The Myth of Soulless Women (1997)

As a redhead, Valentius' ironic pamphlet taken seriously has echoes in the "gingers have no souls" meme that came from South Park.

I still occasionally have grown-ass strangers in bars bring it up to be funny.

It's both amusing, and disheartening how something that silly (or possibly attempting to be silly) can continue to run out of control.

>So what the bishops discussed was the meaning of a word, not the substantial issue of whether women have souls.

This also feels very current. I'll use a word or phrase, someone will decide it indicates something I didn't say and I don't believe ... conversation is ruined. I accidentally used a phrase someone else used in a nasty meme and nothing can convince them otherwise. The rest of the conversation is all about that phrase now and what it means ... or even just how you went about / if you asked a question or not.

So one pastor in Germany said things century ago, based on false claims on what others said. That's like making a big deal of someone saying something on Twitter today. If a major religion actually said that women have no souls, that could lead to some problematic practices. Though there are people who claim they have multiple souls and presumably most of them do not act superior to single soul simpletons. But since Christianity never adopted such claims, what is the story here except that there is no story?

Hilarious! My man Valentius just wanted to amuse and started off a culture war.

Cf. Dorothy L. Sayers's Are women human?