Chapter IV. Myth

Plate 13. THE MERMAID

Although the above text is indeed a fake, it is a little known fact that one of the most extensive collections of mermaids is housed at the Royal Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

Plate 14. LOONYBIMBOMOMMADYKE

Or The Mythical Monster Woman.

Prime cuts of misogyny.

"He couldn't stand to hear me say,

  • That I'd been with someone new
  • And when I told him I had been untrue
  • He hit me and it felt like a kiss..."

    ("He hit me" - The Crystals circa 1960's)

    "Zucchini and Eggplants are both stuffed with rice and the stuffing process, which is usually done by women, leads to arousal. It is better to prohibit the sale of these vegetables to avoid a greater danger"

    (Egyptian fundamentalist leader, Newsweek 27th June 1992)

    Plate 15. BARBIE

    There is a fatwa issued against Barbie by Khaled al Mathcour (Kuwaiti official) on the grounds that its feminine curves have nothing to do with childhood.

    Mattel, makers of Barbie, successfully ends publication of the Barbie Channelling Newsletter by Barbara Bell.

    Attacks on Barbie dolls in Illinois: 4 dolls were injured in the attack (Daily Record, 15th Jan. 1993)

    Plate 16. SNOW WHITE AUSCHWITZ

    Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" came to Prague (1939): "The temptation was too powerful to resist; I went and sat through the whole film in terror of being discovered and cruelly punished; how I did not yet know. My experience did not yet include prison, and my imagination failed me. But the fear was all the greater because it had touched the unknown."

    (Ivan Klima - "A Childhood in Terezin")

    "I decided not to wear plaits any longer and, copying Walt Disney's Snow White, wore my long hair loose with a ribbon fastened around my head. Apparently because of this change, somebody told me I was a pretty girl, somebody else addressed me as "Miss".

    (Janina Bauman "Winter in the Morning" - life in the Warsaw Ghetto)

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