You shall be eager for your husband, And he shall be your master
April 28, 2009 2:07 PM   Subscribe

Man fell from the garden of Eden, and he planted the Garden of Herbal Evil, to justify Brutal Myths against women. Fortunately women have the Blissful Garden of Herbal Good to bind the evil herbs. (possibly NSFW, contains line drawings of genitals.)

Brutal Myths is a collaborative, interactive multi-media work by artists Sonya Rapoport and Marie-José Sat from 1997. More, and more recent, works are found here including:
posted by fontophilic (30 comments total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
what
posted by dersins at 2:18 PM on April 28, 2009


The first link seems pretty straightforward to me, dersins.
posted by muddgirl at 2:22 PM on April 28, 2009


Hmmm, having a hard time getting a foot-hold here.
posted by nola at 2:27 PM on April 28, 2009


The first link seems pretty straightforward to me, dersins.

Really?
posted by dersins at 2:30 PM on April 28, 2009


*bows*
posted by fontophilic at 2:32 PM on April 28, 2009


It looks like the 1970s threw up on the carpet of the 1990s.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 2:33 PM on April 28, 2009 [1 favorite]


Thyme Cube.
posted by Benjamin Nushmutt at 2:34 PM on April 28, 2009 [26 favorites]


The page titles help quite a bit. The herb garden is a metaphor founded in 14th century misogynistic theories about the evil nature of women. I believe the site seeks to counteract, in a witty manner, the myths generated during that time and perpetuated now

The page titles:

Myth #1: Women are sexually voracious.

Myth #2: When a woman thinks alone, she thinks evil.

Myth #3: Vagina Dentata: the vagina eats up the penis.

Myth #4: In order to be beautiful it is necessary to suffer

Myth #5: In order to be loved, a woman must be beautiful.

Myth #6: A woman's real purpose is to be a mother.

Myth #7: Women are not to be trusted.

Absolutely stunning work.
posted by muddgirl at 2:36 PM on April 28, 2009 [3 favorites]


Foot holds:

Book art, and video art, were two mediums popular in the 90's, especially by women, (possibly because of a lack of previous male dominance of the medium, and an ability to convey a more psychological experience.) Historical and popular images and themes were appropriated, usually to convey a story. Early web/multimedia art follows in this vein. Sure it's rough around the tags, but it has special place in my heart along with youtube poop.
posted by fontophilic at 2:52 PM on April 28, 2009


Really?
posted by dersins


Simple lesson. If you don't put your toys away after you finish playing with them you can have a bad accident. Kinda of a Struwwelpeter thing, 'cept with swords and pointy things.
posted by Zack_Replica at 3:04 PM on April 28, 2009


"Henbane - changes men into beast by their magic act"

Ah, Nightshade - "historically used in combination with other plants, such as mandrake, deadly nightshade, and datura as an anaesthetic potion, as well as for its psychoactive properties in "magic brews."" I thought it sounded like one of those funtastic hallucinogens that combined divine vision with nasty toxicity...
posted by FatherDagon at 3:11 PM on April 28, 2009


I have an aunt who lives in a small town in northern Indiana. She's fairly Christian-- goes to church, teaches bible school classes, has participated in a faith-based weight loss program called "The Weigh Down Workshop"-- but is also fairly liberal. And she gardens. One of her coworkers, also a Christan gardener but of the much more socially conservative variety, gave her a list his pastor had given him of plants that are "gay" and therefore should be cast out of the gardens of upright family-oriented folk. I have absolutely no idea what makes a plant gay, whether it has to do with the mechanics of the plants' reproduction (plants have genders, don't they? any botanists in the house?) or some sort of historical symbolism. A cursory google for "gay plants" didn't turn up much.

Anyways, one of the plants on this list was lamb's ear, which my aunt had a bunch of in her garden. Instead of getting rid of this lamb's ear, she planted more, a nice big gay patch in her back yard. A few weeks later, she was at the local gardening store and saw some lovely phallic looking mushrooms, and decided to plant some among her lamb's ear. And then she realized she had, in another part of her garden, a plant called gay feather, so she dug it up and moved it over next to the lamb's ear. She now proudly refers to this section of her yard as her "gay garden," and is trying to figure out what other gay plants she can add to the mix. I suggested pansies.
posted by bookish at 3:18 PM on April 28, 2009 [13 favorites]


Thyme Cube.
posted by Benjamin Nushmutt at 4:34 PM on April 28 [7 favorites +] [!]


