Linksfest!

[highlyeccentric]

Have I mentioned that Heavenfield is awesome? Fast becoming my favourite medieval blog, although not one to be read for light entertainment. Today, I present you Heavenfield on women in the life of St Wilfrid.

I was thinking about the feast of St Wilfrid today and flipping through the Life of Bishop Wilfrid. It occurred to me how much Wilfrid is surrounded by women in his Life. In some ways we learn as much about seventh century women in Stephen’s Life of Bishop Wilfrid as we do in Bede’s History, particularly relative to their lengths. It is important to note that Stephan and Wilfrid’s disciples apparently thought that it was important to show him nearly constantly interacting with women. Stephen wrote this Life only about ten years after Wilfrid’s death when many of the protagonists in the Life were still alive, or at the very least their children or disciples were very much still in power. So today I thought I would start a series of blogs on Wilfrid’s interactions with women.

The things we take for granted. I read Stephanus last year, and didn't even bat an eyelid at all the women coming in and out of the text.
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Some people make me cranky.
 "They're praying in the park," the voice said. At first I thought she said playing, so I explained that the school didn't have a lot of room and we encouraged the students to get some fresh air and, yes, I know children can be noisy when they play …
"No, no - they're praying, PRAYING."
Hmph. You'd think people would be able to pray wherever they damn well please, to whomever they damn well please, without causing a neighbourhood crisis.
And needless to say, if it were I and my friends praying in a park somewhere, no one would be ringing the university to complain. goblinpaladin might write a blistering letter to Honi Soit about the fact that he can't go anywhere on this campus without being bombarded with religion from all sides, but he'd get cranky regardless of whether it was us, the Islamic Students or the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Somehow I don't think Ms Busybody Neighbour in that article would've been so even handed.
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while we're on the topic of people interfering with religious practice, did you hear that China has banned living Buddhas from reincarnating without approval?
I'm trying to imagine the forms for that one...
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Bitch, PHD, blogs about talking sexism and body image with young boys. Her son Pseudonymous Kid sounds like the soul of awesome, incidentally.

"It's like, girls get told that they *have* to be pretty all the time," he goes on, as it sinks in. "Which is way worse than being told that you're not supposed to care about being pretty. At least boys don't get diseases that make them not eat and stuff!"

"Exactly."

He steps into the shower. "But, Mama," a little anxiously. "It's still sexist to tell boys that they shouldn't care about being cute, like, ever."
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Speaking of goblinpaladin, he gives me cool presents. Like this gorgeous picture from urban_decay: JC with flowers
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Ever thought that fairy tale characters might need a little therapy?
Approval addiction Throughout her life Cinderella has pleased everyone but herself. In doing so, she’s lost touch with her emotions.

Physical presentation Cinderella has a nervous demeanour. Her voice and facial expressions are childlike. She is well dressed, as befits her newly royal status, and is believed to have a penchant for unusual shoes, her only indulgence.
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What's wrong with being Emo?

Walking down the street in Newcastle recently I saw a handwritten sign in a window in a block of flats. In bold black letters it said "Emo Free Zone".
...According to popular opinion, I am the very definition of the emo. I wear the right clothes, listen to the right music and my occasional shyness may lead you to believe that I act the right way too. However, it is the other assumptions that many people make that are of more concern. I must be depressed. I must hate my life. I must hate anyone who isn't like me. I must self-mutilate. These are all wrong.
...When the Ramones in America and the Sex Pistols in Britain gave birth to punk, it was blamed for inciting anarchy. When Nirvana gave youth a voice in the early 1990s, those who watched it unfold were scared of the future that Generation X would create. Looking back, you would think that society would have become more understanding.
The people who finally felt alive when they heard this music in the past are now making judgments about emo, forgetting that they were once misunderstood and mistreated. Now that emo music is dominating the soundtrack of the lives of younger teenagers who feel increasingly disconnected from and uncared-for by the community, the family unit and society at large, those who have forgotten what it was like are doing the same thing.
 and the crowning argument
Emo kids may appear to be spoilt brats who find fault in everything. But I ask you to think about how you see emos and how you treat emos, and ask yourself: is it really a good idea to treat someone you believe is depressed and alone as the butt of a cruel joke?
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Fun stuff from Scribal Terror, to round off:
Don't fall through the art
Offical Seal of my favourite biblical antiheroine, Jezebel, rediscovered
Flying Nuns!
A love letter of 1881