February 2007 

 

Seemingly simple is that word equality.  No ambiguity here.  Ask someone to explain what the word equality means and most everyone will willingly flex their intellectual muscle to explain.  The online dictionary translates the word as the correspondence in quantity, degree, value, rank or ability.  It is equivalency, sameness, justice, impartiality and fairness.  And yet, when we apply this to humanity and interpret it through the eyes of different genders, the word loses its hard-edged definition and becomes a little like water.  You just can’t quite grasp what it actually means.

In the western world, most women would agree that they are equal beings to their male counterparts and while there is still some disparity in salaries and amounts of women versus men in top ranking positions, women can excel and conquer, make it into office and even run the country.  Women can head corporate empires and hold positions traditionally reserved for men.  Women have the right to divorce, to take lovers and basically to run their own lives.  As a rape victim she is (on the surface at least) believed until proven to be a liar. But does this account for true equality? And why, oh why did I just measure woman as compared to man and not the other way round?

There is a huge discrepancy to this feminine versus masculine equality that is easily missed.  It is well hidden because there is not one human being that is not immersed in the system from birth.  To see it you must stare intently like you would a hologram or 3-D picture and wait for the truth of what you see to appear.  The inequality lies in this simple fact. The way the western world is actually organized and the way in which women and men are equal, has been determined by the male perspective alone.   We are still, after all those burned bras, all those marches, all those feminists, riding on the shirt tails of the good ole patriarchy.  The entire concept of ‘hierarchy’, linear time (the 8 hour work day), the structure and strategy of the western business world, religions and family values are all based on male principles.  So, while women are admittedly equal, they are equal within a masculine paradigm. What we have got going on is a paradigm rift. What we need is a paradigm shift.

 The symbols of masculine power are everywhere.  Look around.  The high-rise 50 story buildings are nothing more than modern day phallic symbols that assert male dominance; the ways in which women are deemed successful is often masculine based - ie: she uses masculine strategies and talks a masculine language to get her there; new mothers are not by law granted any paid time to spend with their newborns and those that choose to be full time mothers are not paid for this extremely important task; the constant ‘abortion’ discussion is another sign.  This is not about pro-life.  It is about pro-control over a woman’s body.  

Women are equal within the patriarchal system perhaps, but that is a pretty weak form of equality if you ask me.  Our world is so masculine based, that we are blind to it and don’t even realize how it affects us, stops us and changes us from who we are into something else.  But don’t read this incorrectly.  The war is not between men and women. The war is in fact between feminine and masculine principles.  If either principle dominates, there is inequality and right now, as it has been for millennia, masculine principles dominate throughout the world.  If you are happy with this, and I admit it’s really not such a bad deal here in the western world, there is still reason to beware lest this privilege, and that is what our freedom is, is swiftly taken away.  Just like it was in Iran.

In 1979, a revolution occurred without most of the customary reasons for a revolution.  The Shah, King Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, was ousted and replaced by the infamous Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini who founded the ‘Islamic Republic of Iran.’   Iran, which was a monarchy, became a theocracy and began operating under the principle of divine right.  Suddenly, all laws were based upon the Koran.  Women, who were well educated, wore western dress if they preferred and who often put off marriage for career, suddenly had to wear the traditional Arabic head scarf.  They could not mix with men.  They were demoted to the sub culture.  Azar Nafisi, renowned author of ‘Reading Lolita in Tehran’, writes prolifically about how she taught secretly banned literature to eight female students in her apartment.  Here, illegally they removed their head scarves and turned back into the individuals they were.  

Many women in the West see the Arabic world as more primitive to the West and write off these theocratic takeovers because the society is not advanced enough.  In other words, they are in denial.  The truth is that our own right wingers would make similar concessions given the chance.  Government discussions about restricting abortions echoe of this supremacy over female rights using divine principles to strengthen their argument. And do not think I am male bashing.  Concerned Women of America, are a bunch of women, who argue for their patriarchal prison based on ‘morality’. Oh please.  Stay in the kitchen and be decent if you want, but leave me alone.   Pat Robertson, US Politician said in 1992, “Feminism encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.”  My oh my.  What power us feminists have.  He is kinda right.  It does encourage women to do what they want.  Not sure where the killing of children comes from (probably referring to the biblical Lilith, apparently she was pre-Eve and killed her children), but if witchcraft would rid the planet of loons like Pat Robertson, then hell, I am open minded.  The point however, is not to go Pat bashing, but to realize this: a world that is dominated by masculine principles puts us at the mercy of this paradigm.   It makes equality and our concept of freedom volatile. 

In the January, 07  issue of Spirituality and Health Magazine, Alanis Morissette authors a guest column titled, ‘A Return to Natural Rhythm’.  In this column she thanks feminists who paved the way for her to be able to be a rock star and express her ‘masculinity’.  However, she also notes that due to the pressures of her career, she suppressed her ‘divine feminine’, that is she had learned how to be aggressive, but at the expense of an entire other aspect of herself, one that she is only just giving herself permission to explore.  Morissette insinuates that as much as she is grateful for the feminist movement, that perhaps it has encouraged her to suppress her femininity.  And, of course, by default it does.  However, more than anything it is not the feminist movement that has suppressed femininity (in men as well as women btw), but the masculine paradigm in which we all express ourselves. 

True equality is only found in a society that is built on both male and female principles.   This does not mean women in men’s jobs or vice versa necessarily, but perspectives that are also feminine.  Equality bears gifts for all and is, in my mind, the true mark of an advanced culture.  It takes the burden of responsibility off the male and spreads it evenly.  It allows men to be sensitive.  It allows women to be tough.  It allows for all possibilities that are inherent within every whole human being.   And it allows for true relationships based on love and respect to develop.  I wish I could sight some examples of this advanced culture for you.  But I can’t.