[Submitted 11.9.19] History and Her Story

[Candlewhisper Archive]

TITLE:
History and Her Story

VALIDITY:
At least some women's rights, and internet

DESCRIPTION:
A coalition of feminist historians has petitioned your government, complaining that the history being taught in schools is too focused on men.


OPTION 1
"Look, you can't write history that doesn't exist," asserts history teacher @@randommalename@@, speaking ahead of all the women in the room. "It's not that we're sexist, it's that history was sexist, so all the big movers and shakers had trouser-snakes in their codpieces. We can't edit history to our liking, we have to teach what happened, warts and all."

OUTCOME:
statues commemorate the greatest men of the fatherland

OPTION 2
"That's like saying half the population of the world never did anything of note," womansplains campaign organiser @@random_name(female)@@. "How can we expect young women to aspire to greatness when we're only told about men sat atop patriarchal power constructs? We just need to broaden our definitions of what is notable: there have been plenty of female authors, scientists, civil rights activists and martyr-librarians that we should all know about. Set a national curriculum with gender equality in mind, and society will be stronger for it."

OUTCOME:
Julius Caesar is mostly known for being Aurelia Cotta's son

OPTION 3
"I don't see the point in being didactic and authoritarian here," muses your maiden aunt, straightening your collar and motioning for you to stand up straighter. "Just give children time and internet access, and let them decide for themselves what history is most important to study. Little chaps can read about all the wars and football teams if they want to, gels can read about princesses and fashion designers, or whatever they like. Everybody goes home happy."

OUTCOME:
many schoolchildren think there is a great scholar named "Citation Needed"

[Australian rePublic]

If @@NAME@@ were a matriarchy, this would be reversed. Either case, the speaker in option 2 isn't making a very compelling argument. My first reaction to her would be "name one"

[Sanctaria]

If @@NAME@@ were a matriarchy, this would be reversed. Either case, the speaker in option 2 isn't making a very compelling argument. My first reaction to her would be "name one"

If your first reaction to someone complaining that noteworthy women are not recognised or taught is "name one", then you're proving her point. Therefore it follows it's a compelling enough argument.

As an aside, if your first reaction to "there's plenty of female authors and scientists" is "name one", it says a lot more about you than the speaker in the option!

[Australian rePublic]

If @@NAME@@ were a matriarchy, this would be reversed. Either case, the speaker in option 2 isn't making a very compelling argument. My first reaction to her would be "name one"

If your first reaction to someone complaining that noteworthy women are not recognised or taught is "name one", then you're proving her point. Therefore it follows it's a compelling enough argument.

As an aside, if your first reaction to "there's plenty of female authors and scientists" is "name one", it says a lot more about you than the speaker in the option!

Yes, i misspoke. What I meant to say was that her first reaction would be to name one

[Candlewhisper Archive]

If @@NAME@@ were a matriarchy, this would be reversed.

We've previously established in issue writing that it is a fair assumption to make that nations have some form of societal gender bias towards men, if not at present then at least at some time in their history. Without that, all the issues that feature feminists of any sort or complaints about gender inequality against women would not be possible.

Players are free to rp as having their nations in worlds where women have always been in charge. IN that circumstance, they should just mentally genderflip ever character they see in issues.

Either case, the speaker in option 2 isn't making a very compelling argument. My first reaction to her would be "name one"

I'm glad you said that, as my worry was that it was too much of an obvious option to pick.

I've avoided naming RL examples here, as while RL people will often be referenced in places (for example Caesar in the next option, Umberto Eco in an old effect line, Shakespeare elsewhere) I don't want to too much imply extensive shared history between NS and RL.

For the sake of the thread though, an example of each:

female author - Jane Austen
scientists - Marie Curie
civil rights activists - Rosa Parks
martyr-librarian - Hypatia

The last one is probably the only martyr-librarian of note, but equipped with google I bet you can find dozens more notable women in each other job mentioned.

[Trotterdam]

Sure, if you're going to compile a list of the 5146 most important authors in history, there's going to be some women on the list. I can't even muster the energy to care about what the literature history snobs consider to be the top 5.

[Australian rePublic]

If @@NAME@@ were a matriarchy, this would be reversed.

We've previously established in issue writing that it is a fair assumption to make that nations have some form of societal gender bias towards men, if not at present then at least at some time in their history. Without that, all the issues that feature feminists of any sort or complaints about gender inequality against women would not be possible.

Players are free to rp as having their nations in worlds where women have always been in charge. IN that circumstance, they should just mentally genderflip ever character they see in issues.

Either case, the speaker in option 2 isn't making a very compelling argument. My first reaction to her would be "name one"

I'm glad you said that, as my worry was that it was too much of an obvious option to pick.

I've avoided naming RL examples here, as while RL people will often be referenced in places (for example Caesar in the next option, Umberto Eco in an old effect line, Shakespeare elsewhere) I don't want to too much imply extensive shared history between NS and RL.

For the sake of the thread though, an example of each:

female author - Jane Austen
scientists - Marie Curie
civil rights activists - Rosa Parks
martyr-librarian - Hypatia

The last one is probably the only martyr-librarian of note, but equipped with google I bet you can find dozens more notable women in each other job mentioned.

I's disagree that option 2 was the obvious choice, but anyways

[Candlewhisper Archive]

That's why I'm happy. It's a sign of good issue positioning when people have different feelings about which choice is the most obvious.

[The Marsupial Illuminati]

As far as I know, there are no references to the great dissident feminist scholar Camille Paglia in the issues base. This is a scandal that must be corrected. Here are some highly interesting choice quotes that you might include or take inspiration from, to incorporate into an existing option or to fabricate a new option:

"If civilization had been left in female hands, we would still be living in grass huts."

