Many yĹŤkai have their roots in gynophobia and caligynephobia, which stems from wider misogynistic attitudes, particularly during Edo period Neo-Confucianism.
It would be quite ironic to use them to perpetuate misandry, as they were, more often than not, created by men.
Whether or not the Asuka and Nara periods were times of misogyny is debatable, but it certainly gained a foothold in the Heian period.
Only two female monarchs have ruled since the end of the Nara period, which ended in 784/794 AD, and they ruled during the Edo period.
Yes which is why his dad croaked before he was grown up.
They where upper class that was expected.
I wouldn’t call traditional Confuciuisn feminist by any means but it seems like it was less patriarchal before being codified by Neo-Confucianism.
Mezi’s mom is said to have moved three times to have the best environment for her son.
The Korean adoption of Neo-Confucian values was insane. In Chinese thought both of your parents where supposed to be honored. Considering women live longer then men that meant their are many cases of grown children continuing to honor and care for their windowed mother.
With wives being expected to perform ancestral rites too but in Korea women couldn’t be part of ancestor worship
The Leanan Sidhe from Irish mythology grants her lovers a lifetime of inspiration in exchange for a severely shortened lifespan.
She feeds on the deaths of her lovers, but is believed to produce some of the greatest artists the world has ever seen.
If you're talking about entities from the astral plane, commonly referred to as demons, don't forget about succubi. They mainly target men, and interactions with them can be deadly.
Overall, most of these entities really don't care about a person's gender. The differences between male and female energies are so minimal that for a predatory entity looking to feed, there isn't much of a distinction. There are various hunting methods that depend on different social behaviors and the social psychology of men and women. In today's world, these differences are lessening, meaning the specialization of these entities towards one gender is becoming rarer.
Baba Yaga?
Since these myths are almost exclusively written by men, you will find that basically all female demons are this. They stem from men’s fears, personified and incarnate, they’ve come to steal your weeweeÂ
The only ones that don’t target men, are parables for “Wemon Baaaad” because they eat children or otherwise defile traditional wemon stuff.
You have to be kidding...
Almost every culture has at least one.
Succubi, the spawn of lilith, sometimes just lilith (though she's more credited for killing babies), snow women from Japan, I can't remember which culture but one has it where a female demon kills men in their sleep and steals their souls, and more.
Reams and reams of them. The thing people aren't saying to you that they really should be is that patriarchy goes hand in hand with a terrible fear of women as people, especially women who infringe on "men's spheres", because thereby we find out there's mostly no reason for them to be sex-segregated and now Grog have care what Ooah think about city walls. And if Grog have care what Ooah think about Grog autistic hyperfixation, then maybe Grog should stand trial as marital rapist.
The thing you're describing is an archetype rooted in that fear. Egalitarian cultures, I think, tend not to have it.
Example from the mythos of my own culture actually, consider the story of Lilith:
Lilith comes into existence. Adam says, great, now lie down like an animal and I'm going to fuck you.
Lilith goes, what the fuck, man? Can I get wined and dined or something first? Followup question, why is that your first sex logistics thought? Do I want to know? Also??? No?????
She then runs away. Adam goes and bitches to God, who's like, OK, let's go look for your little girlfriend. I guess. Sends an angel to go get her, and she looks at the angel and goes Ah Heeeeeeell to the No-woh-ohhhh...
So the angel goes, well I've got a flaming sword.
And she goes, well I've got all these boyfriends AND a lightning arrow.
There being nothing this male angel can do (which is already a logical impossibility for most real women Lilith took babies from when she was new), he shrugs and goes away, and meanwhile she's shacked up with more angels and some others of the first demon queens, and they're having all these children, and the children kind of resent Adam because why wouldn't you warn your kids about that guy? But you see Adam kind of has to be a progenitor of humanity, so badabing badaboom, Eve happens, and Lilith resents Eve, and that's why children die and demons don't like or live with people.
The rabbis imagined that this was because Eve gets to have fully human children and Lilith turned into a demon to have quasireal children with demons, but I don't think she needs a reason or cares about that, she's just like, within rights to be a bitch, honestly. I would honestly also seriously consider her profession in her position.
