The Invention of the Goddess

In this episode, Nico and Jessa discuss one of the weirder ideas championed during feminism's Second Wave, including by Gloria Steinem: the idea that pre-history's civilizations were matriarchal with a goddess culture at their center. The idea didn't originate with the feminist movement, they were based on a confused interpretation of 19th century archeological finds. But they sure did run with it, nearly 75 years after the idea had been discredited. Today you still see people repeating these ideas in spirituality circles, the more woooo end of feminism, and also the neo-Nazis.

Jessa and Nico discuss the wish for the idyllic past, why feminism's ideas keep accidentally overlapping with those of Nazi Germany, and why we probably shouldn't let artists write books about archeology.

Shownotes and references:

http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com