This is quite a long piece (one for a cup of tea and the sofa) and if you are receiving it via email it is highly likely your email provider will clip or truncate it, so best to read via the Substack App or online if possible).
Thank you as ever John for your lovely words. And the many voice note we've shared about capitalism -- I really appreciate those opportunities to mull things over with you and have my mind sparked by your always astute insights.
Oh Ramona, thank you so much for sharing this here; the real-world toll and pain that these somewhat intangible and hard to grasp social systems cause. I can only imagine the impact that this has on the whole family, down through the generations. We truly are in the reckoning times, when we have the language to name it but that doesn't make it any easier or less destructive. Go gently xx
Wonderful article, Belinda! The Caliban and the Witch really made things fall into place for me. I felt the truth of it in my bones. Your theories on the Irish female experience, in light of that, makes perfect sense to me. What a kick in the teeth it must have been to all the women who gave themselves to working for the revolution, promised freedom and equality, to be then locked away in the home. I can't imagine how that must have felt. And then the mother and baby Home episode, the legacy of which we are still living with. And a constitution in which the role of women has still not been amended. We still have such a long way to go, but at least we're not going backwards like so many countries are. Thank you for this thought-provoking read this morning, it will be on my mind for the rest of the day! 💕
Thank you Ali. YES, those are the very words, "fall into place" -- exactly how I felt after reading Caliban too. It's an incredible book, extremely challenging but I feel it combing through every aspect of how I think/perceive/view things and realigning them.
This is such an excellent read!! I'm not Irish myself, but I did live in Ireland for a long time (up until relatively recently), and I'm really fascinated by your project. Thinking about the role colonization played in shaping a slightly different form of subjugation (in comparision to other European countries) for women in Irish culture is so nuanced and well explained, and it also makes me think of my own childhood in the American South. I also used to work with oral history projects, so really looking forward to following this newsletter!
Oh, I loved reading this so much. The distinction between ‘hard power’ and ‘soft power’ is perfect. I really enjoyed exploring this issue from an Irish perspective and I have a lot of food for thought. Thank you.
Belinda, this is a superb piece, thank you. I'm a huge fan of Federici's work myself, it's a narrative changing book.
What you're writing about here hit me on a personal level. My grandmother wasn't Irish, yet her story of being "put in order" by the society carries uncanny similarities to the countless Irish destinies of unwed mothers and their "illegitimate" children. She was born in another deeply devoted Catholic country, in a small middle of nowhere of an agrarian, subsistence based corner of the Balkans., and abandoned by her mother who was pressured into "behaving."
In order for her to marry and take her expected role within the society, her parents reduced her to a transaction. The man who accepted to marry the "tainted" woman did so on the condition that her illegitimate child -- my grandmother -- must be denounced and erased. The result was not one, but two women stripped off their power and neutralised for the rest of their lives.
This is a generational trauma I have yet to untangle.
Thanks so much Annette. I feel you on the processing; this is how The Caliban and the Witch really got under my skin -- I feel it burrowing away in me, peeling things back and making them raw and open for inspection. What I wrote about here is the outcome of some of that introspection but there's so much more still happening!
Thanks for fleshing out the power of Irish women more as well as my. Ow understanding. It feels like the vivacity of the feminine land itself is awakening again at this time.
YES!! Love this Nick, the vivacity of the feminine of the land feels very much like it is awakening right now for me too. And it's potent, and it's for everyone!
Thanks Belinda. Really interesting piece. Lots to think about and turn over in the mind. Well done!
Thank you as ever John for your lovely words. And the many voice note we've shared about capitalism -- I really appreciate those opportunities to mull things over with you and have my mind sparked by your always astute insights.
Oh Ramona, thank you so much for sharing this here; the real-world toll and pain that these somewhat intangible and hard to grasp social systems cause. I can only imagine the impact that this has on the whole family, down through the generations. We truly are in the reckoning times, when we have the language to name it but that doesn't make it any easier or less destructive. Go gently xx
Wonderful article, Belinda! The Caliban and the Witch really made things fall into place for me. I felt the truth of it in my bones. Your theories on the Irish female experience, in light of that, makes perfect sense to me. What a kick in the teeth it must have been to all the women who gave themselves to working for the revolution, promised freedom and equality, to be then locked away in the home. I can't imagine how that must have felt. And then the mother and baby Home episode, the legacy of which we are still living with. And a constitution in which the role of women has still not been amended. We still have such a long way to go, but at least we're not going backwards like so many countries are. Thank you for this thought-provoking read this morning, it will be on my mind for the rest of the day! 💕
Thank you Ali. YES, those are the very words, "fall into place" -- exactly how I felt after reading Caliban too. It's an incredible book, extremely challenging but I feel it combing through every aspect of how I think/perceive/view things and realigning them.
