Don't Forget About My Other Blogs

ICYMI, I also have two other blogs as well:

True Spirit of America Party (TSAP):  For those who weren't born Republican, Democrat, or yesterday.  A Progressive Libertarian third party, basically.

Twenty-One Debunked:  An American Solution to an American Problem.  Let America be America Again, and lower the drinking age to 18.  If you're old enough to go to war, you're old enough to go to the bar.  'Nuff said.

Please check them out.  Thank you :)

Ajax the Great

Reality TV Show For Rasa

The legendary Guru Rasa von Werder is about to embark on a new reality TV show.  Her article can be found here, and is also shown below (in her own words, verbatim) as well for the reader's convenience.  Enjoy!

REALITY TV SHOW FOR RASA & YOU COULD BE IN IT!

          What I have been planning & hoping for for years finally happened.  I got contacted by a company that casts Reality TV Shows & indeed, after hours of conversation & video interviews, they have chosen me.

          This show will be about unusual older people – men & women – women who are great athletes in old age, cougars in their 70’s with men in their 20’s – people who are different, exciting & others think they’re ‘crazy.’

          We’re now fleshing out the show with other characters of my acquaintance, friends who know me, people who make interesting characters who can possibly be part of the production.

          If you know me & are interested in being on my show, contact me with all your details – name, how you know me, your e mail & phone, & send it to RasaVonWerder@yahoo.com.

          I will explain some of the scenes & events I plan for the show in the near future.  There will be serious aspects to my presentation, there will be ridiculous, funny scenes & events.  Just a hint now on one project, a Senior Body Beautiful Contest.  If this interests anyone, let me know.  There will be prizes for ALL entrants.

          There will be a NUDIST event.  I will explain later.  If anyone wants to be in a nudist event, contact me.

          There will also be a serious note – myself with women only, as their Guru, explaining the New Religion for women only.  Contact me if you want to be part of this.

          And, take the rest of the day off.

          Rasa Von Werder 7-11-20

Shutting Down The Agora Does NOT Benefit The Hestia

One thing some people seem to believe is that the coronavirus lockdowns were good regardless of the virus because they somehow strengthened the domestic sphere, and thus benefited Women.  That is, shutting down the Agora (marketplace or public sphere) was supposedly good for the Hestia (home and hearth, or private/domestic sphere), and by extension good for Women on balance.   But not only is there no hard evidence of any such benefit (and in fact plenty of harm), it also reeks to high heaven of gender essentialism as well.  And such gender essentialism is a pedestal that looks more and more like a prison every day.

Shutting down the Agora (or at least the parts considered "non-essential" by the powers that be) and unduly restricting civil rights and liberties does far more harm than good.  It is a crude and blunt instrument that does not just affect this thing over here, but also that thing over there, and that other thing way over there, and so on.  Mass unemployment, depression (both psychological and economic), poverty, poor mental health, alcoholism, drug abuse, domestic violence, child abuse, loneliness, and things like that are not at all good for anyone, Women catch the brunt of it, and adversely effects both the public and private spheres.

Seriously, don't shut down again!

Happy Mother's Day!

First, I would like to wish a Happy Mother's Day to all of the wonderful Mothers out there.  You are, after all, literally the reason why the human race even exists at all, despite the fact that the work you do is grossly undervalued in so many way by our twisted capitalistic and patriarchal society.  In other words, your beautiful feminine energy is essentially what keeps the rest of us alive.  

Thank you.

I would also like to note and lament how, for all the shallow platitudes America likes to throw around about "Mothers and apple pie", we are still a nation that perpetually continues to screw over Mothers and pregnant Women in so many ways.  Recently, Guru Rasa von Werder shared a poignant and in-depth article from Vox with us that illustrates the various ways in which that is true.  This article should be food for thought indeed.  Our patriarchal and capitalistic society clearly has a "cult of motherhood", in which the "ideal" of motherhood is so highly vaunted, worshipped even, but in practice actual Mothers themselves get about as much genuine respect as Rodney Dangerfield.  Both during and after pregnancy, so many Mothers are routinely discriminated against, overworked, underpaid, and even outright criminalized in many cases.  And meanwhile, there is to this day a powerful faction of mostly male politicians that is doing everything in their power to deny Women their right to choose whether or not to get (or stay) pregnant in the first place.  Indeed, the rank hypocrisy of our misogynistic and pharisaical system is so thick you could cut it with a knife.