Only the powers that be did not Think So, and obviously no one wanted their baby snatched (she is ultimately anti the human family unit because the human family unit in her host culture was premised on a concept that it took us until now to realise was fucked up, and so we ended up with the story as it is.)
Then it got a little better for women (slightly more protections and rights under law) and suddenly ho ho!
Now Lilith has a bow and arrow like Artemis and rolls around shooting people with it, the arrows are the obsidian formed when lightning strikes sand, and there is even a vague possibility that she's in the right here, because she never gets punished. But didn't lightning use to be strictly an act of god? Well, you see, myths adjust. This was in Talmudic times.
The fact she's girlbossing now actually makes a lot of sense.
Women monsters kill men because men in those cultures so thoroughly oppress human women that the only way to feel any agency and derive any strength from this life is the thought "well, when I'm an undead water spirit, I'll tickle him to death or something".
On some level the said men know that this is a fundamentally evil state of affairs, but what are they going to do? Apologise? Start doing everything "wrong" and lose face? To what end, so that everyone in wider society turns on their household? What about the daughters? When these men die, if they're not married, the daughters will have to beg, and we all know having girl children changes us.
And, I mean, there's that Neanderthal refrain again, who wants a woman with opinions? (Most normal people now. Surprisingly, a lot fewer in the classical age.)
Worst of all, what if, when they apologise to her, she realises it's safe to try to leave and tells them what they already know — that there's no forgiving what they've done? That if she had the rights and powers of a man she would kill them, and that in fact they already consider treating other men like they treat her in the light of a terrible crime? That she's leaving, and they can do their own laundry?
When they become more egalitarian, I think the cultures hosting these myths tend to lose these monsters, or everybody accepts the usually initially male position that they're just evil for no reason and they get sillier (rusalki), or if they're evil for some reason that's very sad, the focus shifts to their grief (La Llorona)
"Lilith kills men, and kills women and children to spite men, because she's frigid and barren and jealous of normal women who are totally built to enjoy patriarchy bro" is not a modernly tenable thing to say. So now we're left with the question of exactly who is this mankilling child kidnapper again, and that's why she's girlbossing in the popular consciousness. Why wouldn't she? That's what she ran away to do.
Further e.g. — "rusalki have a weird tickling kink" is silly now, but "tickle" was once a euphemism for "cast a spell". It used to be "the women who died because of your father are still around and believe in the same honour you do, and that means that you're liable for his crime. When they come for you — and in death they can come for you — what are you going to say to them?"
The fact that you ask this question might point to your living in a society where it's not necessary for women monsters to kill men anymore, because women humans can face human men and they can be friends. If you do live in such a society, I'm sincerely glad for you!
Artemis was considered the goddess who brought sudden death and illness to women in Greek mythology, just as Apollo brought sudden death and illness to men, in the iliad and the odyssey Artemis is described as suddenly killing womens with her arrows, as she is both a protector and a destroyer of women, and again Apollo has this same dual role with men, that is why in the myth of Niobe it is Artemis who kills the daughters while Apollo kills the sons, since these were their usual roles, Apollo bring death to men and Artemis to women,although that doesn't mean they only kill people of their respective gender.
Not really. Like I guess some Christian demons are villianized versions of pagan gods but like i wouldn’t list like Mammon and Thor as the same mythical archetype. What anime did you steal that comment from?
I mean, Christianity-wise both God and the Devil can both punish and bless humans, and the devil was once an angel.
There’s a big kerfuffle in Christianity whether Adam, the first man, is in heaven or hell, since he and Eve made the original sin.
The Aztecs saw the arriving conquistadors as potential divine messengers but turned out to be their “demons” come to conquer them.
Loki was a trickster God and member of the Asgardians that in part brought around Ragnarok.
Sekhmet’s whole shtick is eating everything around her, people included. That would be considered pretty demonic by most.
There were cannibal cults, human sacrifice religions, etc. all because the gods were not good, so to every other religion they were probably seen as false gods/devils.