"There is no female Mozart because there is no female Jack the Ripper."

"In 'A Room of One's Own', Virginia Woolf satirically describes her perplexity at the bulging card catalog of the British Museum: why, she asks, are there so many books written by men about women but none by women about men? The answer to her question is that from the beginning of time men have been struggling with the threat of woman's dominance."

"Women have been discouraged from genres such as sculpture that require studio training or expensive materials. But in philosophy, mathematics, and poetry, the only materials are pen and paper. Male conspiracy cannot explain all female failures. I am convinced that, even without restrictions, there still would have been no female Pascal, Milton, or Kant. Genius is not checked by social obstacles: it will overcome. Men's egotism, so disgusting in the talentless, is the source of their greatness as a sex. [...] Even now, with all vocations open, I marvel at the rarity of the woman driven by artistic or intellectual obsession, that self-mutilating derangement of social relationship which, in its alternate forms of crime and ideation, is the disgrace and glory of the human species."

"I feel that genius and obsession be the same thing. It is rare when a woman is driven by obsession. Similarly, it is rare when a woman is a genius. That's why I said one of my most notorious sentences, that there is no woman Mozart because there is no woman Jack the Ripper. Men are more prone to obsession because they are fleeing domination by women. They flee to a chess game or to a computer or to fixing a car, or whatever, to attempt to complete their identities, because they always feel incomplete."

"Women have conceptualized less in history not because men have kept them from doing so but because women do not need to conceptualize in order to exist."

"Because of the nature of the penis, men have performance anxiety, whereas no woman ever has to prove herself in this way. So men's egos are totally involved in performance, in doing, achieving. An erection is a kind of achievement. So is peeing. As I've said, a boy has to learn to aim in order to no longer be infantile. So it's an accomplishment. The male orgasm is short-lived and transient — and that's the irony of men's sexuality. It's ironic that feminism looks at the penis as power and violence when in fact it is very weak."

"Contemporary feminists, who are generally poor or narrowly trained scholars, insist on viewing history as a weepy scenario of male oppression and female victimization. But it is more accurate to see men, driven by sexual anxiety away from their mothers, forming group alliances by male bonding to create complex structures of society, art, science and technology."

"Freud says, 'Man fears that his strength will be taken from him by woman, dreads becoming infected with her femininity and then proving himself a weakling.' Masculinity must fight off effeminacy day by day. Woman and nature stand ever ready to reduce the male to boy and infant."

"Contemporary feminism cut itself off from history and bankrupted itself when it spun its paranoid fantasy of male oppressors and female sex-object victims. Woman is the dominant sex. Woman’s sexual glamour has bewitched and destroyed men since Delilah and Helen of Troy."

"Women played no part in Athenian high culture. They could not vote, attend the theatre, or walk in the stoa talking philosophy. But the male orientation of Greek culture was inseparable of its genius. Athens became great not despite but because of its misogyny."

I know I've presented you with a wall of text, but please seriously consider it.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Sure, if you're going to compile a list of the 5146 most important authors in history, there's going to be some women on the list. I can't even muster the energy to care about what the literature history snobs consider to be the top 5.

Then this list is not for you.

https://www.ranker.com/list/best-female ... nker-books

I mean personally, I'd place Ursula le Guin 22 places higher, but otherwise its a decent list.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

As far as I know, there are no references to the great dissident feminist scholar Camille Paglia in the issues base. This is a scandal that must be corrected.

Ah, I know her words well. She represents feminism in the same way that the Islamic State represents Islam. The best thing I can say about her is that she's equal opportunities in her vitriol, hating men and women with equal aplomb.

I've no problem with seeing a reference to her in the right issue, but probably not this one, as her opinions don't really mesh well with the feminist character presented.

I think the only other reference to a named prominent modern feminist in the issue base at present is Alison Bechdel, who I squeezed into issue 544. For historical feminists, Pankhurst is referenced in 1089.

We probably ought to see Germaine Greer be referenced too somewhere.

For this issue, I guess I could replace the random name with a reference to Gerder Lerner, who had a lot to say about patriarchy and history. What do you think?

[The Marsupial Illuminati]

I've no problem with seeing a reference to her in the right issue, but probably not this one, as her opinions don't really mesh well with the feminist character presented.

Considering how critical Paglia is of feminists, a character inspired by her would be opposed to the feminist character.

I suggested a Paglia reference for this issue because it seemed appropriate, as she does sometimes talk about women and history. Option 1 says, "Women don't figure prominently in history because they were being kept down because of sexism." Satirizing Paglia based on her work, she might go a few steps further and say, "Women don't figure prominently in history because they aren't capable of doing the prominent things that men can do." I find that the more extreme view here makes for a stronger and more interesting issue.

We probably ought to see Germaine Greer be referenced too somewhere.

Wherever a reference seems appropriate.

For this issue, I guess I could replace the random name with a reference to Gerder Lerner, who had a lot to say about patriarchy and history. What do you think?

I am not familiar with Gerder Lerner. The feminist professor bell hooks comes to mind when I think of talk of patriarchy. But I used to watch a lot of her lectures, and I don't recall discussion of history. I trust your judgment on whether or not a reference to Gerder Lerner would be appropriate in this case.

[Chan Island]

Ah, the great scholar Citation Needed. It's very good to see them referenced in that excellent effect line.

Otherwise I'm a bit skeptical that we need Camille Paglia here as I'm not sure about how she'd fit in, except perhaps as a throw-away line in the history teacher's spiel. And considering that the joke there is that it's a man speaking before all of the women there, the reference would likely fall flat.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

I think I agree - we'll save Paglia for her own issue. She's got more than enough personality to be the topic of an issue rather than a cameo.