Meanwhile, old Buckminster Fuller (who, not coincidentally, believed that Women should rule the world) must be spinning in his grave right now.  With today's technology and innovation, there is literally no legitimate reason why we as a society need "everybody and their mother" (literally!) to "work for a living" unless they really wanted to.  There are more than enough resources in the world for everyone on this planet to live like a millionaire, but the greedy oligarchs who control such resources apparently don't want to share.  Combined with the outdated scarcity mentality that men tend to favor (as opposed to the abundance mentality that Women tend to favor), those same oligarchs have also done everything in their power to sabotage any alternatives (i.e. free and renewable energy) to their own evil system that they force upon the rest of us.  So why make them even richer?

Additionally, just as we should "dispense with the absolutely specious notion that everybody needs to earn a living" (in Bucky's words), so too should we jettison the equally specious and outdated idea that everybody must procreate as though it were a civic duty.  Not only does today's technology make much useful human labor redundant, but the world is grossly overpopulated and will only get more so in the coming decades, and despite the abundance of the world's resources we are chewing through them like there is no tomorrow while destroying the planet.   And the main cause of that overpopulation is--wait for it--MEN.  Because they are the ones who, both historically and today, force, coerce, deceive, and/or brainwash Women to have kids that they otherwise would not want or are not yet ready for.  Men like to "get 'em while they're young" and then use them as serial breeding slaves, essentially, and all the euphemisms in the world do not change that fact.   It is really no coincidence that the two most effective (and ethical) ways to reduce overpopulation and excessively high birthrates are 1) female empowerment and 2) poverty reduction, while everything else is a mere sideshow.  Because when Women actually have a free and genuine choice on when or whether or not to reproduce, they usually make the right choices overall.  After all, they are the ones who have the most "skin in the game".  So let the planetary healing begin!

(And ICYMI, all of this now applies a fortiori in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.)

MAMASTE

Happy May Day / Beltaine, Everyone!

Today, May 1, is May Day, also known as the Celtic and Neopagan holiday of Beltane.  It has a rather long history and symbolizes many things, but it is most notably a day to honor the Goddess, which includes the Goddess in every Woman.   Elephant Journal describes it rather nicely in their article about the holiday:

Halfway between the Vernal Equinox and the Summer Solstice falls May Day—the original holiday of sex and abundance.  If you’ve ever wondered, as I used to, what the hype was around May Day—as in why I always heard about ‘May Day’ but never seemed to witness anyone actually celebrating, here’s why. It’s deeply rooted in pagan nature and hedonistic sex worship and celebrations. As Christianity spread and the Church extended its reach and control, these pagan and Divine worships of masculine and feminine equality had to be forgotten.  May 1st is Beltane in the Northern Hemisphere, the day we honor nature’s oldest love story.  And we all love a love story.   This is a holiday of union, between man and woman, God and Goddess—a celebration of the divine balance in the union of Divine masculine and feminine. Because once upon a time, the two were honored as sacred parts of the one Divine balance.

Indeed.  And among Neopagans today, Beltane is (usually) primarily about honoring the Divine Feminine, where as Samhain (October 31) is primarily about honoring the Divine Masculine.  Thus, I propose that we shift International Women's Day (currently March 8) to May 1, and shift International Men's Day (November 19, coinciding with World Toilet Day, lol) to November 1.  The latter, of course, should not be seen as a day to celebrate men, but rather as a day of atonement for the evil that men do, and have done for thousands of years now--a sort of all-male equivalent of Yom Kippur to essentially apologize to the Divine Feminine.  

Another holiday I would like to propose is Waterloo Day, on April 30, the day before May Day.  That would symbolize the (hopefully) eventual surrender of men to Women, which I personally predict will occur on April 30, 2030--the end of an error.  Just as that day symbolizes the end of the "darker half" of the year and the beginning of the "lighter half", so too shall it symbolize the end of the 7000 years of darkness known as patriarchy and the beginning of the new earthly paradise known as Matriarchy.  Note too that April 30, 1975 was also when the Vietnam War officially ended, and also in 1945 when a certain little painter from Austria did the world a huge favor by offing himself.  And the song "War Pigs" by Black Sabbath was originally going to be called "Walpurgisnacht", which is another name for May Eve, or April 30.  One idea for how to celebrate Waterloo Day would be for the men to get up on a platform or podium, give a concession speech as though stepping down from power, and have all the Women heckle and throw rotten tomatoes at them.  

