Women channeled the ecstatic religious madness that patriarchy had displaced onto a male god
Evidence
In the world reconquered by males, the male god Dionysus usurped Ishtar’s and Astarte’s magic and wild virtues; but it was women who went wild over his image: the maenads, thyades, and bacchantes led men to religious drunkenness and sacred madness. The role of sacred prostitution is similar: both to unleash and to channel the powers of fertility. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 340
Categorization
- CANDY: Dionysus stealing goddess powers yet women still doing the wild work is a striking compact fact for conversation.
- XREF: connects to: Patriarchy mythologized its triumph as a violent cosmic conquest over feminine chaos. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 169; Patriarchal religions purify woman of her stained nature through male-defined submission — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 170; Patriarchal mythology projects its own values onto woman and calls imposed immanence her nature — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 655 (+3 more)
Broader Connections
- Patriarchal religions purify woman of her stained nature through male-defined submission
#expands(0.82) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 170 - Patriarchal mythology projects its own values onto woman and calls imposed immanence her nature
#expands(0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 655 - The Virgin Mary replaced goddesses with a male-serving image of woman
#exemplifies(0.78) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 367