What to do with the Girlies?

From: Nick Eden <nick_at_pheasnt.demon.co.uk>
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1998 18:52:11 GMT

Alex Wrote:
>David Dunham disagrees with Jane Williams:
>> > Pardon? 15% of women choose the warrior path, or thereabouts.
>
>> While your argument is good (you can clearly support a cult with a =
fraction
>> of the population), I think 15% of women choose not to be Ernalda. =
This
>> still lets them decide between Humakt, Babeester Gor, and Vinga (as
>> warriors) and of course all the other deities normally worshipped by
>> reasonable Orlanthi.
>
>I think Jane's reasoning is the More Correct, myself. One in seven
>(that's probably an Orlanthi idiom, as is the dual fraction...) choose
>not to follow 'traditional women's roles', which to my mind means
>about that number join cults which _can't_ be followed from within
>the usual Ernaldan path. Which is principally the warrior cults. If
>you want (or need) to be an Issaries or Chalana person, that's in no
>way departing from one's mainstream gender role. Of non-warrior
>cults that would be demarcated as "normally male", only Odayla and
>Heler spring to mind.

Hummm. Not convinced that CA fits within the Ernaldan path, and Issaries even less so. Ernalda's path is not simply 'Woman', it is 'Mother' and 'Wife'. I'm probably just over applying nunish imagery, but I don't see Healer-EarthMother being an immediate combo. I would assume that Chalana Arroy's initiates were part of the 15%.

Issaries, even more so. Trolling off with a merchant caravan isn't what a good mother does. Part of the 15%.

>> So I think Vingans represent far less than 5% of the adult population.
>
>Either way one interprets it, however I don't see how it's reasonable
>to conclude that Vingans are just a small minority of this small =
minority;
>it's certainly not as if there's any other single cult which is =
obviously
>like to be larger among the non-85%ers.

Vinga is probably the one of the larger parts of the FEMALE 15%, but since that only makes up 7.5% of the ADULT non-85%ers, and given that you've got Chalana Arroy, Issaries, Lhankor Mhy, Eurmal [for some reason I keep meeting female tricksters], Babeester Gor and the rest to deal with, I'd say 'less than 5%' would be entirely reasonable. 'Far less?' Boarderline.

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