And while now would NOT be the best time to have any sort of large gathering, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, one can still celebrate it virtually.  Hopefully the virus will finally "ghost" us for good soon rather than keep "breadcrumbing" us, so we can one day soon return to the kind of festivities May Day is famous for, Goddess willing.

Synopsis of Femdom Christianity by William Bond

As noted in a previous post, in parallel with the legendary Guru Rasa von Werder's new Women-only religion, Woman Thou Art God, the great Apostle William Bond also has a Matriarchal religion for men as well.  Though a bit jarring and controversial, one can see how it really makes sense overall.  All words below are William's verbatim unless otherwise noted.

Femdom Christianity

Ancient Priestess, (Crete)

SYNOPSIS

We live in a world where boys and men are encouraged to be tough and macho. We can see this in so many Hollywood films where the hero is tough and extremely violent. This is not new thing as we have many stories from history of violent, macho heroes. Who is loved by the most beautiful women in the film.

The big problem with this, is that a world ruled by these macho men is also a world of violence, wars, genocide and chaos. So we have to question whether encouraging young men to be aggressive and violent is a good idea.

The opposite way of seeing men is in the figure of Jesus who has a reputation of being, “meek and mild”. His teaching are an embarrassment to many Christians as he taught people to people to, “turn the other cheek”, to “love your enemies and bless them that hate you”. He even predicted that, “the meek shall inherit the Earth”.

Jesus Meek and Mild

This is the total antitheses of a macho man who would be condemned as a wimp if he behaved like this. It is also not the behaviour of Old Testament heroes like David, Moses or Samson who likewise were violent men. It is even not the behaviour of Mohammed who also used violence against those who opposed him.

Clearly, we would live in a far more loving and caring world if all men behaved like Jesus, but as the Bible shows, when he was betrayed and false allegations made about him he didn’t resist. Then he was whipped and crucified and he was powerless to prevent this happening.

So does this show us that, yes if would be wonderful if all men behaved like Jesus but this is impossible in our brutal, macho world. So if this is true why has this story survived for two thousand years?

Clearly Jesus is the antithesis of the macho man that most patriarchal societies promote, so how it is that his story has survived? The reason seem to be is that his story is so popular among ordinary people. The patriarchal elite may disapprove of the behaviour of Jesus but if the common people like him, then the ruling elite go along with this, if it gains popularity for the Christian Church.

Most patriarchal writings teach us that it is natural for men to be “tough and macho” and that you are not a “real man” unless you behave like this. Yet, if this was true why do patriarchal societies have to indoctrinate men to behave like this?

So could it be that men like Jesus because they see themselves in his behaviour? While women like Jesus because he is the type of men they would like to be with? As many people have pointed out even though Jesus is glorified in the Christian religion, he would be condemn by his own Church if returned in our modern world.

Certainly a male behaving like like Jesus would be bullied at school and in the workplace and be condemned as a wimp or a masochist. Yet there are men who naturally behave in the way Jesus taught.

We can find such men in the homosexual community although there are also very macho gay men. While in the heterosexual community we find femdom men who want to serve and worship women. Men like this are condemned as perverted masochists for wanting to do this.

Yet femdom desires can teach a man to be loving and caring for women and other people. But such men are clearly not macho and this is why patriarchy prefers to call such men masochistic, rather than loving men. 

Unfortunately because of patriarchal pressure, some femdom men feel they need to assert themselves to try and prove they are ‘normal’.

Of course in the Bible we don’t find Jesus wanting to serve and worship women. On the contrary, it is claimed he did sacrificed himself to appease a angry male god and this is why Jesus is popular in the homosexual community. For a male to sacrifice himself to another male is something they like.

In the heterosexual community it would make more sense for Jesus to sacrifice himself to a Goddess and this it seems is suggested in the Gnostic Gospel, “The Sophia Of Jesus Christ”. Sophia is the ancient Jewish Goddess of wisdom.

