Difference between revisions of "Magdalene laundry"
(massiveblahectomy, leaving link to original story) |
|||
(One intermediate revision by the same user not shown) | |||
Line 69: | Line 69: | ||
In November 2002, the movie The Magdalene Sisters was released to critical acclaim and even the Vatican was concerned enough to call down damnation on the film. Earlier that year there was also a British mini-series, ''Sinners''. | In November 2002, the movie The Magdalene Sisters was released to critical acclaim and even the Vatican was concerned enough to call down damnation on the film. Earlier that year there was also a British mini-series, ''Sinners''. | ||
− | + | == Magdalene Laundries in Australia == | |
'''How Magdalene Laundries in Australia created a different kind of Purgatory for girls trapped there.''' | '''How Magdalene Laundries in Australia created a different kind of Purgatory for girls trapped there.''' | ||
− | + | The Australian purgatory was less severe in some ways. Girls there could be as young as 14, they were released when they reached the age of 18 at the latest. In Australia the nuns did not use violence themselves. Rewards like the chance to play games or to watch films were sometimes given, sometimes withheld as a means of control. The girls were less closely supervised than those in Ireland and did violence and other bad things to each other. | |
− | + | A story is at [http://www.angelfire.com/de/lilyorigins/hcross.html the following external website.] | |
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
==External links and References== | ==External links and References== | ||
Line 132: | Line 86: | ||
<!-- NOTE TO EDITORS: | <!-- NOTE TO EDITORS: | ||
Per the GNU Free Documentation License, please include the live link below to the adapted Wikipedia article: | Per the GNU Free Documentation License, please include the live link below to the adapted Wikipedia article: | ||
+ | |||
+ | Especially considering it's not a copy of it... | ||
//--> | //--> | ||
Revision as of 02:44, 11 February 2008
Magdalene laundries, more often known as Magdalene asylums, were houses for women who had "fallen" from "moral" "correctness".
Magdalene Abuse Worldwide
In many countries supposedly fallen women were abused in Magdalene Institutions. The worst known cases were run by the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland where conditions amounted to slavery. Magdalene institutions also existed in England, Scotland, North America and Australia.
Magdalene Laundries in Ireland
Magdalene Laundries in Ireland created Purgatory for women and girls trapped there.
Readers are strongly recommended to read in particular the following websites as well as this one.
- The Magdalene Story
- The Magdalene Laundry
- Wounds Still Fresh For Thousands of Women Enslaved by the Catholic Church
There are many other informative websites dealing with Magdalene Laundries.
The Types of Victims
Irish women 'guilty' of having illegitimate children were sometimes forced to live as virtual slaves in the Magdalene Laundries or Magdalene asylums. Some ended up there simply because they were considered in moral danger. By the 20th century, unwed mothers, rape victims and generally "wayward" women were considered eligible inmates. (According to Roman Catholic teaching Virginity is a matter of the mind and the will. Those who are forced to have sex unwillingly remain virgins. The Roman Catholic Church ignored its own teachings. Because they ignored it they could benefit from the unpaid forced labour of the unfortunate women throughout their lives.) Women were sent there because they were considered too pretty, too ugly, too clever or too silly. (According to Roman Catholic teaching this was the way God allegedly made them. It does not look reasonable to punish women for being the way God made them. Again the Roman Catholic Church profited from ignoring its teachings.) A wide range of innocent women and girls were sent to Magdalene laundries because someone in authority felt they were sexually active or might become sexually active. A wide range of women and girls who were strong enough to wash clothes were sent to a life of grind and misery in Magdalene laundries while the Roman Catholic Church profited from their unpaid labour.
Incidentally women and girls who were considered ugly were sent to Magdalene laundries. It was felt ugly women and girls were vulnerable to seduction and men were vulnerable to temptation by them. Physically handicapped women and girls were not sent to Magdalene laundries. Disabled women seem to be as vulnerable to seduction as those who are simply ugly. Disabled women cannot wash clothes. The Church could not profit from their unpaid labour and instead would have to pay to provide for them.
Women and girls who were considered silly were sent to Magdalene laundries. It was also felt silly women and girls were vulnerable to seduction and men were vulnerable to temptation by them. Mentally handicapped women and girls were not sent to Magdalene laundries if their disability was so severe that they could not wash clothes. Mentally handicapped women seem to be as vulnerable to seduction as those who are simply silly. If women could not wash clothes the Church could not profit from their unpaid labour and instead would have to pay to provide for them.
The Roman Catholic Church is regularly accused of hypocrisy.
The laundries were named for Mary Magdalene, the prostitute who apparently repented her sins and became one of Jesus' closest followers. They were started in the middle of the 19th century as rehabilitation centers for prostitutes. Victims of Magdalene laundries could not expect to be forgiven as Mary Magdalene was.
Exploitation of Unpaid Work
The working day would start at 5 in the morning and consisted of hand-washing, drying, and ironing clothes from children's orphanages, churches, and prisons. Bedtime was at 7 in the evening. This continued six days a week. They were given food and accommodation but received no remuneration for their work. The scrubbing was intended to wash away the women's sins. However much the women washed they were considered dirty and sinful throughout their lives.
Mary Norris, Josephine McCarthy and Mary-Jo McDonagh were examples. The nuns refuse to admit how many women victims there were but it is suspected there may have been tens of thousands. These were a network of laundries operated by the Catholic Church in Ireland, and run by the Sisters of a range of orders. Many women lived and died in these institutions with little hope of escape. The only way they could be freed, was by being claimed by a relative, although officially they had to be signed out by two men. Often, family members were told that the women had moved away and would be impossible to find on account of having assumed new identities.
