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Jun 4, 2011

The Golden Ass

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Sex with animals….now that is a taboo.  There are reports of people having intercourse with animals in the news on a fairly regular basis.  I read that Craigslist is used to find a specific type of animal.  Dogs, sheep, horses….I wonder if you can request certain breeds.  Oh, wait…those people on Craigslist were arrested.  Bestiality is not a new taboo as humans have always had animals and eventually domesticated pets in their home.  It is often misspelled as “beastiality” as I did,  and my spell-checker quickly corrected me.  Those practicing this are referred to as Zoophilia, and there all kinds of levels to determine if you are a Zoophile.

Here is a little bit of bestiality from centuries ago.

Women in the Roman Empire basically held two roles through out the story, “The Golden Ass”.  Based on the novel, their role was a wife or slave and  to be subservient to all men.  The wives were also treated as slaves by their husbands.

Taking each of these two roles in the story, it will be clear how unappealing it was to be a woman in the Roman Empire.  A man named  Milo had a wife who’s name was Pamphile and they owned a slave, Photis.   While the wife had power over Photis, she was still regarded as a slave to her husband.  When Lucius joined them in their dining area, Milo waved his wife off their couch to his feet and Lucius took her place.  Pamphile does not become upset or angry,  she knows she must obey her husbands wishes.  Lucius had no hesitation in taking her seat because men were considered above women.  ( 15)

While lodging with Milo, Lucius can’t pass up the opportunity to have wild sex with Pamphile’s slave, Photis. (28)  As a slave, Photis was just an object to her owners.  Being a guest of Milo, Lucius freely takes advantage of Photis for his sexual pleasures.  Photis and slaves of this time period did the general housework.  Photis was also  ordered to assist in setting Lucius up for the Festival of Laughter (47) and sent to acquired items for potions, such as hair. (49)  Anything their master or his wife requested was expected to be carried out.

Wives and mothers were expected to uphold the family.  In “The Golden Ass” they fail terribly.  Instead of holding bonds with their husbands and children they ruthlessly look out for only themselves.  A wife who falls in love with her step-son and is jilted by him is portrayed as a murderer. (191)   A baker’s wife was said to be ugly, evil, and blasphemous.  She ignored her husband and spoke back to him often.  She had an affair and basically threw it in his face.  A good wife honors her husband and would never be involved in an affair.  Cast out from her role as wife, she takes the step of murdering her husband then fleeing. (182) 

During his travels, Lucius, over hears conversations and stories with his large donkey ears.  One story, told by an old hag in cahoots with thieves is, “Cupid and Psyche”.  The hag is telling a tale to console a kidnapped girl who is being held for ransom.   The girl is from an upper class family and the thieves hope to make a fortune in receiving a reward.  (72)  The girl was treated as a slave and meant nothing to her kidnappers other then money.  She was from a good family and about to marry an upstanding man. She even showed kindness and showed grace to the hag!

In the hags story, Psyche is a young girl who begins receiving attention and followers due to her amazing beauty.  She is married to the son of a goddess and has everything she wants in life, including a baby on the way.  Her two sisters are married and hate their husbands.  In anger and jealousy of Psyche’s life they use their slaves to help them plan to assassinate their innocent sister.   (86) 

Lucius, the ass, is introduced to an upper class woman who is well-known and respected in the area.  This responsibility to hold a superior role is crushed when one learns, she just wants to screw the jackass.  Holding the role of upper class does have some advantage, as they could not force her to perform a live donkey show. (207-208) This woman at one point became pregnant and delivered a daughter.  Though instructed to kill the baby, she tries to respect her husband’s wishes and passes her child onto another family.  Unfortunately, the wife of this family was certain the new daughter was after her husband.  Now out of jealousy, she murderers her adopted daughter in a gruesome fashion, only to learn, the hated child truly was her husband’s sister.  Though the wives try to serve their husbands in some aspects, in the novel they are portrayed as wicked and unfaithful spouses. (165,176,181,191) 

Back to the donkey show, the human owner of Lucius was greedy and enjoyed making money off his donkey.  The entire community was seeking out a suitable person to perform with Lucius.  That lucky girl was a condemned woman, who otherwise would just have been killed.  She was found guilty of being a murdering whore by a jury of her peers.  Ironically, Lucius who had no issue with bestiality before, suddenly doesn’t want to perform with this wicked woman.  In his eyes, he is still above this female prisoner, who is being forced to perform sexual acts with a donkey. (216) 

While the novel did have a few good woman characters the majority were bad.  They practiced witchcraft, did not honor their husbands or attend to their children properly.   The female characters that were shown as good were goddesses.    Each step in a characters life was somehow guided by such goddesses as Lady Fortune and Good Faith.  The lesser goddesses pale in comparison to Queen Isis.  This motherly goddess answers the prayers of a jackass!   She was kind and lent her ear to hear of his journeys, trapped in the body of an ass.  She shows favor to Lucius by transforming him back to human form during a parade. (235)   With his transgressions forgiven, he becomes a cherished member of professional society and devotes his life to worshiping his Queen Isis.

