Penis Mom vs Handless Girl : Sexism Wins

It did take a while didn't it ? One post a year...sorry about that. Let's just say that due to my inability to become the first instant-millionaire-apprentice builder-writer of my generation, I got back onto the media saddle and hooked up with the newspaper where I first started working 15 years ago. It means commuting to Bordeaux everyday, but the job is good, and it brings a salary. It's more difficult for my better-half who pretty much has to do everything by herself. Also we went on holls to Northern Spain and visited our friends in the US , and that was great. As for our village, what has happened in the last 12 months ? ...well...not much..but some.There is a wind of activity spinning in our little corner of Dordogne. New comers have arrived, people express new ideas for entertainment, I acted as the Bingo host in  a very DULL, unfunny, loooooong rendition of calling numbers out loud to a crowd of blood-thirsty locals (this people do not clap but moan when someone wins - I kid you not). And there is the Medieval Festival.

Ah, my Lords (and Ladies), what a feast it will be ! A whole day of celebrations in the next door village. All the school-mums have been enlisted to saw costumes (the woman who started it all unanimously decided by herself that SHE would be Alienor, and nobody else) , draw banners and paint backgrounds tapestries to decorate the village. Everything has to look medieval, old at least, for the crowds will be walking the streets on the week-end of ...February 11th. Oh yes! F'in February !
Nothing like an outdoor festival when temperatures are likely to cuddle up together at the very bottom of the thermometer.
But do not be alarmed, little boys will stay warm, as they will be running around, playing medieval games (the-burning-of-the-gipsy? throw-the-cat-in-the-well, scavenge-for-roots-in-the-forest-if-you-want-to-eat?).
-Little boys ? Only ? What about little girls ? Aren't they allowed to play too?  inquired my wife.
-In the Middle Ages, they weren't worth anything replied the Self-Appointed-Queen. So I don't believe it's appropriate to have special games for them.
-Therefore, replied my wife, should we write down, there and now,  that we will actually cut the hand of any person who would steal a piece of bread, in the name of historical accuracy?

From my years studying law and mostly from watching Monthy Python's Holy Grail, I can think of another 5 or 6 spectacular, yet medieval ways, to bring justice to our little community. Just the basics you know : Throwing someone in the pond, with or without a stone around their neck, in the middle of winter should drastically limit the risk of a second offense...
So, misogyny still runs deep in our countryside. but now, we know where it's rooted, back in the evil ways of the Dark Ages... Or is it ? According to that successful blog entry : the Penis Mom (read it!) brought to my attention by Sweedish Ana and Rolling Karen from Tarrytown, discrimination based on gender is also deeply stuck in the collective mind in the Land of the Free.
There you have it, another bridge has been built over cultural differences, a lovely bridge made of the finest subconsciously backward assumption that male>female. Yes! We're all the same in the end. So come over and rejoice my friend, on Feb 11Th, for there will be costumes and games, food and beverages, and a bridge to cross. But make sure you pay the toll when you cross the bridge or we throw you in the river, with a cat, a stone and a burning gipsy tied around your neck.

(PS : As for the principle of organizing a festival in the village, I think it's brilliant and commendable, I was just pointing out the courage of my wife to challenge the sociological subtext and my apprehension at walking down the street dressed like a jester with tight silky long legs in the middle of winter.)