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Published: March 20th 2008
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..happens to be one of my favorite subjects, and something I have discussed intensely with my wise old mother on many occasions. (Yes Mum.. you are old, but carry on like your 30 I reckon.. live fast, die old ;c)
So when did the gender war start? Where did it all go wrong, and is there a connection between the rise of gender inequality and the machine age? Do we really have to go all the way back to hunter gather times to find families and communities in gender balance?
As a young girl, I can remember being fascinated with my parent’s collection of National Geographic magazines (I think I ended up donating these to the Baden Road co-op actually, so if they’re still out there somewhere, I’d really love to have them back if poss?!) The beautiful images of hunter-gatherer tribes still stick clearly in my mind. These people appeared to be living completely in tune with their surroundings, only taking what they needed when necessary, and never taking without replacing. Everything seemed to be in equilibrium, and men and woman understood and respected each other’s equally important roles within the community. One couldn’t survive without the other.
Men naturally hunted, invented, provided and protected, and the women gathered, cooked, created and nurtured. How harmonious! So what’s happened? Have we really eco-logically changed that much in such a short space of time? Some might say no, but if we have, then how and why? Or is it perhaps that tribal societies are over romanticised?
David always looks at things from an eco-logical point of view. Which makes sense to me, after all, we’re all connected and part of the same ecosystem. I really enjoyed listening to his analogy of how males and females ‘function’ the way they do, and what their ‘purpose’ is within this system. He compares a woman to the nucleus of a cell, the life centre, and a man as being the provider and protector on the periphery. Just like the egg and the sperm, or the home and the hunter, mother hen and the rooster. Did ‘man’ somewhere along the way start to feel his position was insignificant?
If some conspiracy theories are to be believed, ‘man’ (or should I say this current time of masculine dominance) has driven society away from Mother Nature towards a machine age. Away from the knowledge of healing herbs and plants, away from the power of the goddess, away from the deep understanding that everything is connected, that WE ARE ALL ONE. This ‘oneness’ cannot be patented, controlled, or sold, and therefore appears to be of no importance in today’s world. But actually, it is of the greatest importance! Which is probably why this knowledge has been suppressed for so many years. We have been institutionalised into stoopid, dumbed down, paranoid, money driven, competitive slave machines. We have no time to feel ‘human’ anymore; we’re too busy working to buy bigger and better status symbols. Too busy getting into debt.
So how did we end up here, where success is defined by money, and the struggle to succeed overrides human kindness. Societies are now based on egoism. ‘As long as me and my family are ok, then that’s all I need to worry about. Oh, and as long as I can keep up with the Jone’s’.
We are all born into this ideology without knowing any different. BUT.. that’s ALL IT IS, a man made ‘ideology’. Or should I say disease?
Hmm.. How can I explain my observations without sounding like a ranting raving dyke!? (Not that there is anything wrong with that of course. Hello gorgeous dyke chumz! ;c) But I know a few sensitive types out there who still find the ‘F’ word a tad threatening).
It’s easy to see why the Feminist movement came about, and why it was so important at that time. The position of women in society had reached a point of insignificance, and it was time to address the imbalance. But, the way in which women decided/were forced (?) to rectify this imbalance could be seen as causing yet another problem.
Are we now facing a situation where men feel their existence/purpose is under threat (again)? Us women (or perhaps should I say Western women?) have now proven that we are equal. We got the vote, got the pill, got the skills, got the jobs, got the money, got the mortgage, got the status, got the independence, got the respect. We’ve now proven that we too, can be men! But was that really the answer? Perhaps it was the only answer at that time, but now? It seems that what we really need right now, is for woman to be women. Did we perhaps in our struggle to gain equality loose the powerful knowledge of the feminine? Is the current insignificance of the role of Nature part and parcel of the same battle? Is that why we find ourselves in such a lop-sided unsustainable world?
This toxic power hungry egotistical world we live in needs nurturing back to health.. by woman and men! And through the use of natural sustainable systems, not short-term money driven techno fixes that only benefit the few. Fuck Monsanto, fuck GATT, fuck the IMF, and fuck the Rockefeller family! No we don’t want you controlling the world’s food supply/population! (Otherwise known as eugenics or genocide). No we don’t want: Agent Orange, GM crops, soil depletion, non-reproductive seeds, animal cruelty, or birth defected children. We don’t want your un-predicable mutated eco-logical nightmare! But it’s OK, because in return? The elite get to line their pockets once more.
How much money and power does one human being need? The elite humans who are currently in control of this world are clearly mentally ill. Properly sick in the head. They need rehabilitating back into society, before the same disease spreads to the next empire (shit too late! Hello China and India ;c). A good dose of naked hippie mud wrestling should do it ;c) Hmm.. I wonder if their children suffer from eczema, asthma, hyperactivity, learning disabilities, autism, schizophrenia, multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, or any other modern or autoimmune disease? Most of which are linked to dysbiosis and systemic candida infection btw. But of course, the medical industry won’t tell you that.
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mike
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what is it good for?
ah cat, the gender war... I guess this is only a fight if we want it to be, it seems that neither gender is going to go away any time soon so co-operation is a good strategy. As a male I would like to take issue (or perhaps debate with hope of concensus) with some of your post. The idea that the natural world is feminine and industrial society is masculine doesn't hold true for me. That seems to be a feminist reading of history. Marxist historians by contrast would hold that industrialisation was carried out by the rich (men and women) to further enslave the poor. I certainly believe that men have hardly been the sole beneficaries of industrialisation nor have women been the sole victims. I guess that it's also worth pointing out that the feminist movement was not a female only movement, there were men who saw the inequalities women faced as wrong and supported the calls for change. And now there is a Men's Movement in it's infancy I feel it's just as important for women (and especially feminists) to get involved in this, rather than seeing men as 'the people with the power who are stopping us from leading fulfilling lives' and look at this sub-group of society as any other to see what are the genuine injustices they are facing.. Quite a lot of it seems to be currently in regard to being seen as equals in law (as it is applied by courts) as parents. Strange how men are having to fight for equal rights in nurturing - a good place to build from if you want to a more sustainable future me thinks mx