Jesus is not the only sacrificial/saviour god there were others before Jesus and these religion were very popular. So popular that before Roman imposed Christianity onto the Roman Empire, the three most popular religions were, the Egyptian Isis religion, the Mithras religion and Christianity all had sacrificial/saviour gods within them.

So why would the whole concept of a loving sacrificial male god be so popular? It could be that this is what men are really like, but it is only patriarchal indoctrination that turns them into brutal macho men.

The very passive and masochistic behaviour of men is shown to us by the military. Where the army can easy train men to become so obedient that in WW1 millions of soldiers walk out of trenches to face certain death from machine-gun fire, because they were ordered to do so. The Japanese air force took it a stage further when they used suicide bombers in WW2.

In fact the whole patriarchal society is dependant on men’s blind obedience to those in authority over them. Unfortunately, the whole of patriarchal history shows that patriarchal rules care little for the people they rule as they exploit them.

It would make far more sense if our world was ruled instead by caring women. This I think is what the creators of all sacrificial/saviour religions tried to promote. Unfortunately, all were destroyed and distorted by patriarchal rulers so only Christianity now survives but censored and changed to the degree that patriarchy could tolerate it.

The second part of the book is about why God is female and not male. Mystics tell us that God is One, one mind, one spirit. Oneness comes through unconditional love and we find this in the maternal love of females for children, though some women can extend this to everyone else. So Universal love has to be feminine in nature.

So it is a waste of time worshipping a male god because the masculine is about, individualism and separation which leads to loneliness, fear, conflict, violence, hatred and chaos.

So all of us lost our contract with God when we started to worship male gods because we were on the wrong wavelength in prayer or mediation. The feminine God loves us all unconditionally which is the message Jesus was attempting teach us. But in the Bible this message had to work in the confines of a loving father god which didn’t work very well.

Our history is a history of conflict, violence and hatred because it is dominated by the masculine with male rulers and religions of male gods. We can reverse this when we worship the feminine, which is what femdom men are attempting to do. (Even though they might get it wrong when, ‘topping from the bottom’.)

We live in a world dominated by patriarchy and it seems that the masculine way is all-powerful. Yet the true power of the universe is the All-powerful feminine One. We are at the mercy of masculine power when we lose our contract with the Feminine One. So a Goddess religion based on Omnipresent and Omnipotent Female One is the way we can regain our power and create a loving and caring world.

So the instincts of Femdom men might be right, even though their desires might be distorted by patriarchal indoctrination. Women are also indoctrinated by patriarchy to believe they are weak and naturally submissive. But some women have somehow followed their own instincts and questioned patriarchal dogma.

It is through such women that we had women working together to empower themselves. So that during the 19^th and 20^th centuries we have had Feminism and the Suffragettes who have given women greater political and economic power.

Some these women have understood that God is female, like Emmeline Pankhurst who once said. “trust in God SHE will provide”. And it is from this understanding that they become powerful.

(End of synopsis. For more information about this tooic, please see Rasa and William's shared blog here.  Enjoy)

AJAX SAYS:  That was a great synopsis, William.  A lot to think about here indeed.  Keep up the great work! 

Kingdom Of The Women: A Case Study Of The Mosuo

The following words are from the legendary Guru Rasa von Werder and the great Apostle William Bond, commenting on an article written by Choo Waihong.

KINGDOM OF THE WOMEN

here’s a letter from William Bond:

Hi Everyone,

There is a new theory about homosexuality that suggests that humans lived in a society very much like the bonobo ape. Evolutionary theory always had a problem with homosexuality because same sex relations doesn’t produce children. The new theory suggests homosexuality comes about to bond people together like we see in the bonobo ape society.

So it does give further proof that we we once lived in highly sexual, Matriarchal communities. (Though the article doesn’t mention Matriarchy.)…………………………..William

The article is written by Andrew Barron, a professor at Macquarie University:     “Homosexuality may have evolved for social, not sexual reasons”

Rasa Von Werder says:   “Sex supplies a need for love, not merely procreation.”

 HI William & Ajax ----   YES SOCIAL BONDING WITH SEX IS A GOOD THING.  AND IT WOULD BE ANOTHER REASON PATRIARCHS DON'T WANT SEX TO BE 'FREE'  & 'OPEN' - IT PACIFIES MALES.  

