I want to talk about clothing and gender, because I noticed something.

In the Viking way of conceiving the world, there was no such thing as straight or gay sexuality. Not in the way they thought. Instead, there were dominant and submissive participants, and to be submissive -

- was shameful. Of course, they took men to be naturally dominant and women to be naturally submissive, because the patriarchal system isn't new. But a man could be dominant towards another male and still be "respected:" to penetrate another man was not shameful, but to be -

- penetrated as a man? The worst crime. This tied into their warrior/raiding culture, where they would castrate and rape local males as part of the attack. Interestingly, though, there was little shame around women taking on men's roles. It's much more socially acceptable -

- in the sagas, and in some cases it was encouraged. But for a man to assume a submissive, female role? That was the worst. And this creeps in today: I hadn't really thought about it until today, when I realised we have a skewed approach to male/female fashion.

While jeans, jackets, suits etc were all designed for men, we don't tend to baulk when we see women wearing them. But a man in a dress? Or wearing frilly lace? Nope, not allowed at all. This same concept is still with us, over 1,000 years later, though clearly much distilled.