On the Magdalene Asylums and why gender-slurs are so offensive

BBC Radio did a nice piece on the history of these "laundries" where women deemed to be "sluts" were basically enslaved through their lives to hard labor doing laundry or mass producing clothing. Knowing this history, perhaps some of the men here can understand why the use of "slut" or other gender-based slurs is every bit as offensive as the "N" word is to African Americans.These victims have tried repeatedly to appeal for redress or even an official apology and been rebuffed. It was not merely an Irish thing, either. A BBC documentary about these poor women was made in 2003 and is still available

Magdalene asylum (Madalene Laundry)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdalene_asylum
Magdalene Laundry in Ireland, c. early 20th century

Magdalene asylums were institutions for so-called "fallen women". Asylums for "fallen women" operated throughout Europe, Britain, Ireland, Canada and the United States for much of the nineteenth and well into the twentieth century. The first asylum in Ireland opened on Leeson Street in Dublin in 1767, founded by Lady Arabella Denny. In Belfast there was a Church of Ireland run Ulster Magdalene Asylum (founded in 1839) on Donegall Pass, while parallel institutions were run by Catholics on Ormeau Road and Presbyterians on Whitehall Parade.<1>

Initially the mission of the asylums was often to rehabilitate women back into society, but by the early twentieth century the homes had become increasingly punitive and prison like (at least in Ireland and Scotland). In most asylums, the inmates were required to undertake hard physical labour, including laundry and needle work. They also endured a daily regime that included long periods of prayer and enforced silence. In Ireland, such asylums were known as Magdalene laundries. It has been estimated that up to 30,000 women passed through such laundries in Ireland.<2> The last Magdalene asylum in the Republic of Ireland closed on September 25, 1996.

****************
The Magdalene Sisters
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magdalene_Sisters
The Magdalene Sisters

The Magdalene Sisters is a 2002 film written and directed by Peter Mullan about teenage girls who were sent to Magdalene Asylums, otherwise known as the 'Magdalene Laundries': homes for women who were labeled as "fallen" by their families or society (though the film questions this). The homes were maintained by individual religious orders in the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland.

Peter Mullan has remarked that the film was initially made because victims of Magdalene Asylums had received no closure in the form of recognition, compensation, or apology, and many remained lifelong devout Catholics.<2> Former Magdalen inmate Mary-Jo McDonagh told Mullan that the reality of the Magdalene Asylums was much worse than depicted in the film.<3>

What a horrible piece of history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magdalene_Sisters


Beautiful story about an orphan girl who happened to be pretty and got some attention from boys.........that was all she ever did was smile at some boys and the orphanage turned her over to the Magdalene laundries.

It's a true story. Shine's a different light on Sinead O'COnner ripping up the picture of the Pope years ago on SNL doesn't it?

"The Magdalene Sisters" was based on it. You can watch it on Google videos, here's a link:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1732953937770017672#

I was an unmarried girl
I'd just turned twenty-seven
When they sent me to the sisters
For the way men looked at me
Branded as a jezebel
I knew I was not bound for Heaven
I'd be cast in shame
Into the Magdalene laundries

Most girls come here pregnant
Some by their own fathers
Bridget got that belly
By her parish priest
We're trying to get things white as snow
All of us woe-begotten-daughters
In the steaming stains
Of the Magdalene laundries

Prostitutes and destitutes
And temptresses like me--
Fallen women--
Sentenced into dreamless drudgery ...
Why do they call this heartless place
Our Lady of Charity?
Oh charity!

These bloodless brides of Jesus
If they had just once glimpsed their groom
Then they'd know, and they'd drop those stones
Concealed behind their rosaries
They wilt the grass they walk upon
They leech the light out of a room
They'd like to drive us down the drain
At the Magdalene laundries

Peg O'Connell died today
She was a cheeky girl
A flirt
They just stuffed her in a hole!
Surely to God you'd think at least some bells should ring!
One day I'm going to die here too
And they'll plant me in the dirt
Like some lame bulb
That never blooms come any spring
Not any spring

of mine. ;)

I'm not sure which one, but it's pretty recent (for Joni). I don't think she's done more than maybe 4 albums in the past 20 years, and its on one of them.
The Chieftains did a version with her as well.

There's still places in the world where misogyny is so pervasive that being called a slut carries the death penalty.

Pregnant Woman Flogged and Killed by Taliban for Adultery ***2010***

Graphic photo at link

http://zeldalily.com/index.php/2010/08/pregnant-woman-flogged-and-killed-by-taliban-for-adultery/

Calling a woman you disagree with politically a slut as an insult is one step on a very, very ugly continuum.

of those hideous Laundries.

And those are the Good Old Days of Traditional Values, to which some would like to return.

More generally, the savage treatment of women (much more than men) who transgressed certain social conventions is shockingly recent.There are British women alive today, who were forced to spend most of their lives in mental institutions because they had a baby out of wedlock.

And there are still countries where women can be beaten, imprisoned or even executed for real or alleged adultery.

and frankly, though I'm aware of the Magdalene Laundries and their horrible history, I don't see that my using that term has anything to do with it. And frankly, I find Rush Limbaugh's "Feminazi", far worse.

"Feminazi" is a slur against feminists, which I greatly dislike

but at least it goes to an "idea" rather than a condition of birth.

The word "bitch", when used as a synonym for "female"

is ugly and disparaging and,

in my view,

is to gender what "nigger" is to race.

The fact that one of the former inmates said real life was much worse than the film depicted makes me speechless...