KAY GRIGGS EXPLAINED IN HER INTERVIEWS HOW THE MILITARY ACTUALLY SEEKS YOUNG MALES WHO ARE MENTALLY UNSTABLE, -- LIKE PSYCHOPATHS, THOSE WHO ARE EMOTIONALLY, MENTALLY UNHINGED, TO USE THEM FOR THEIR PURPOSES, ONE OF WHICH IS TO ASSASSINATE PEOPLE.   THEY TAKE ALSO DIRT-POOR BOYS FROM THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES, WITHOUT EVEN PAYING THEM MUCH, TELL THEM TO GO HERE & THERE, KILL THIS PERSON - THE BOYS GO CRAZY AFTER A WHILE, THEY DON'T EVEN GET PROPER MONEY FOR MURDERING PEOPLE.  THESE ARE KILLINGS WHICH THE BOYS DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT IT'S ABOUT - I IMAGINE POLITICALLY INSPIRED ONES, OR ACTS OF TERRORISM TO DESTABILIZE AN AREA.  THAT'S WHAT THEY DID TO TIM MCVEIGH, THEY DROVE HIM CRAZY.

AND SO OF COURSE THEY DON'T WANT HAPPY, STABLE PEOPLE, THEY WANT  CRAZED MISERABLE PEOPLE TO BRAINWASH.

DR. JAMES W. PRESCOTT EXPLAINS THE PRINCIPLES OF 'BODY PLEASURE & THE ORIGINS OF VIOLENCE'.  HE PROVED HOW SOCIETIES WHICH GIVE PHYSICAL PLEASURE TO INFANTS (BREAST FEEDING, SKIN TO SKIN CONTACT WITH MOM, HOLDING, CARRYING, ROCKING) & WHICH PERMIT PREMARITAL SEX & DO NOT HAVE SEXUAL REPRESSION OF WOMEN ARE LESS VIOLENT THAN THOSE SOCIETIES OPPOSITE OF THAT.  I HAVE A BIG CHAPTER OF HIS WRITINGS IN MY BOOK  CALLED 'BREASTFEEDING IS LOVE MAKING BETWEEN MOTHER & CHILD.'

ON THE JACKET OF THE BOOK I WRITE THAT BREASTFEEDING, CLOSENESS & INTIMACY WITH MOM FOR A MINIMUM OF 2.5 YRS  (5-6 YEARS IS BETTER, THE IMMUNE SYSTEM DOESN'T STOP DEVELOPING UNTIL THEN) BEGETS SECURITY, SERENITY, PSYCHIC & SEXUAL HEALTH AS WELL AS OPTIMUM BRAIN GROWTH, WHILE LACK OF SAME CAUSES VIOLENCE, DEPRESSION & ADDICTION IN ADULTHOOD.

LACK OF CLOSENESS, INTIMACY WITH MOM IN INFANCY/CHILDHOOD CAUSES  *****SEXUAL DYSFUNCTION*****, ADDICTION, HOMICIDE, SUICIDE, DEPRESSION, ANXIETY -- IN OTHER WORDS, BEING MISERABLE, DYSFUNCTIONAL  TO THE MAX.  OUR  PATRIARCHAL SOCIETY IS ONE IN WHICH 'ATTACHMENT DISORDER' IS PANDEMIC - MOST IF NOT ALL OF US ARE SUFFERING FROM LACK OF MATERNAL AFFECTION--(WHICH GIVES US THE SENSE OF SECURITY, STABILITY & SAFETY) BECAUSE PATRIARCHY DEGRADES THE MOTHER/CHILD RELATIONSHIP.  IT DOES NOT SUPPORT, ENCOURAGE MATERNAL LOVE - IT PLACES OUR RESOURCES NOT IN MOTHERS BUT RATHER INSTITUTIONS.-- IT'S WOMEN WHO HAVE TO BE SUPPORTED--ENCOURAGED, APPRECIATED AS THE LEADERS OF CHILDREN, NOT PATRIARCHY & ITS AGENCIES (IN THE PAST, MOSTLY RUN BY MALES & THEIR PRINCIPLES—fortunately, this is changing & eventually they will be lead by women......

