We like to think that we live in a progressive society, that we’ve come so far as a society and equality is at the forefront of our minds. One of the myths that we believe is that women were always subordinate to men and that only recently in history did this change. Maybe it was because men were stronger or maybe its because we think men are stronger now. Matriarchy probably hasn’t gotten enough credit. I’m not sure if society has progressed as much as it is regressed and then progressed again.
People apparently had it good for a couple hundred thousand years: stable matriarchal societies resulted in a three-hour working day and plenty of leisure time. Veneration of women is a natural impulse in mammals with a high level of cognition, and the results were colossally beneficial to everyone. Free to think and move about outdoors without constraint, women invented agriculture, pottery, weaving, music, metallurgy, medicine, painting, sculpture, and astronomy.
– Lucy Ellmann | Source
This to say, Lucy’s essay called Three Strikes is an essay in emphasizing the role and the power of women in history, present and future that I was intrigued by. At times I’ve hated that I am white as I see all the injustice white’s have caused in the world. An essay like this makes me feel the same way being a man.