Absolutely! You make me want to read it again. 💕
DO!! :) Although I find I can only really read a few pages at a time, and I need to read it alongside a ‘fun’ book to lighten my mood!
Haha! Yes, a lot of the really good books are like that, I find... you need time to digest and understand, time away so you're not overwhelmed. 💕
Yea, I read in Republic of Shame, that there some of their comrades were th3 very ones who delivered them to magdalena laundries
That was a good book too. It must have been a difficult time to be a woman in Ireland.
Brilliant piece...thankyou. It was just as effective as any witch hunt, divorcing g women from their own body.
Thank you Marguerite. Oooph yes, that's it exactly "Divorcing women from their own body".
This is such an excellent read!! I'm not Irish myself, but I did live in Ireland for a long time (up until relatively recently), and I'm really fascinated by your project. Thinking about the role colonization played in shaping a slightly different form of subjugation (in comparision to other European countries) for women in Irish culture is so nuanced and well explained, and it also makes me think of my own childhood in the American South. I also used to work with oral history projects, so really looking forward to following this newsletter!
Oh, I loved reading this so much. The distinction between ‘hard power’ and ‘soft power’ is perfect. I really enjoyed exploring this issue from an Irish perspective and I have a lot of food for thought. Thank you.
Thanks so much Bethany, really glad you enjoyed it xx
Thank you for sharing your thought-provoking work. Two other wonderful books by amazing women may help your project. 'The Chalice and the Blade' by Riane Eisler (https://centerforpartnership.org/resources/books/the-chalice-and-the-blade-our-history-our-future/) and 'Care and Capitalism' by Kathleen Lynch (https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/review/2022/10/01/care-and-capitalism-an-urgent-and-radical-vision-for-change/). Their scholarship offers lens that I use in my personal and professional relationships to help understand the topics you are grappling with and to find hope for the future. Lynch foregrounds 'care relations' and how they have been rendered invisible by capitalism, but that the 'cultural residual' of care relations lives on in families, communities and human solidarity. Eisler shares the 'domination system - partnership system' social scale configuration that gives us a way to 'read' the domination 'playbook' of 'power over' relations (in patriarchy, in colonialism, in capitalism) and it also gives us a map to the partnership way of 'power with' and 'power to' relations. She has a lot to say about gender in her work. She has another wonderful book that you might like too: 'Sacred Pleasure' https://centerforpartnership.org/resources/books/sacred-pleasure-sex-myth-and-the-politics-of-the-body-new-paths-to-power-and-love/.
Thank you so much Caroline. This is so helpful. All added to my reading list :)
Belinda, this is a superb piece, thank you. I'm a huge fan of Federici's work myself, it's a narrative changing book.
What you're writing about here hit me on a personal level. My grandmother wasn't Irish, yet her story of being "put in order" by the society carries uncanny similarities to the countless Irish destinies of unwed mothers and their "illegitimate" children. She was born in another deeply devoted Catholic country, in a small middle of nowhere of an agrarian, subsistence based corner of the Balkans., and abandoned by her mother who was pressured into "behaving."
In order for her to marry and take her expected role within the society, her parents reduced her to a transaction. The man who accepted to marry the "tainted" woman did so on the condition that her illegitimate child -- my grandmother -- must be denounced and erased. The result was not one, but two women stripped off their power and neutralised for the rest of their lives.
This is a generational trauma I have yet to untangle.
Thank you for this, Belinda. I have so much to process on the back of this that I don't know where to begin. Thank you 🙏🏻
Thanks so much Annette. I feel you on the processing; this is how The Caliban and the Witch really got under my skin -- I feel it burrowing away in me, peeling things back and making them raw and open for inspection. What I wrote about here is the outcome of some of that introspection but there's so much more still happening!
Thanks for fleshing out the power of Irish women more as well as my. Ow understanding. It feels like the vivacity of the feminine land itself is awakening again at this time.
YES!! Love this Nick, the vivacity of the feminine of the land feels very much like it is awakening right now for me too. And it's potent, and it's for everyone!