(MALE DOCTORS, THERAPISTS, PSYCHIATRISTS & PSYCHOLOGISTS.  CHILDREN DIE UNDER THEIR LEADERSHIP - ENTIRE ORPHANAGES HAVE BEEN EMPTIED TO DEATH AS MALE DOCTORS TOLD THE CARE GIVERS NEVER TO TOUCH THE CHILDREN EXCEPT TO FEED & CLEAN THEM........THE MILITARY HAS ALSO DONE EXPERIMENTS ON INNOCENT ORPHANS, KILLING THEM ALL.)

THIS PRINCIPLE CORRELATES WITH SEXUALITY - DR. PRESCOTT SAYS, & I AGREE, YOUNG PEOPLE SHOULD BE LEFT ALONE TO DO THEIR SEXUAL GAMES (LIKE PLAY DOCTOR) & AS THEY GET OLDER, ALLOW THEM TO DO AS THEY WISH SEX WISE.  YOU NOTICE HOW SEXUALITY IS TURNED INTO SOMETHING DANGEROUS & IMMORAL?  THE PREACHING OF DISEASES IS THE MAIN TUTORIAL RECEIVED BY TEENS:  SEX IS SO DANGEROUS, DON'T DO IT...............................

  BUT SEX IS LOVE (GENERALLY SPEAKING, IN MOST CASES, NOT IN ABUSE & RAPE OF COURSE), YOUNG PEOPLE NEED LOVE.  (NOT TO BE ABUSED, LET THEM HAVE LOVE WITH EACH OTHER, STOP REPRESSING THEIR SEXUALITY LIKE IT'S IMMORAL, DANGEROUS & UGLY.  HE TEACHES ON THIS EXTENSIVELY.

AND OF COURSE WOMEN ARE SLUT SHAMED.  AS SOON AS WOMEN GET INJURED, VICTIMIZED, EVEN DEAD WOMEN--YOU REMEMBER MRS. O.J. SIMPSON?  AFTER HER DEATH THE DEFENSE SLUT-SHAMED HER, AS THEY DO MANY WOMEN KILLED BY MEN - IMPLYING THAT 'SHE WAS A SLUT, THEREFORE, IT WAS ALRIGHT TO KILL HER, OR AT THE VERY LEAST, HE SHOULD BE GIVEN A MORE LENIENT SENTENCE BECAUSE SHE WAS A SLUT.  'SLUTS ARE IMMORAL, THEY DESERVE TO DIE.' 

THAT'S HOW PATRIARCHY WORKS - SHAME PEOPLE, ESPECIALLY WOMEN, SCARE THEM. WHEN PEOPLE IN LEADERSHIP IMPLY YOU ARE IMMORAL—PEOPLE IN CHARGE WHO CAN HURT YOU-- IT'S SCARY.

INDEED, SEXUAL FREEDOM IS AN IMPORTANT FACET OF FEMALE EMPOWERMENT.  LOOK AT THE MOSUOS.  THEY HAVE WHAT'S CALLED 'WALKING MARRIAGE.'

THE KINGDOM OF THE WOMEN WHERE MEN NEVER RULE

It’s a place where women rule, marriage doesn’t exist and everything follows the maternal bloodline. But is it as good for women as it sounds – and how long can it last?

Imagine a society without fathers; without marriage (or divorce); one in which nuclear families don’t exist. Grandmother sits at the head of the table; her sons and daughters live with her, along with the children of those daughters, following the maternal bloodline. Men are little more than studs, sperm donors who inseminate women but have, more often than not, little involvement in their children’s upbringing.
This progressive, feminist world – or anachronistic matriarchy, as skewed as any patriarchal society, depending on your viewpoint – exists in a lush valley in Yunnan, south-west China, in the far eastern foothills of the Himalayas. An ancient tribal community of Tibetan Buddhists called the Mosuo, they live in a surprisingly modern way: women are treated as equal, if not superior, to men; both have as many, or as few, sexual partners as they like, free from judgment; and extended families bring up the children and care for the elderly. But is it as utopian as it seems? And how much longer can it survive?
Choo Waihong set about finding out. A successful corporate lawyer from Singapore, she left her job in 2006 to travel. Having trained and worked in Canada, the US and London, she felt drawn to visit China, the country of her ancestors. After reading about the Mosuo, she decided to take a trip to their picturesque community – a series of villages dotted around a mountain and Lugu Lake – as many tourists do. But something beyond the views and clean air grabbed her.
“I grew up in a world where men are the bosses,” she says. “My father and I fought a lot – he was the quintessential male in an extremely patriarchal Chinese community in Singapore. And I never really belonged at work; the rules were geared towards men, and intuitively understood by them, but not me. I’ve been a feminist all my life, and the Mosuo seemed to place the female at the centre of their society. It was inspiring.”

