Childbirth

From: Saravan Peacock <saravan_at_perth.DIALix.oz.au>
Date: Fri, 13 Sep 1996 10:38:59 +0800


>Would our "character" women seem any less human because they experience only
>>discomfort not pain when giving birth?

Yes. I say this because it has been part of the human (female) condition for millenia (at the least) that women suffer some (considerable) pain during birth and pregnancy. It is part of the whole corpus of belief, folklore, ritual and understanding of human life and that most important part of it which revolves around the bearing of new life and rejuvenation of the self and the society. This is a *really* important facet of human life across cultures and time. You'd need a really good reason to do away with an aspect of that corpus (pain of childbirth) which might change the whole outlook on life.

On another tack I love the idea of menstrual blood attracting pain spirits. On this particularly myth-bound area, maybe the pain of menstruation is caused by pain spirits. Maybe this is why only some women suffer really badly. Don't know if I'll use it, but it has a really dark feel to it - in keeping with the Babeester Gor type atmosphere - blood, ritual, pain, spirits etc.

Pax

Saravan.


End of Glorantha Digest V3 #192


WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html

Powered by hypermail