/world-wide-heathenry/ )
I know more than one woman who avoids heathen gatherings because of repeatedly being harassed, followed around, treated in a transphobic or homophobic way, being treated in a sexist or racist way.
I appreciate that the man who wrote the article calls out other men for not listening to women, and not recognizing and giving them credit for all the work and effort they have contributed to the kindreds and organizations they are a part of. I also appreciate the fact that the target audience of the piece were other heathen men. He repeatedly called men out for "failing" heathen women in this regard in valueing them fully in the community. "We are our deeds."
Bro-priation and Man-splaining are real things. So is the erasure of women's contributions to society as a whole, not just in heathenry. I can't count the number of times someone, usually a man, has commented in discussion that MEN invented and created all of the elements of modern society. A simple google search brings up hundreds of things women invented or helped to invent and got no credit for it. Men outright stole from and snubbed women in some cases.
And also, as I have stated previously, just because women could inherit property and own slaves or sue for divorce, that does not automatically mean they were equal to men or even valued as persons under the law. It was still the case that the law was often applied unequally. For example, if a man killed someonein self defense, he only had to report the attack in a reasonable amount of time and prove he was attacked. Often, his word was believed. If a woman was attacked and killed in self defense, she still needed a male witness to corroborate. Her word was not taken at face value. The law was applied differently based on gender.
Heathens often like to point out these rights that women had that Greek and Roman women didn't, as if that made their society egalitarian. It wasn't. Women were still property. They could not move freely about society. They needed an escort to safeguard their virtue. They couldn't be alone with a male without scandal occurring. Father's arranged marriages and virginity was still important in many cases. It is also implied that they rarely left their homes. I read one heathen comment that a woman's domain and control was in the house and men's domain was outside the house unless he was helping or bringing supplies to her. This indicates a very strict utangard and innangard structure. This sounds very similar to the harem and women's quarters traditions of the middle east and ancient Greece.
If Reconstructionists are using this sociological and archaeological evidence to recreate gender roles and social strata, then it will result in a very rigid and unequal outcome. This, plus the blatant objectification and sexism in the Havamal, creates a very condescending attitude towards women and their contributions. It is not much better than the bullshit have now.
What else should women expect?
The Bro culture is also very into sexual access to women. Heathen communities have done very little to outright state that harassment and stalking are not permitted. I have heard stories of women who have been able to turn to tough guys in the community to oust the jerk who wouldn't take no for an answer. But that is after the fact. To be at a gathering and have an assembly before things begin in order to go over rules and regs and explicitly state: here is what harassment and stalking look like and here is how they will be dealt with, hasn't happened. I have heard more than one case of women (and Lokeans) hiding in the relaxation room for safety because the main convention is so hostile that they can't function out on the floor amongst mainstream heathens. That is not fair and it is part of why women and others are silent or fail to contribute. It is out of fear for their physical and spiritual safety.
Having said all of this, there is one other angle that the author of the article did not address:
white supremacy.
It is part of traditionalism and white surpremacy that women are associated with the domestic domain and care-taking tasks. While men debate politics and philosophy, it is women who tend to the cooking and childcare. While men go out into the world and create society, women tend the hearth. This is a romantic ideal that many men in heathenry still hang onto.
Side note: You will not find me disparaging SAHM at any time into the future. When I was younger I was pulled into second wave feminism and all of it's "the right kind of woman" propaganda. The author even referenced this in relation to the faults in Wicca. He, in one sentence, was snide and aggressive toward that community that I swear he knows nothing about. The incident he is probably referring to is when Z Budapest led a menstruation ritual and turned away transgender women. This was back in 2012, I believe. The pagan community flipped their shit and many covens openly denounced what she had done and explicitly declared themselves open to ALL women. So that's probably part of his grudge. And it is definitely a second wave feminist stance, which Z Budapest obviously is besides also being from Eastern Europe which has very different cultural values.
I bought into that crap too until I got out of college and into the real world. This traditionalism is what second wave feminists were reacting against. The backlash from their side was anti-domestic sphere, full stop. They cultivated masculine traits and masculine career trajectories.
This is the aspect of feminism that right wingers attack and the aspect that traditionalists and white supremacists attack. The reason for this is very simple. Control of women means control of the uterus. Control of the uterus means reproductive control and control of the future. In order to really get women off to an equal footing, they need full control of their own bodies. But the ideology that heathenry and pretty much all of Western society is based on, is breeding out the enemy. Even now, governments freak out when birth rates of native populations dip.
We see this with the Quiverfull movement, where radical Christians want to out breed other religions. White supremacists want the same thing. They want to harness women's bodies for political and religious ends to create more white people to maintain political and economic control. Even Hitler had a breeding program in mind for his Aryan nation. It is The Handmaid's Tale, a nightmare for all of us who are not of the dominant class, religion, or race.
We cannot confront sexism within heathenry until we deal with the racists among us. They will pervert every attempt at equality and liberty with cries of What About the Children? They will keep the focus on breeding and rearing "our future", and congratulate women like me for raising our own and contributing to the security of "our society". (That actually happened recently. I didn't tell the guy I'm pretty far to the left because I didn't want to get attacked. But there it is.)
This is definitely an aspect this author was almost playing into. He used the phrase "our women" as if heathens could own a group of people or claim them as property. He repeatedly appealed to the Superior nature of heathen women as if the were a species apart. While I appreciate the compliment, we are no better or worse than other religious women. The Christian down the street probably contributes just as much to her church as I do to my kindred. Or at least she is certainly capable of it if her church allows her to do so.
While the article does one thing well, calling attention to great contributions by women and their lack of recognition and respect from men for this, it also does some things badly. It alienates anyone who still identifies as Wiccan or neo-pagan. It calls up ethnocentrism of heathens. It uses possessive language when speaking of heathen women which is part of objectification. It feeds into traditionalist and white supremacist ideology about women and "their place" in the community.
I find the article is a wolf in sheep's clothing. It had good intentions but it delivers in a way that could seriously result in the opposite of what the author intended.
Article: ( http://www.heathenhof.com/women-in-heathenry/ )
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