Warm, curious and quick-witted, Waihong made friends quickly. She discovered that Mosuo children “belong” only to their mothers – their biological fathers live in their own matriarchal family home. Young Mosuo are brought up by their mothers, grandmothers, aunts and uncles.
From the perspective of an outsider – particularly one from China, from where the majority of tourists come – the Mosuo are “condemned” as a society of single mothers, says Waihong. “Children are born out of wedlock, which in China is still unusual. But this isn’t how the Mosuo see it – to them, marriage is an inconceivable concept, and a child is ‘fatherless’ simply because their society pays no heed to fatherhood. The nuclear family as we understand it exists, just in a different form.” 

It is common for Mosuo women not to know who the father of their children is, and there is no stigma attached to this

Men and women practise what is known as a “walking marriage” – an elegant term for what are essentially furtive, nocturnal hook-ups with lovers known as “axia”. A man’s hat hung on the door handle of a woman’s quarters is a sign to other men not to enter. These range from one-night stands to regular encounters that deepen into exclusive, life-long partnerships – and may or may not end in pregnancy. But couples never live together, and no one says, “I do”.
“For Mosuo women, an axia is often a pleasurable digression from the drudgery of everyday life, as well as a potential sperm donor,” says Waihong.

Women own and inherit property, sow crops in this agrarian society, and run the households – cooking, cleaning and child-rearing. The men provide strength, ploughing, building, repairing homes, slaughtering animals and helping with big familial decisions, although the final say is always with Grandmother. Although men have no paternal responsibilities – it is common for women not to know who the father of their children is, and there is no stigma attached to this – they have considerable responsibility as uncles to their sisters’ children. In fact, along with elderly maternal great-uncles, who are often the households’ second-in-charge, younger uncles are the pivotal male influence on children.
“Mosuo men are feminists by any standards,” says Waihong. “Boys think nothing of looking after their baby sisters, or taking their toddler brothers by the hand everywhere. I was once made to wait before talking business with an elderly Mosuo man until he had bathed his family’s twin baby girls and changed their nappies.”
A few months after her first trip, Waihong returned to Lugu Lake. A teenage girl, Ladzu, had offered to teach her the Mosuo language, which is passed down orally, and introduce her to her family. Her visits grew longer and more frequent. She became godmother to Ladzu and her brother, Nongbu. Ladzu’s uncle, Zhaxi, a local character and successful entrepreneur, offered to build her a house. Thus she began to put down roots.

“I grew accustomed to shuttling between Singapore and Lugu Lake, navigating a hectic city life and a different rural rhythm in the mountains,” she says. Her longer stays – she now lives with the Mosuo for a few months, three or four times a year – gave her the chance to discover more about this private, often misunderstood community.
In the absence of marriage as a goal, the only reason for men and women to have anything resembling a relationship is for love, or enjoyment of each other’s company. If it runs its course, the usual reasons for staying together – for the children, societal or financial reasons – don’t apply. As an unmarried woman in a community where marriage is non-existent, Waihong felt at home.
“All Mosuo women are, essentially, single,” she says. “But I think I’m seen as an oddity because I’m not from here, and I live alone, rather than with a family. I get a lot of dinner invitations, and my friends are always egging me on to find a nice Mosuo lover.” Has she? “That would be telling.”
With life centred on the maternal family, motherhood is, unsurprisingly, revered. For a young Mosuo woman, it is life’s goal. “I’ve had to advise many young women on ovulation, so keen are they to get pregnant,” she says. “You are seen as complete once you become a mother.” In this respect, Waihong, who doesn’t have children, is regarded more keenly. “My sense is that I’m pitied,” she says, “but people are too polite to tell me.”