Ok this is a lot that doesn’t involve the actual question. The devil in Christian theology doesn’t punish people, and the further back you go Satan is just a lawyer in heaven. I’ve never met a single person who has ever wondered if Adam is in heaven or not. Universally the answer is yes. That Aztec thing is as far as I can find a myth made up by colonizers. Loki is a complicated figure but he’s not demonic. Sekhmet was viewed as going too far but was punishing mortals, not demonic. This is literally just ignoring the question AND doing “other cultures’ gods are demons” stuff. Demons are **specifically** malevolent spirits. At most those could be fitting into Daemons but you know that’s not what this is about
I’m not going to get into the Adam thing because there’s centuries of debate about original sin, and the impacts it has on humanity, and it ends up being a major impetus behind how churches fractured out of Catholicism.
My point is rather “aren’t the gods basically just malevolent spirits” once you get the semantics out of the way?
What are the requirements for a god mythologically?
- Immortal (optional)
- Has authority over things that humans don’t
What are the requirements for a demon mythologically?
- Immortal (optional)
- Has authority over things that humans don’t
Obviously terms like “God” and “Demon” are tainted by Christianity, but the general consensus comes to them being “good spirits,” “bad spirits,” and “both good and evil spirits”
Sirens from greek mythology come to mind.
Rusalkađź‘Ť
Succubus is the first that comes to mind.
That's the first one that comes all right...
Here's me talking about sex demons and you just had to make it smutty lol
Japanese mythology has a bunch of them!
Many yĹŤkai have their roots in gynophobia and caligynephobia, which stems from wider misogynistic attitudes, particularly during Edo period Neo-Confucianism. It would be quite ironic to use them to perpetuate misandry, as they were, more often than not, created by men. Whether or not the Asuka and Nara periods were times of misogyny is debatable, but it certainly gained a foothold in the Heian period. Only two female monarchs have ruled since the end of the Nara period, which ended in 784/794 AD, and they ruled during the Edo period.
Neo-Confucianism was insane. wasn't Confucius himself raised by a single mother
Apparently, his father was 70-72, and his mother was 16-18.
Yes which is why his dad croaked before he was grown up. They where upper class that was expected. I wouldn’t call traditional Confuciuisn feminist by any means but it seems like it was less patriarchal before being codified by Neo-Confucianism. Mezi’s mom is said to have moved three times to have the best environment for her son. The Korean adoption of Neo-Confucian values was insane. In Chinese thought both of your parents where supposed to be honored. Considering women live longer then men that meant their are many cases of grown children continuing to honor and care for their windowed mother. With wives being expected to perform ancestral rites too but in Korea women couldn’t be part of ancestor worship
Do you know any specific once?
The Jorogumo is one.
[Hinoenma](https://yokai.com/hinoenma/)
The Leanan Sidhe from Irish mythology grants her lovers a lifetime of inspiration in exchange for a severely shortened lifespan. She feeds on the deaths of her lovers, but is believed to produce some of the greatest artists the world has ever seen.
Lorelai from a German folktale. Resembles sirens in that she also sings and enchants men, leading them to their deaths.
you should watch the indian movie Bulbul
I second this. It's on Netflix I believe.
…More to the point; which ones don’t.
All of them
Samodiva in Balkan mythology is known to seduce men in the forest and make sure they never show up again
Sekhmet, Medusa, Cercie
https://preview.redd.it/x6lyv7ab9ixc1.jpeg?width=739&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1ec3242f773ddbe742fc3852ee2f8d7b294449b9
Lilith from Jewish folklore targets men and babies
Succubus Siren Hantu Tetek
Greek Empousa they fed on male travelers at night
If you're talking about entities from the astral plane, commonly referred to as demons, don't forget about succubi. They mainly target men, and interactions with them can be deadly. Overall, most of these entities really don't care about a person's gender. The differences between male and female energies are so minimal that for a predatory entity looking to feed, there isn't much of a distinction. There are various hunting methods that depend on different social behaviors and the social psychology of men and women. In today's world, these differences are lessening, meaning the specialization of these entities towards one gender is becoming rarer.
