tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3777298172927079868.post8351318022890051097..comments2014-07-05T11:51:58.807+10:00Comments on Literary Lilt: The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka by Clare WrightSimberahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06980244276326301441noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3777298172927079868.post-21346983047273798742014-07-05T11:51:58.807+10:002014-07-05T11:51:58.807+10:00I have neither the time nor the inclination to do ...I have neither the time nor the inclination to do the research it would take to debunk half of what you've said here, although even if I accept your factual claims, the assertion that this means Wright is a "feminist misandrist who demeans men" does not really follow.<br /><br />Incidentally, having had a bit of a look through the website you linked to, you are far more guilty of selectively quoting people to push your agenda than Wright is.<br /><br />If you want to make a serious attempt to respond to Wright's work, go right ahead. If you put something together that's comprehensive, rigorous and well-researched, I'm sure people will read it. But the comments section of my blog isn't really the forum for it.Simberahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06980244276326301441noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3777298172927079868.post-198232272987012462014-07-04T15:08:38.334+10:002014-07-04T15:08:38.334+10:00http://www.hereticpress.com/Dogstar/History/eureka... http://www.hereticpress.com/Dogstar/History/eureka.html<br /><br />At page 409 of The Forgotten Rebels Wrights states "There was another reason why so many men inside the Stockade might have gone home. There was a full moon. According to the principles of synchrony, women are "designed" to ovulate on the full moon" 8. The major reference for this is W.B Cutler and C.R. Garcia The Psychoneuroendrocronology of the Ovulation of Women. A very small scale study of just 29 subjects. The references given for the principles of synchrony are two small scale, out-of-date unsupported studies from 1979 and 1991, but good research requires the replication of results by other researchers. Wright also quotes a novel by Lara Owen which is a major inspiration for menstrual activists, but it is a personal account, not a scientific research based study. Her Blood is Gold (1993). This theory has not been championed by any serious scientists at all. Wright continues " Female biological blueprint is to release eggs when there is a full moon in the night sky. Bleeding times correspond to the new moon. The invention of electricity has changed this pre-modern prototype of human behaviour now not only do women menstruate at different times in the lunar cycle, but at different times from each other. However most females are aware that when they live in close proximity their menstral cycles start to coincide. With only candles and campfires for nightly illumination womens' menstral cycles very probably have synchronised.<br /><br />Wright looks to have taken her theory and even some of her sentences and punctuation from the Menstral Lunar Asychrony Moonsong, a website based on The School of Shamanic Midwifery first published in 2011, which states:<br /><br />"The blueprint for women's menstrual cycles is to be in synchrony with the moon, the lunar cycle. Women are "designed" to ovulate with the full moon". "Prior to electricity, in the late 1800's, all women ovulated according to their physiological and hormonal response to the amount of light in the night sky. Our biological blueprint is to ovulate when there is the most light in the night sky - the full moon".<br /><br />Wright continues, "When H.R Nicholls visited Ballarat at the end of November 1854 and felt that the place was electric, could he have been reading the hormonal magnetism of the goldfields five thousand ovulating women, a community in heat. The record is silent, Martha Clendinning was far too reserved to discuss her bodily functions. Hobart Town Poll who might have been relied on to to call a %@#* a %@#* didn't write her memoirs". Never is it mentioned by Wright that literacy was the exception and not the rule, many females and males in 1854 could not read or write, the story Wright is really telling is the personal story of the few best educated women.<br /><br />Some reasons why the Stockade was relatively deserted on the night of the attack are well know. Father Smythe urged the Catholic miners to go home and attend Mass the next day, an attack was not expected and the Americans may have deliberately left after a tip-off. Why did Wright even bring up this mystical folklore theory? It can only be a personal feminist view she has and it demeans men, making them mere servants of female ovulation times. None of the Eureka women or men spoke or wrote about it. Not even a shred of evidence is presented for this ovulation theory which Wright copied, almost word for word from a teacher of the Women's Mysteries and Shamanic practices Jane Hardwicke Collings As Jane says, she's working for the Goddess. Perhaps Jane is a friend or mentor of Clair Wright's. What else can explain this fiction randomly thrown into an award winning nonfiction research based book? Wright seems to be a feminist misandrist who puts women front and center and demeans men? The record is not silent at all as Wright claims, if what Wright wrote was true, birth dates of humans before electricity was invented would all be clustered around the same dates. Dogstar27https://www.blogger.com/profile/16202417484558346819noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3777298172927079868.post-17859503980870744552014-06-20T21:07:45.418+10:002014-06-20T21:07:45.418+10:00http://www.hereticpress.com/Dogstar/History/eureka...http://www.hereticpress.com/Dogstar/History/eureka.html<br /><br />How did Wright "ascertain" there were 5,165 women on the Ballarat goldfields in 1854? This figure contradicts the 1854 census data, overestimating the number of women on the goldfields by 1,142. Wright states that Geelong and St Kilda were devoid of menfolk, women generally were not mining for gold. This is an inauspicious start for a gender biased "nonfiction" title and it gets worse! In the marketing and promotion her book, Text Publishing inflates the number of women present to half, 6,330. For anyone who is familiar with the Eureka Stockade story, it is a very hard slog to read through Wright's book without a large red pen. Anyone not familiar with Eureka could be deceived and misled by Clair Wright's speculations. Dogstar27https://www.blogger.com/profile/16202417484558346819noreply@blogger.com