Butterfly Effect - ressourcesfeministes

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7 surly as any city gurl. See Susan Hampton. 1989. Surly Girls.
8 Beguinages. Beguinages were all-women religious establishments of the Middle
Ages. The Beguines were a Medieval grass-roots movement. They “…promised
chastity during their life in the beguinage but maintained their rights to private
property and worked to support themselves.” Margaret Wade Labarge. 1987.
Women in Medieval Life, p. 115. Like most good ideas of the Medieval period, in
1311 they were declared heretical by Pope Clement V. Mechtild of Magdeburg
was one of the most famous mystic beguines, as famous in her time as Hildegard
of Bingen. But Marguerite de Porete from Hainault suffered as many more were
to in later centuries. She was accused of heresy and burnt in Paris in 1310. The
Beguinage in Amsterdam is now a tourist attraction.
9 charity. For a lesbian reading of “charity” see Suniti Namjoshi’s Building Babel,
(1996).
10 popes. The only known woman pope is Pope Joan (in 854 or 855 AD Joan became
Pope), and her discovery came about because she gave birth to a child while in a
procession (one wonders why it took until the time of the birth to notice!). A
lesbian pope prior to Pope Joan may have existed but would not have been
discovered. Since Pope Joan’s time every Pope has undergone a compulsory
testicle test, in which the proposed incumbent is seated on a hollow chair and a
committee of cardinals checks that the genitalia is of the right sex. It is then
announced, Testiculos habet et bene pendentes, “he has testicles and they hang all
right.” See Barbara Walker. 1983. The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets.
pp. 475-478. In 1997 Melbourne’s Women’s Circus dramatised the story of Pope
Joan with performers wearing habits for much of the show. Pope Joan herself
was portrayed as a tall stilt walker in long papal robes. See also Emily Hope.
1983. The Legend of Pope Joan.
11 refectory. The dining room of religious houses and other institutions such as
prisons. The Australian radical feminist magazine Refractory Girls is a play on the
words “refectory girls, refractory girls”.
12 winged woman. This image comes from Revelations. There have been many
dangerous winged women throughout history; they have been called unnatural.
Among them are the harpies of ancient Greece, the dakinis of India, the Valkyries
of Norse legend. They are represented variously as swans, ravens, crows, hawks,
and in Egypt, the Middle East and India as vultures. They are probably an
ancient memory of the widespread bird goddess, and are most frequently
associated with death rituals. Angels could be considered a tamed Christian
version of the same tradition. “The Chinese said women knew the secret of flying
before men.” Barbara Walker. The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, p.
101.
13 Babylon is fallen is fallen. Revelations 14:8. Babylon is used over and over in the
Bible as the archetypal evil city. It is filled with pagans, heathens, idolaters,
adulterers, whores, buggers and no doubt, lesbians. Lesbians, like other
daughters of Babylon, are fallen women. Anything reeking of women’s sexuality
is regarded as blasphemous in Biblical, and later Church texts.