Quote Originally Posted by russia almighty
Damn the obsession with the wang . Can anyone tell me though why in particular there is and or was such and obsession with Mr. Dong in the east ?
Not just in the east.

Ithyphallic statues and images are found all over the world, India, Peru, Egypt, Hellas, Ireland, Papua etc.

"Mr Happy" is some strong magic, makes a guy feel ten foot tall, makes most women happy too, so its an obvious symbol for strength and protection as well as fertility.

Messing with Mr happy is obviously some heavy voodoo too. "How far will you go for your God?" asks Moses. "Are you willing to give Mr Happy a trim?". Imagine the look on the first guys face when he went into the tent and saw what Moses was doing with the sharp rock.

Quote Originally Posted by Tellos Athenaios
The idea that women weren't allowed in the theatre seems to be as outdated as the Victorian British Empire - in fact there's hardly any basis for this idea at all. There is some counter-evidence, though:

-there's a statement which says that some women spontainously had a miscariage after/during one of the songs in Aischylos' Eumenids.
-there's a statement about women hanging themselves out of shame after having been to the the comedy.
Yep, if there's a law against something, its usually because someone is doing it.

I think laws controlling women are related to eunuchs. You build a stratified society and one obvious stratum is "those without penises" (ie a "member's only" politcal structure).

Some societies also have a "physical perfection" culture, I don't mean the Gynmasium culture of hellas but the idea in the myth of Lugh or the Mahabharata that a King had to be physically entire, no blindness, no disability. Castration was a bar to rule as well as a guarantee of "no bastards behind my back".