The Vatican has confirmed a ban on Catholics becoming Freemasons, a centuries-old secretive society that the Catholic Church has long viewed with hostility and has an estimated global membership of up to six million.
I just checked, apparently in Continental Europe there are many lodges which don’t have strict spiritual requirements following France’s whole “fuck the clergy and also religion” in the 19th century.
English-speaking lodges apparently tend to require belief in a “Supreme being” (and also forbid women from participating because why not at this point), but who knows; lodges are independent organizations and some of them can have different rules or turn a blind-eye, there’s no “pope of freemasonry” to set any rules.
In 2018, guidance was released by the United Grand Lodge of England stating that, in regard to transgender women, “A Freemason who after initiation ceases to be a man does not cease to be a Freemason”. The guidance also states that transgender men are allowed to apply to become Freemasons.
I’m a feminist and not a Freemason. I wasn’t convinced that Freemasonry is misogynistic simply because it excludes women. Ie: I think there are valid reasons to have some gender separated spaces. My understanding is that Freemasonry is a practice intended to ‘improve’ men (whatever that means to them). I think that’s possibly a valid reason for maintaining a gendered space.
However; in preparing to write this comment I learned that Masonry’s sister organization (The Order of the Eastern Star), which is open to both men and women, is subordinate to the Masonic lodge. This does strike me as misogynistic.
I’m open to reading thoughtful comments by Masons or more knowledgeable feminists.
Your wife’s book club probably isn’t made up of a large proportion of your country’s cultural, financial, and academic elites which are openly involved in politics.
This isn’t some dudes meeting up in a bowling alley or a local bar, but rather one of the places where politics get made for real.
It doesn’t have to be a bad thing; Belgium’s most prestigious university is a freemason project. But excluding women from such “soft power” exercises raises some alarm bells for me.
My grandfather was a non-religious freemason.
I just checked, apparently in Continental Europe there are many lodges which don’t have strict spiritual requirements following France’s whole “fuck the clergy and also religion” in the 19th century.
English-speaking lodges apparently tend to require belief in a “Supreme being” (and also forbid women from participating because why not at this point), but who knows; lodges are independent organizations and some of them can have different rules or turn a blind-eye, there’s no “pope of freemasonry” to set any rules.
Also holy shit what a trip, the United Grand Lodge of England is… unironically misogynistic but not transphobic?? LMAO
I’m a feminist and not a Freemason. I wasn’t convinced that Freemasonry is misogynistic simply because it excludes women. Ie: I think there are valid reasons to have some gender separated spaces. My understanding is that Freemasonry is a practice intended to ‘improve’ men (whatever that means to them). I think that’s possibly a valid reason for maintaining a gendered space.
However; in preparing to write this comment I learned that Masonry’s sister organization (The Order of the Eastern Star), which is open to both men and women, is subordinate to the Masonic lodge. This does strike me as misogynistic.
I’m open to reading thoughtful comments by Masons or more knowledgeable feminists.
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From my very limited experience with Freemasons here in Southern California, they are religious but very tolerant and accepting. No girls, though.
I don’t think it’s misogynistic to have a boy’s only club.
I’m not invited to my wife’s book club (girls only), does that make them men haters?
eeeeeeh
Your wife’s book club probably isn’t made up of a large proportion of your country’s cultural, financial, and academic elites which are openly involved in politics.
This isn’t some dudes meeting up in a bowling alley or a local bar, but rather one of the places where politics get made for real.
It doesn’t have to be a bad thing; Belgium’s most prestigious university is a freemason project. But excluding women from such “soft power” exercises raises some alarm bells for me.