Bonds Between Women

What deos it mean to be a mentor? 

In Reinventing Womanhood, Heilbrun points out that the myth of Demeter and Persephone is more than just a story about a mother/daughter relationship, but about female bonding.

Heilbrun points out that Demeter was part of a triad of gods that had equal power. It is interesting to note the realms over which they reigned.  Demeter ruled the civilized/cultivated earth while Zues ruled the heavens and Hades ruled the underworld.

Heilbrun interprets the story this way:

“when Hades attempted to ‘takeover’ a younger woman companion (whether or not  her daughter), she fought with the power that was hers as an autonomous god. The result was a compromise”

Demeter’s attempt to liberate her daughter without resorting to self-sacrafice starkly contrasts many modern stereo-types of the dutiful mother.  In fact, women in general are often depicted as either competative or self-sacraficing, rather than cooperative agents of a female community. Since what we read influences how we think, it is important for those of us who write to consider how we can alter these stereo-typical bonds between women.

As Heilbrun writes:

That women have power, and might  use it  in support of one another and to make fair bargains with the patriarchal world, is an idea few women have imagined, and few acted upon. They have let men tell them who they are and what they are entitled to.