Read at your own risk

I'm reading this book: "Who Cooked the Last Supper? The Women’s History of the World," by Rosalind Miles.

I can't say that I love it. I may be a lone voice in the wilderness here. Goodreads give the book 4/5 stars and Libby recommended it to me. 

I have great respect for Miles' research and for putting forth a position I've long held: that you can't fully trust tradition and history because our notion of history is limited to what the survivors said it was. It's like eye-witness accounts in criminal prosecutions: eye witnesses rarely get all the facts straight.

You don't have to have to be a historian to know that most of the historical documents that survived were things recorded by men. Men who were either rich or had rich patrons.

What of the stories of the women, the poor, the schmucks who lived hand-to-mouth but probably had some amazing stories? Ever notice how so many pieces of fiction rely on the protagonist falling into money somehow? Or not being hindered by having to pay the gas bill to survive winter?

But I digress. Miles' book is fascinating in that it starts out with how women once ruled the world on earth and as the Great Goddess. This sacred status of womanhood lasted for at least 25,000 years, Miles says, maybe even 50,000 in early civilization across the globe.

Problem was, IMO, men were pretty much nothing and weren't remotely considered partner material under matriarchal rule. And there were lots of examples where (kind of like Queen bees) kings or consorts were killed after a night of fun with the queen. In one case, set afire.

When men got the upper hand - and kept it - they committed even more atrocities against women. You know some of them, and probably have suffered many of them. But I learned more, thanks to Miles. It's enough to turn your stomach.

My biggest issue with the book is that it seems to long for the days when women were in charge and men were subjugated. I know I'm a woman, but I am apparently naive to wish for a civilization where no one is subjugated. In the words of Rodney King, "Can't we all just get along?"

Which brings up another point: the book is all about female v. male. Not about ethnicity or nonbinary struggles. To be fair, it's a long book that covers a lot of ground not really generally out in the world. You can't take on everything. But Miles seems to want to return to women with the upper hand. Not let's take a lesson from this and not vilify others.

When I described it to Alison, she said, "Oh, it's like in the Barbie movie."

And yes, it IS like the Barbie movie. Things were great for Barbie, but poor Ken wasn't allowed to do much but serve. And when the situation was reversed, it was literally reversed. Warning: Miles gets into mutilation, rape and other kinds of torment that Ken hadn't yet dreamed up, but the gist is the same.

To paraphrase Taylor Swift, "Why do people in power gotta be so mean?"

I have to stop reading this book. It's depressing, and I'm already depressed with the current state of affairs in the world. If this is the end of civilization, I think it's our own damn fault. 

Oh, one more thing: the last supper reference in the title is just marketing, which in itself is annoying. It's also pretty dense with tons of footnotes that, I will admit, I haven't explored.

I would like to hear what other people - who I know - think of the book. Hit me up if you've made it through. Especially if you found it uplifting.