At the forefront of the news in the UK recently have been stories relating to the impact of the murder of Sarah Everard and the ramifications that are being felt as women protest against the persistent issue of male perpetrated harrassment and violence.
This is a time when men are being called upon to take a long, hard look at how misogeny and harrassment of women is overlooked and/or tolerated in male social groups. Jokes about women, bragging about sexual conquests and derogatory language are all too common. Even those of us who are more enlightened in such matters are guilty of failing to call out such behaviour from other men when it happens. This is true across all branches of society, but what is the specific impact amongst heathens in the UK?
Despite the historical record showing us that heathen women of the past enjoyed surprising freedoms that perhaps became eroded in later years, there are a number of heathen groups which place women in a more subservient role. It is mostly the more traditionally folkish groups that act this way. Many white supremacist heathen groups feeling that the main focus of women in contemporary heathenry should be "breeding for the folk". Even some universalist groups can find themselves guitly of marginalising women or relagating them to servant wenches or other support roles for the "male heroes" (Brosatru guys, I'm looking at you!)
Heathen groups can be guilty of promoting a rather toxic view of the masculine ideal. Viking films and television shows are entertaining, but they aren't really intended to be held up as role models to which men can aspire. Quite often, problems of male aggression are glossed over in these shows as the characters are aggressive and wild on the battlefield yet polarisingly tender and loving in the family home. I don't want to discuss this too much, as I think I can better explore it in a post covering Heathen portrayals of masculinity and their problems.
I confess, I am no sociologist and I have no idea what the solution might be. I do have enough experience, however, to understand that just dismissing this as a folkish or brosatru only problem would be a mistake. All we can do ourselves, as heathen men, is to recognise the privileges we have enjoyed in what still remains a patriarchal society and that these privileges might mean that we subconsciously discriminate against or denigrate women without realising. We also, in the spirit of stanza 127 of the havamal, must call out all violence against women where we see it, both physical, psychological and social and stand with our heathen sisters, mothers, partners and friends. Finally, we have to listen to our heathen sisters and take serious heed of their words. They know the world through different eyes and recognise things we might miss. There is much we can learn by listening to the wisdom of our womenfolk.