No, Thyme Cube.
posted by desjardins at 3:21 PM on April 28, 2009 [1 favorite]


I suggested pansies.

The mind fairly boggles. I suppose she could toss in some lavender, touch-me-nots and jack-in-the-pulpit as well.
posted by jquinby at 3:25 PM on April 28, 2009


jquinby: The mind fairly boggles. I suppose she could toss in some lavender, touch-me-nots and jack-in-the-pulpit as well.

Great Gay Garden Gnomes.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 3:28 PM on April 28, 2009


Man toiled in the field thereafter in anger and resentment against the woman who gave him of the tree. His bitter sweat seasoned the herbs he planted and he fed himself of his own Misery.

Well they sure have the fun of "gardening" nailed.

Also, very cool find. Love it.
posted by rokusan at 3:31 PM on April 28, 2009


plants have genders, don't they?

They do have a great diversity in ways of getting it on, but plants have sexes, not gender. Gender is a social construct, sex is biological.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 4:00 PM on April 28, 2009


The first link seems pretty straightforward to me, dersins.

Really?

The wound man was a diagram for the medival equivalent of battlefield medics.' It was there to analyze all the most frequent wounds a man could get in combat. Naturally, it was part of a medical text and explained the treatment for each kind of wound.

It first appeared here in 1491.

As a picture alone, without context, that guy is having the worst day ever.
posted by chambers at 5:38 PM on April 28, 2009 [1 favorite]


Gender is a social construct, sex is biological.

That is one definition of "gender". There's also the "grammatical category" one that, in English, is often divided along sexual lines.
posted by DU at 5:49 PM on April 28, 2009


I can't tell if they're being tongue-in-cheek or not.
posted by Afroblanco at 5:57 PM on April 28, 2009


So I won't be able to plant tormentil in my garden because it's just a metaphor? drats.

On a related note: I served in Micronesia in the Peace Corps, and no one ate greens on my island. Bananas were fine, as were mangoes and a weird soapy-tasting fruit, and of course we had taro and breadfruit. That was it for fruits and vegetables.

One day I realized that there was basil and a type of lemongrass growing in the weeds on the edge of the taro field, as well as a green that the Filipinos used on Guam. I cooked some - and learned from the men that this was the devil's food. Turns out that gathering (as opposed to agriculture) had been women's work, but was also closely associated with both traditional medicine and magic. The island had only been Christianized in the early 20th Century. Some of the older residents remembered growing up eating wild greens, before the missionaries banned them all in attempt to get rid of "witchcraft."
posted by kanewai at 6:23 PM on April 28, 2009 [3 favorites]


DU: 21Bookish asked for a botanist, not a grammarian.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 6:33 PM on April 28, 2009


The mind fairly boggles. I suppose she could toss in some lavender, touch-me-nots and jack-in-the-pulpit as well.

Don't forget elderberries.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 7:53 PM on April 28, 2009


a list his pastor had given him of plants that are "gay" and therefore should be cast out of the gardens of upright family-oriented folk.

My cohabitant, who is a queer botanist, demands a copy of this list.
posted by hattifattener at 10:55 PM on April 28, 2009


kanewai: when was that and what island in Micronesia? I lived on Guam for about 10 years until 2003.
posted by sxtxixtxcxh at 11:28 PM on April 28, 2009


I was on Fananu, Paafeng Islands, part of Chuuk State and about 100 miles north of the main lagoon. On google earth the atolls look like a figure 8.

It was funny how the Official Story was that everyone had been Christian a long time, yet there were still a few, very few, pagan holdouts in the remote atolls. One old women was kept under guard so she wouldn't sneak out and practice magic. The men in her family, congregationalist pastors, wouldn't let her out of their sight. Some of the men still practiced; a lot of indigenous knowledge was lost, but women's knowledge was decimated.
posted by kanewai at 2:24 AM on April 29, 2009


Oh, early 1990's
posted by kanewai at 2:25 AM on April 29, 2009


My cohabitant, who is a queer botanist, demands a copy of this list.

I, too, would like to see this (if it's not too much of a derail). I googled around for "gay plants" but didn't come up with anything particularly useful. If you can believe it.
posted by jquinby at 5:47 AM on April 29, 2009


The mind fairly boggles. I suppose she could toss in some lavender, touch-me-nots and jack-in-the-pulpit as well.

What, no Green Carnations?
posted by The Whelk at 7:07 AM on April 29, 2009


There's also the "grammatical category" one that, in English, is often divided along sexual lines.

Which we call "gendered language".
posted by Wolof at 11:15 PM on April 29, 2009


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