A woman's life is not a happy one

 usually the usual lists of women who changed the world are about political women or socialist women.

But the most honored lady, revered by 3 billion people in the world, is Mama Mary, beloved by Christians and Muslims but who rarely gets on their list because she was just a housewife.

So today's the other half podcast is about Catherine of Sienna who told off the Pope sitting in luxury in Avignon and told him to get his ass back to Rome.

The bad news? He did, but this caused a schism in the church and ultimately led to the Protestant revolution in two ways: By pointing out the corruption in the church, and by reminding people the importance of a personal relationship with God is the important thing.

I like how her mom tried to correct her girl when she hit puberty and became "religious": she made her do housework. It didn't work, but it did prove that saints know how to cook and clean. She not only had visions but dictated a lot of stuff about her relationship with God, while also nursing plague victims etc.

No, I haven't read her writings: Too complicated for my small head. But she is now considered a doctor of the church.

But her life points out one thing: that the only one who outranks the Pope is a saint, and that saint could be an insignificant person who comes out of nowhere. Pope Francis be warned...

Another podcast is of Margery Kemp...

.Anthony Bale discusses the sensational life of medieval mystic Margery Kempe, charting a story of unusual visions, spiritual revelations, turbulent emotions and religious controversies.

Like Teresa of Avila, she wrote her autobiography to defend herself against charges of heresy but the similarity ends there.

Teresa of Avila was a neurotic teenager who entered a convent because she was afraid of going to hell, and then gradually evolved to a mature woman with common sense and humor, and ended up reforming the Spanish Catholic church. And yes, I have read her autobiography.

In contrast, Margery Kemp was a married woman and mother of eleven who at menopause got the religious bug and a couple of visions and then left her husband to go on pilgrimages. And her autobiography seems to be that of a neurotic woman rather than a hard headed practical mystic or saint.

Now, neurotic women who have unhappy marriages and get religious mania are not unusual (Prince Philip's mother and Catherine Doherty come to mind). But unlike these two ladies, she didn't work with the poor as a result, but became a gadabout. Probably a more interesting life than caring for grandkids and putting up with a husband, but her writings and actions don't inspire one nor do they suggest holiness.

Both these podcasts give insight into the lives of women in times when women were marginalized.

But religion gave them a third way to escape the heavy bonds of marriage so they could do their thing.

I was just reading the tale of Genji, and his final wife also escaped an unhappy marriage by being a Buddhist nun, which says a lot about karma (Genji messes up a lot of women's lives, and she got pregnant by a relative so his last child was not his).

then there are the women warriors and pirates: from Mary Bonney to Ching Shi.

So modern times allow women to a career outside the house, but the huge amount of neuroses which before the 1960s was blamed on women being stuck in a narrow role as housewives hasn't change: they now are single women and cat ladies who go around unhappily tweeting against their enemies.

Personally I think it is the hormones. 

Which is why we see this in young girls and in menopausal women, when the hormones are going crazy.

This is what the ancient Greeks thought, and as a woman I have first hand experience of this.

but I am sad that the neurotic ladies of today project their unhappiness on others. And of course, the trans fads in schools are just another way for neurotic teenage girls who in the past would have visions or religious mania and/or enter a nunnery now decide to mutilate themselves  to decide this is one way to escape the burdens of life.