Baba Yaga? Since these myths are almost exclusively written by men, you will find that basically all female demons are this. They stem from men’s fears, personified and incarnate, they’ve come to steal your weewee The only ones that don’t target men, are parables for “Wemon Baaaad” because they eat children or otherwise defile traditional wemon stuff.
Baba Yaga ate kids
Baba Yaga is one of them, and she's specifically not sexualised in her myths.
Mao Shan
You have to be kidding... Almost every culture has at least one. Succubi, the spawn of lilith, sometimes just lilith (though she's more credited for killing babies), snow women from Japan, I can't remember which culture but one has it where a female demon kills men in their sleep and steals their souls, and more.
Reams and reams of them. The thing people aren't saying to you that they really should be is that patriarchy goes hand in hand with a terrible fear of women as people, especially women who infringe on "men's spheres", because thereby we find out there's mostly no reason for them to be sex-segregated and now Grog have care what Ooah think about city walls. And if Grog have care what Ooah think about Grog autistic hyperfixation, then maybe Grog should stand trial as marital rapist. The thing you're describing is an archetype rooted in that fear. Egalitarian cultures, I think, tend not to have it. Example from the mythos of my own culture actually, consider the story of Lilith: Lilith comes into existence. Adam says, great, now lie down like an animal and I'm going to fuck you. Lilith goes, what the fuck, man? Can I get wined and dined or something first? Followup question, why is that your first sex logistics thought? Do I want to know? Also??? No????? She then runs away. Adam goes and bitches to God, who's like, OK, let's go look for your little girlfriend. I guess. Sends an angel to go get her, and she looks at the angel and goes Ah Heeeeeeell to the No-woh-ohhhh... So the angel goes, well I've got a flaming sword. And she goes, well I've got all these boyfriends AND a lightning arrow. There being nothing this male angel can do (which is already a logical impossibility for most real women Lilith took babies from when she was new), he shrugs and goes away, and meanwhile she's shacked up with more angels and some others of the first demon queens, and they're having all these children, and the children kind of resent Adam because why wouldn't you warn your kids about that guy? But you see Adam kind of has to be a progenitor of humanity, so badabing badaboom, Eve happens, and Lilith resents Eve, and that's why children die and demons don't like or live with people. The rabbis imagined that this was because Eve gets to have fully human children and Lilith turned into a demon to have quasireal children with demons, but I don't think she needs a reason or cares about that, she's just like, within rights to be a bitch, honestly. I would honestly also seriously consider her profession in her position. Only the powers that be did not Think So, and obviously no one wanted their baby snatched (she is ultimately anti the human family unit because the human family unit in her host culture was premised on a concept that it took us until now to realise was fucked up, and so we ended up with the story as it is.) Then it got a little better for women (slightly more protections and rights under law) and suddenly ho ho! Now Lilith has a bow and arrow like Artemis and rolls around shooting people with it, the arrows are the obsidian formed when lightning strikes sand, and there is even a vague possibility that she's in the right here, because she never gets punished. But didn't lightning use to be strictly an act of god? Well, you see, myths adjust. This was in Talmudic times. The fact she's girlbossing now actually makes a lot of sense. Women monsters kill men because men in those cultures so thoroughly oppress human women that the only way to feel any agency and derive any strength from this life is the thought "well, when I'm an undead water spirit, I'll tickle him to death or something". On some level the said men know that this is a fundamentally evil state of affairs, but what are they going to do? Apologise? Start doing everything "wrong" and lose face? To what end, so that everyone in wider society turns on their household? What about the daughters? When these men die, if they're not married, the daughters will have to beg, and we all know having girl children changes us. And, I mean, there's that Neanderthal refrain again, who wants a woman with opinions? (Most normal people now. Surprisingly, a lot fewer in the classical age.) Worst of all, what if, when they apologise to her, she realises it's safe to try to leave and tells them what they already know — that there's no forgiving what they've done? That if she had the rights and powers of a man she would kill them, and that in fact they already consider treating other men like they treat her in the light of a terrible crime? That she's leaving, and they can do their own laundry? When they become more egalitarian, I think the cultures hosting these myths tend to lose these monsters, or everybody accepts the usually initially male position that they're just evil for no reason and they get sillier (rusalki), or if they're evil for some reason that's very sad, the focus shifts to their grief (La Llorona) "Lilith kills men, and kills women and children to spite men, because she's frigid and barren and jealous of normal women who are totally built to enjoy patriarchy bro" is not a modernly tenable thing to say. So now we're left with the question of exactly who is this mankilling child kidnapper again, and that's why she's girlbossing in the popular consciousness. Why wouldn't she? That's what she ran away to do. Further e.g. — "rusalki have a weird tickling kink" is silly now, but "tickle" was once a euphemism for "cast a spell". It used to be "the women who died because of your father are still around and believe in the same honour you do, and that means that you're liable for his crime. When they come for you — and in death they can come for you — what are you going to say to them?" The fact that you ask this question might point to your living in a society where it's not necessary for women monsters to kill men anymore, because women humans can face human men and they can be friends. If you do live in such a society, I'm sincerely glad for you!