What happens if a woman doesn’t want children? “That’s simply not one of their choices. To even ask that question is to see the Mosuo through our eyes, our way of doing things. The question is not pertinent,” she says.
And what if they can’t have children, or produce only boys? “They will formally adopt a child, either from an unrelated Mosuo family or, more commonly, from one of their maternal cousins,” she says. “A few generations ago, before China’s one-child policy – which extends to two in rural areas – families were huge. There are a lot of cousins around.”
To western eyes, this is the less progressive side of the Mosuo way of life. Is a society that, in many ways, emancipates women from marriage, and gives them sexual freedom, actually producing glorified 1950s housewives who have no choices other than motherhood? It’s a frustration that Waihong feels with her goddaughter Ladzu, now 22. “She is a mother, and leads a very domestic life,” says Waihong. “For a young Mosuo woman, that’s not unusual. But I wish it were different. For me, it’s a waste.”
But things are changing. Since (mostly) Chinese tourists began arriving in the early 1990s, bringing paved roads, an airport and jobs for Mosuo people, their traditional way of life has started to feel outdated to its young inhabitants. Ladzu and her friends may still be living for motherhood, but she is part of a pioneering generation in transition: she is married, and to a Han Chinese man. She still lives at Lugu Lake, but in her own house, with her husband and son, who was born in February. She is not alone: although her grandmother’s generation, in their 60s and 70s, still practise “walking marriage”, as do many women in their 40s, about half of women in their 30s live with their “partners” – the fathers of their young children. A minority of men and women marry outside the community and move away.
“I know one Mosuo man who is living in [the nearest Chinese city of] Lijiang, married with two children,” says Waihong. “Equally, I know a young Mosuo woman, working as a tour bus driver, who has a child on her own and lives in her mother’s household.”
Education often makes the difference: there is a junior high school at Lugu Lake, but the nearest senior school is 100km away, and few children attend. Even fewer head on to further education. “I know a handful of men and women who have become civil servants or college lecturers,” says Waihong. “But most only have their junior school certificate.”

In many ways, it doesn’t matter to young Mosuo: tourism is providing careers – from waiter to guesthouse owner, tourist guide to taxi driver – until now, a foreign concept. This new rising class has money and the chance to meet people outside the Mosuo community; many families are renting out land for hotels to be built on. Subsistence farming is on the way out, slowly being replaced by the commercial farming of prized local crops. Where land is still farmed for the family, mostly in more rural parts, children head home to help with the harvest. “And they know there will always be food on the table for them, back home with Mum,” says Waihong.
It is a society in transition, in a country that is changing fast. Feminist activism is on the rise in China, battling ongoing discrimination;

China still describes unmarried women over 27 as “leftover”. Can these naturally emancipated Mosuo women – and men – show Chinese society a different approach to family life? “Yes,” says Waihong, “to wear their singlehood with pride.” Young Mosuo are carving out a different path from their parents, embracing “western” marriage and family life with gusto. Zhaxi, who built Waihong’s house, says there will be no Mosuo culture left in 30 years. She is less sure. “I think their traditional family structure may come to be seen as halcyon, once they see what the alternative is,” she says. “They were the original trendsetters, 2,000 years ago; they don’t know how good they have it.

AJAX'S COMMENTARY:

Very true indeed, Rasa and William.. And very good words overall, both of you. Interesting article about the Mosuo people as well. We can certainly learn a lot from them, and they seem very progressive in many ways, particularly in terms of sexual freedom. The absence of marriage as we know it is particularly striking indeed. It certainly answers the question of whether the patriarchal institution of marriage was initially invented by men to control Women, or the other way around--clearly the former, not the latter, is true. Thus, before the advent of patriarchy, things were likely very similar to the Mosuo concept of "walking marriage" or "open marriage" (which is not even really marriage, so much as it is an errant translation of the Han Chinese term for it into English), and seems to be largely more akin to the modern-day Western concept of "friends with benefits". Vive le difference!

As for their less progressive aspects mentioned in the article, such as their rather stifling "everybody must procreate" mentality (i.e. compulsory or quasi-compulsory motherhood), which is anachronistic and outmoded at best in an overpopulated world and likely does more harm than good, I would like to add that we need to avoid the "package-deal fallacy" in that regard when using them as a model for a future Matriarchy. Some purists would of course not want to make any concessions to modern times, while that would be a non-starter for everyone else.

Overall, the Mosuo represent a very important case study of Matriarchy and how it evolved.