Through out this story of an ass, the women are always treated as lower class, even lower than a donkey.   The women fail their roles as wives or mothers.  The story is outrageous, but given the treatment of women in that time period, it is believable.  Men did not cherish their wives or slaves.  Any female was subject to use by men for their sexual needs.  A daughter’s could be cast into the trash with no feeling.  If found to be an adulteress, a woman would be tortured and killed.   Men would find another wife, or pay for a new one.  The only promising female role in the Roman Empire found in this story was that of a goddess.  If you weren’t a goddess, you were basically just some man’s bitch.

Apuleius, Lucius; Graves, Robert (Trans.) (1950). The Golden Ass. Penguin Classics, Penguin Books Ltd. ISBN 0-374-53181-1

B+

~P.

05/22/13 Update:  There must be daily searches for donkey show…and Google sends them to this post.  Funny huh?

…well, if you were looking for donkey sex shows, here are some interesting photos…

donkey1 Donkey-show-image mexican-donkey-show

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May 19, 2011

When Imperialism wasn’t a Video Game

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It's not just a video game

The most significant ideology causing a long lasting effect on European history and society was imperialism.  Western Civilizations desire to expand its borders led to the conquest of other countries.  The acts of atrocities by the West to other countries during these conquests proved the west was superior and affective in its goal of expansion.  The West’s sheer militant power and economic dominance over weaker civilizations, including other European countries, has permanently scarred its history.

In the mid-1800’s British Imperialism ruled over Ireland.  Ireland had fallen victim to a potato famine and sought assistance from Britain. Parliament showed little interest in the well-being of Ireland and continued exporting grains that could have been a food source for the starving country.  This act of greed allowed 4 million people to die during the potato blight.  Isaac Butt proclaimed his disappointment with Britain in A Voice for Ireland.  “Britain is now branded as the only civilized nation which would permit her subjects to perish of famine, without making a national effort to supply them with food.”  (Brophy, 577)

Britain sent a Scottish missionary to Africa under the guise of spreading the word of Christianity.  The missionary, David Livingstone, reported to Britain the fertility of Africa and his “desire to open a path to this district that civilization, commerce and Christianity might find their way there.”  He viewed the power of British imperialism as a blessing to the unenlightened countries of Africa. (Brophy, 579)   England was in direct competition with Germany in the race to seize Africa.  Germany was over-crowded and as a nation they declared it their cultural mission to expand into Africa and “successfully hew a new path on the road of imperialism.” (Brophy, 594)

Western Civilization’s imperial rule seemed unstoppable.  In the 1890’s, the German’s began spreading a racial theory concerning their superiority over non German races.  H.S. Chamberlain published literature that proposed the ability of the German race to capture weaker countries and expand its rule into non-European areas.  Chamberlain stated the importance of extending the superior German race worldwide by “mercilessly overthrowing and excluding those who are alien to us.”  This radical idea was the breeding ground for racial ideology for the future ruler of Germany, Adolf Hitler.  (Brophy, 595)

During the Spanish-American War in 1899, Britain continued its imperial drive into India.  The West’s desire to govern the uncivilized black races by force was clear.  Britain even raised the issue to the United States in hopes of
assistance with educating the natives and “cleaning” them physically and
spiritually.  Kipling’s poem titled “The White Man’s Burden” justified “the savage wars of peace” to humanize the “half devil and half child” creatures of India.
(Brophy, 597)  The United States was not interested in assisting another countries imperial war.

By the 1920’s Britain was successful in its imperial drive into Africa.  The technology of the British made African resistance futile against their advanced military strength.    Africans were forced to surrender their land for the benefit of the hostile Europeans.  The British then enslaved the African people to work the land agriculturally for the financial gain of England.  Morel, a British journalist, documented in “The Black Man’s Burden” the devastation Africa suffered during this imperial rise by Britain.  He asked in his document “Why cannot the white imperial peoples, acknowledging in some measure the injuries they have inflicted upon the African, turn a new leaf in their treatment of him?”  He viewed Britain’s
Christian missionary trip as “vulgar and soulless materialism” that caused
“incalculable harm” to the African race. (Brophy, 601-03)

The final example of imperialism I am putting forth in this essay is Adolf Hitler’s attempt of annihilating an entire culture of people.  Written in his political memoir, he declares the Jews as enemies to the Aryans.  He
wrote “If the Jews were alone in this world, they would suffocate as much in
dirt and filth, as they would carry on a detestable struggle to cheat and ruin
each other…”  (Brophy, 730) Hitler used the Jewish citizens as the reason for Germany’s defeat in World War I.  Instilling racial prejudice within Germany’s
empire, he systematically began removing the Jews and other citizens he deemed
unworthy of life.  This internal act of imperialism has left the deepest, ugliest scar of all on Western Civilization’s history.

European imperialism over the past 400 years has caused permanent, never-ending pain to Western Civilization and the countries conquered.  Their domination of weaker civilizations by force, whether within Europe or in Third World countries carries a long history of abuse, starvation, and murder.  The
West may have felt victorious in its ability to sweep in and conquer with their
advanced technological resources.  The reality is taking land and life from people who are helpless to defend themselves is truly not an accomplishment to have pride in.

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