Some Stray Thoughts on Misogyny

"[Gertrude’s] frailty unleashes for Hamlet, and for Shakespeare, fantasies of maternal malevolence, of maternal spoiling, that are compelling exactly as they are out of proportion to the character we know, exactly as they seem therefore to reiterate infantile fears and desires rather than an adult apprehension of the mother as a separate person." - Janet Adelman, Suffocating Mothers, Fantasies of Maternal Origin
in Shakespeare’s Plays, Hamlet to The Tempest
 
"You know what makes me sick? I am sick to death of people saying that it's all the parents' fault, that it all starts with the family. Wanna blame someone? Why don't you blame YOUR MOTHER?!" - Scream 2 (1997)
 
Your Mother's Eden, see.
Her plants watered only by drink
divine, without adultery.
She doesn't lust, she doesn't ache.
She'll make the beds, and break
the eggs. And if she doesn't, death awaits.
 
But Eden always dies. No tree  
or blade exists without mortality's
office. And yet we blame Eden, the dog.
 
And should a woman turn on us...
Eden doesn't just wither, it burns.
Why else were England's witches only burned
when their magic was used against
the men with whom they'd wed?
 
The codes of masculinity
were built on subjugation of the flesh
called female. But wanting it as well,
as well as fearing it, a new
golem was born, and animated scores.
 
Scores of men who rape and kill,
but hurt also in other ways.
The greater legion carrying
their poisoned hearts
through lives of no renown.
 
The model of a Man divine
was brute, not known to compromise,
controlling of Woman.
 
The genders merge and multiply.
The ancient codes of manhood calcify.
Brittling then,
they crumble as their carriers
lash out like King Canute
at water's edge, not understanding why
the tide declines to turn.