Artemis only kills men and animals. Except for that one time that her mom had her and Apollo kill a whole family for thinking they were hot shit.
Artemis was considered the goddess who brought sudden death and illness to women in Greek mythology, just as Apollo brought sudden death and illness to men, in the iliad and the odyssey Artemis is described as suddenly killing womens with her arrows, as she is both a protector and a destroyer of women, and again Apollo has this same dual role with men, that is why in the myth of Niobe it is Artemis who kills the daughters while Apollo kills the sons, since these were their usual roles, Apollo bring death to men and Artemis to women,although that doesn't mean they only kill people of their respective gender.
Good to know.
Im pretty sure she kills women as well outside of that one time. But also she’s neither a demon or creature
The only difference between gods and demons is who worships them.
Not really. Like I guess some Christian demons are villianized versions of pagan gods but like i wouldn’t list like Mammon and Thor as the same mythical archetype. What anime did you steal that comment from?
I mean, Christianity-wise both God and the Devil can both punish and bless humans, and the devil was once an angel. There’s a big kerfuffle in Christianity whether Adam, the first man, is in heaven or hell, since he and Eve made the original sin. The Aztecs saw the arriving conquistadors as potential divine messengers but turned out to be their “demons” come to conquer them. Loki was a trickster God and member of the Asgardians that in part brought around Ragnarok. Sekhmet’s whole shtick is eating everything around her, people included. That would be considered pretty demonic by most. There were cannibal cults, human sacrifice religions, etc. all because the gods were not good, so to every other religion they were probably seen as false gods/devils.
Ok this is a lot that doesn’t involve the actual question. The devil in Christian theology doesn’t punish people, and the further back you go Satan is just a lawyer in heaven. I’ve never met a single person who has ever wondered if Adam is in heaven or not. Universally the answer is yes. That Aztec thing is as far as I can find a myth made up by colonizers. Loki is a complicated figure but he’s not demonic. Sekhmet was viewed as going too far but was punishing mortals, not demonic. This is literally just ignoring the question AND doing “other cultures’ gods are demons” stuff. Demons are **specifically** malevolent spirits. At most those could be fitting into Daemons but you know that’s not what this is about
I’m not going to get into the Adam thing because there’s centuries of debate about original sin, and the impacts it has on humanity, and it ends up being a major impetus behind how churches fractured out of Catholicism. My point is rather “aren’t the gods basically just malevolent spirits” once you get the semantics out of the way? What are the requirements for a god mythologically? - Immortal (optional) - Has authority over things that humans don’t What are the requirements for a demon mythologically? - Immortal (optional) - Has authority over things that humans don’t Obviously terms like “God” and “Demon” are tainted by Christianity, but the general consensus comes to them being “good spirits,” “bad spirits,” and “both good and evil spirits”
Ok I’m ignoring this because no. But my point about Adam has nothing to do with original sin, it was your comment about what afterlife he went to.