the discernment of the Belgium women

the discernment of the Belgium women

fiction
edward w pritchard

Among-st the endless chitter-chatter of sexual gossip that sloshes about the politics of our times it behooves us to look back into history to other societies to see how the matter successfully was handled in other times and other places.

Different strategies are most fruitful to change the gossiping behaviors of men and women and today we will look at how the Queen of ancient Belgium taught the women of her court discernment.

The bayeux tapestry is over 200 feet long and the actual sewing of the piece was done by the women of Belgium. As they sewed the women often talked quietly among themselves of many things.

As punishment to ladies of the court who tended to gossip of the personal matters of others Queen Matilda wife of William the Norman conqueror would require women at court who gossiped about the sexual matters of others to sit and sew without speaking for weeks and weeks at a time. Listening without talking was considered back in ancient Belgium strict punishment indeed, back back then in ancient times, in Belgium. Today one never hears about the women of Belgium, even now, alleging they were unfairly taken advantage of, what we would call sexual harassment, while being pursued
in times long past. Even the French say, even now, that the people of Belgium are indeed a civilized county.