from my guestbook:

the victors may write the history books, but it seems nobody's reading them. the root of the word "whore" has nothing to do with any pejorative link to an ancient martiarchal tradition. it actually comes from the same proto-latin root that "cherish" and "care" come from, and other love-type words. the horae were the ancient greek goddesses of the times of the day, and the seasons ("hours"; there were twelve horae for the different periods of the day.) so that got me to thinking. regarding the alleged revisionism: it's safe to say there's always been a fine line between fertility worship and sexual obsessing, and the farther back you go, the more fertility-and female-focused the general belief patterns are, no matter where you're talking about. bellydancing seems historically and currently to be intrinsically caught in this nexus. its roots in roughly mideastern fertility rituals way predate the current belief patterns from that area, islam and cristianity. apparently, childbirth exercises and bellydancing moves are often congruent movements; either way, men like to watch women move that way, and i'm sure always have. so when a crusty old fucker has a lewd, fertility-related comment, just smirk to yourself! he used to worship you folks, and obviously in different ways still does. relish in the timeless power you guys will always have over him. don't let him shame you into rewriting your own current history of the activity into something neutered and sterile, when the older and realer one is so much more powerful and pecker-crushing.

-a.