Feminism, Masculinism, and the Empire.

My girl/friend had text me one day asking what my definition of feminism was for her college paper. Here was my quick 1000 character response.

"My own personal definition? I feel the word feminism has a stigma attached to it. You say racist and you think extreme, closed minded, violence, etc. But all these issues arise from the same origin. Oppression! Misunderstood. Feminism arose, to me, because women have been placed in a position to fight for there god given rights. That which is to be respected, valued, honored for our ability to create, looked to for our wisdom, involved in decision making, etc. Once the great empires of the world came into play, which are dominator societies, who gain victory through violence and are male dominated, women were subdued and controlled. With woman's squashed spirit, it took bold, strong, and convicted women to save us from submission. These women that have fought and died for are human rights are labeled feminists. These woman should be looked to with adoration for their self-respect. I do feel it can get out of hand and get borderline extreme. Women so wounded they neglect gender roles and just want control. Hence becoming like the very men they despise."

Allow me to elaborate. For this isn't just about power to the woman. This is also about being misunderstood as a human being.

At times I think, where did we as a people go wrong in our views of gender? Are we different, our we the same? Are we equal, should we be equal? Caught up in today's world of mixed roles and dysfunctional relationships, I believe were lost. Caught up in the matrix of a gender identity crisis. (As I begin to write on such ideas regarding gender, I am drawn to express that I am not suggesting any connotation of judgment toward sexual orientation or what role an individual plays in their families, relationships, etc.) This is about reclaiming "his-story". The one that broke the camels back.

How have women become what we are known as today? How have we deviated from our origins? How have men become who they are today? And how did our views of man deviate from their origins? Were we not one, in which we could perform as one unit? Where we naturally respect the strengths and differences of a man. What they can do that I cannot, and vice versa. What I can do that a man cannot? Why did we come to a point that we are hurt and offended by another persons ability? And then gloat about it. Where did we lose sight of every human having a place and purpose? That purpose, in itself, warranting respect.

Why do we have such a hard time respecting each other? I believe it stems from no longer knowing who we are as a human race and our origins before the great empires of the world.

A time when we worked together, both genders, to survive. A time when individual liberty, strong communities, and respect for the earth were inseparable from each other.

A time when women revered but did not gloat, or take advantage of, but instead took responsibility and loved. A time where men were hunters and warriors. Men who were engaged aggressively or energetically in an activity or cause. Who looked carefully for food and/or provisions. Who sought after truth. Where men essentially were the rock that provided a foundation for the woman to create. Men looked to woman for wisdom, and nurturing, and honored her connection to earth, the goddess. The ability to create.

So the woman stands above, but not without the strong back of the man she stands on. Both necessary. The man is not above her. She is above, but not without him.

Where do we currently put our value? Where did we have our value placed 5000 years ago, before the empire? Value now is money, worth, recognition, accomplishments, biased ideas of what we treasure and hold dear. Yet all these are scathed by a people who believe power is achieved through oppression, privilege and fear. Our values have been formed by a dominator society.

Are worth cannot be put into a dollar amount. There is no translation. We have superseded, undermined, and quite frankly, offended the natural laws by using a "piece of paper" in place of a soul. In how we determine a monetary value to anything is purely biased perception. We use pieces of paper, play money if you will, that distract us from real life circumstance. We no longer use real life word and heart for our actions. Taking all the awareness and responsibility off our hands. In alignment, we would take note that the universe extends unto every being and everything we can't see that is a part of us.

The issue is, that we have been taught that everything has a value. To add to or multiply. To control or manipulate. To hold onto. Yet we forgot that we do not own anything. The belief in ownership is no different than the mentality it takes to enslave, to become a supreme force that begins to separate itself by taking note of the amount of value someone has acquired compared to itself and others. Then, based on ownership, comes an authoritarian and hierarchical society.

The first human steps in developing a mentality that disassembled true equality was the steps taken my nomadic pastoralists. To reduce the uncertainty of hunting some itinerant gatherers-hunters turned to domesticating animals. Another way of saying the first time humans took ownership of something that wasn't there's to hoard in the first place. It was the earths.

It is a fear based approach to surviving. Fear in any shape and form gives way to power, a power that is destructive.

Once a person takes ownership of something. The disease begins.

We do not own anything on earth. We must live in accordance with the natural laws of nature. It is not that we can not have partnerships or things. It is that we should not accumulate and control these things.

During egalitarian times, before the great empires, woman actually had leadership roles. Goddesses were honored more so than gods. Honoring the embodiment of creation, sustenance and life. Nowadays it seems unnatural for people to honor goddesses. Something given to women who believe in fairy dust and angels. However this is because now a days we are in a different reality. Where the strengths of the feminine, that are essential in this life, are overlooked because they don't align with this society. And why wouldn't we be known as weak, for we were stripped of our strength through empire ( a male [god] dominator society). So we have to fend for ourselves and do everything. Superwoman. Unfortunate to say, but the very men that hate feminists, are the ones who created the need for feminism. It's cycular and can be a never ending cycle of hurt and blaming and hating.

Men being warriors? I think one reason men have so much frustration is because their natural survival instincts have been repressed by society. That energy needs to come out. Yet, in many, they feel useless. There god given gifts to protect and provide their families and communities are tempered and denied. They've become dependent. How should we as women expect them to be "real men" when we, aren't allowing them to be a real man.

There is a personal responsibility to respect ourselves first. However that does not mean bashing the other gender, generalizing and placing stigmas on the other gender. This task goes beyond our identities to this empire. It is about honoring the opposite gender, not taking advantage of the opposite gender and not abusing the opposite gender. But mostly it is about not thinking of the other gender as opposite but instead as a part of the whole. We are here to help each other. Not take the other persons role away from them. We have been separate for way to long.

We have been angry for way to long. Perhaps we should stop being angry at each other and instead realize our anger stems from the unhappiness this empire has created. We are trying to achieve something that goes against the way nature intended. For my worth is not in any dollar amount. My worth is not based on my hormones. My worth can not be translated. My worth can never be taken away from me, when it was bestowed to me by the cosmos. