Jürgen Hubert
@juergen_hubert@mementomori.social  ·  activity timestamp 2 days ago

Something clicked for me yesterday. I read about #RFKJr 's latest claim that #Tylenol causes #autism when used during #pregnancy , and I thought:

"Hey, I have read something very similar in a German #folklore text!"

And here you have it:

"If a mother uses a spell in order to ease her birth, then the Evil Enemy tries to lure these children in particular. Thanks to this magical influence, such children - if female - are born with the drive to trude. But male children are driven to theft (the 'Bilwez Cut!')."

"Truding" in this context means becoming a "night hag"-type spirit while sleeping who torments and squeezes other spirits (the "sleep paralysis" phenomenon) while the "Bilwez Cut" is the ability to magically cut down the ripe grain fields of others and steal the grain without spotting you. You can read the entire text at the link - though beware, it's full of ableist nonsense.

But now I am intrigued - both in JFKJr's modern claims (and presumably his fellow conspiracy fantasists, although I haven't followed them too closely) and this bit of folklore from 19th century southeastern Bavaria, the basic message is:

"Women must suffer through the full pain of childbirth, and if they try to alleviate this pain, their children will come out wrong somehow!"

Both qualify as folklore, not facts - but I wonder how widespread this piece of folklore was and is, today and in past centuries, and in which countries and cultures. Does anyone have further examples?

#ableism
https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/Witches_and_Trudes
Phil Thane ✅
@pthane@toot.wales replied  ·  activity timestamp 2 days ago
@juergen_hubert
It's weird how stuff we thought settled long ago becomes controversial again. Childbirth pain relief became acceptable in the UK when queen Victoria had chloroform and allowed it to become public knowledge. 250 years ago Catherine the Great encouraged smallpox inoculation (forerunner of vaccines) in Russia. Her example made it acceptable to rulers elsewhere. Why do well educated politicians willfully forget history?
NilaJones
@NilaJones@zeroes.ca replied  ·  activity timestamp 2 days ago
@juergen_hubert

Thank you so much for bringing this to the forefront!

In the US at least, a lot of rightwing Christians say that the part in the Bible about bringing forth children in suffering means, anything that alleviates the suffering is not okay

The suffering is penance for Eve tasting the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Everyone who gives birth has to pay for that long ago sin (and, by implication, for the sin of having sex, and potentially maybe enjoying it)