I heard during their early kingdom days they were super feminist with all their empresses, but then they adopted Confucianism and turned into a based misogynistic patriarchy. Then things again changed during the Edo period. It's kind of like how the original Anglo-Saxon settlers in Britain were pretty fair with women's rights, but then the Normans settled and then they became treated like cattle.We also bring up how half of samurais are women, but isn't samurai a social class, where the actual warriors are still male-dominated? How would they overall compare with the west, be it the super sexist Anglos or the super feminist Dutch? I don't think Japan is necessarily super "misogynist" in a sense, but they are very strict on gender roles. Similar to the Islamic world which is often associated as an uber patriarchy by the west, but see how Arab dads treat their daughters like queens and spoil their wives.
>>18461108Nice pr stunt at the end there Abdul
>>18461108They had the right to remain silent haha
>>18461108It was feminist paradise, sadly no primary sources from the period on that, and then when the sources show up they turned into female enslavement already :(
>>18461108>Anglos are sexistnot really. I wish, though.>>18461245feminist societies collapse pretty quickly, hence why no written records.
>>18461108Married Heian noblewomen wore so many layers of robes they couldn't walk anywhere and were expected to speak to all men except their husband and brothers through a screen. But they were also well educated, and their intelligence and creativity were reasonably respected.Unattached female courtiers had a surprising amount of freedom in some things, notably sexual partners. Sei Shonagon makes it pretty clear that the main expectation is that sleeping around was perfectly normal but the man was expected to be discrete about it. Takasue's daughter and Michitsuna's mother always go "maybe I'll just go become a nun" whenever life is getting them down. I honestly can never tell how serious they are being, but it seems like it was at least an actual option for them. Having the option to leave one's current life and have that respected is at least more freedom than most people imagine for women in many times and places. Then again despite being some of the most famous authors and poets in the Japanese language I literally don't know their names because they weren't important enough to write down. So yeah anyway, one could easily classify all that as misogyny. I don't think they'd have agreed with you on that. Of course all that ignores whatever the fuck was going on with poor people. You can't look at one class in society and assume it all carries over. Michitsuna's mother was her husband's second wife. There's a bit in her diary where she writes to the other wife who lives in the other wing on the same estate, but for them that might as well be miles away because they are basically immobile. She complains about missing their husband and the other wife writes back "I thought he was with you".Maybe not relevant, but funny.