Irish democracy failed to protect women.
Ireland joined the European Union in 1973 and should have abided by the European Convention on Human Rights. The Irish government was democratic but Democracy can sometimes oppress minorities in a tyrannical way and become the Tyranny of the Majority. In the case of Ireland up to the 1960s and beyond it can be argued the majority were brainwashed by the Roman Catholic Church. They were afraid to oppose or criticize Roman Catholic Priests. They believed they depended on them for Sacraments which were thought necessary for Salvation.
In the 1960s when they were sent there the Roman Catholic Church was more powerful than the state in Ireland. Mary Norris and Josephine McCarthy had violated the rules of the Church but had committed no crime.
Women were treated more harshly than men.
Feminists frequently complain that sexual misconduct by women or even suspected sexual misconduct by women is punished harder than sexual misconduct by men. Women became slaves for life, sometimes because of a single act or suspected act considered immoral. By contrast male Roman Catholic Priests guilty of sexually abusing children were often routinely moved on to other parishes where they reoffended and parents did not know they had to protect their children from them. Nobody forced paedophile priests to enter monasteries and spend the rest of their lives washing clothes, cleaning pigsties or anything similar. Bishop Brendan Comiskey in Ireland resigned over this.
Sexual Humiliations and other abuse
The Magdalene victims suffered oppressive work, they sometimes had their heads shaved, were made to fast, once a week there were, "mortifications" when women were stripped and their supposed vanity was ridiculed. It is easy to see how this could be truly mortifying. The forced mortification could appeal to sexually frustrated nuns trying to be celibate, perhaps also Lesbian with or without knowing it. Nuns may have got sexual pleasure, (with or without knowing it) from forcing these humiliations onto helpless women. If that happened clearly they were not fully celibate.
In other contexts the Roman Catholic Church would probably call similar actions Mortal sin. Nuns worked off their frustration on helpless women. Frustrated priests trying to be celibate heard their confessions and did not prevent these sexual humiliations. Priests may have got sexual pleasure, (with or without knowing it) from hearing the confessions of the nuns who forced these humiliations onto helpless women. They may also have got sexual pleasure from hearing the confessions and reactions of the women victims. If that happened clearly they were not fully celibate. The Magdalene laundries involved abuse of women (the slave workers) by other women (the nuns). The system can also be seen as abuse of women by men. Only men can become Roman Catholic priests. Clearly the priests did not insist that the abuse be stopped. If they had in the male dominated Roman Catholic Church it would have stopped.
The Irish did not want to know.
It is thought the existence of the laundries was largely unknown before the 1990's. Large sections of Irish society were in denial about the problem before that time though families who wanted to get a young woman locked up knew what to do. Children were sometimes threatened, 'If you arn't good we'll give you to the sisters.' In 1998, an order of nuns in Dublin sold part of their convent to a real estate developer. It was discovered that the remains of 133 women were buried in unmarked graves on the property, and the scandal became local and national news in 1999.
The last Magdalene laundry was closed in 1996 officially. Sources differ over the date though all but one source says 1996. The Catholic Church has made no reparations to the women that were incarcerated, most of whom, incapable of fending for themselves in society, now live in government and private institutions.
Irish Abuse Revealed
As a group the nature of these institutions were exposed in a RTE (state run Irish television) series by reporter Mary Raftery in 1999. See also Mary Raftery, Eoin O'Sullivan or Eain O'Sullivan, Suffer the Little Children: The Inside Story of Ireland's Industrial Schools, Continuum International Publishing Group, hardcover, 424 pages, ISBN 0826413374. Despite convening of a government Commission to inquire into Child Abuse attempts to obtain compensation for the 130,000 victims of the system have proved frustrating. [1] [2]
Dr Frances Finnegan wrote a definitive account of the Irish Magdalene System, "Do Penance or Perish". She says names and identities of victims were taken from them and they were even prevented from talking to their fellows. This is confirmed by Mary Norris (renamed Mira) and Josephine McCarthy (renamed Phyllis). Women were totally helpless and the nuns decided how long they stayed in the institutions, often for life.
Frances Finnegan describes one woman who was told that her mother was dead. The daughter had worked in the inhuman laundry alongside her mother for over 20 years. The nuns had not told them about the relationship because they knew the mother was still pining for the child taken from her. This cruelty was practiced by nuns supposedly dedicated to the service of a loving God.
In November 2002, the movie The Magdalene Sisters was released to critical acclaim and even the Vatican was concerned enough to call down damnation on the film. Earlier that year there was also a British mini-series, Sinners.
Magdalene Laundries in Australia
How Magdalene Laundries in Australia created a different kind of Purgatory for girls trapped there.
The Australian purgatory was less severe in some ways. Girls there could be as young as 14, they were released when they reached the age of 18 at the latest. In Australia the nuns did not use violence themselves. Rewards like the chance to play games or to watch films were sometimes given, sometimes withheld as a means of control. The girls were less closely supervised than those in Ireland and did violence and other bad things to each other.
A story is at the following external website.
External links and References
- The Magdalene Laundry
- IMDb entry for "The Magdalene Sisters"
- 'In God's Name', from 'Guardian Unlimited'
- Brainwashing and Depersonalisation to comply with the "rules" within an Australian Magdalene Laundry
References
- Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Magdalene_laundry" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdalene_laundry, used under the [[GNU Free Documentation License]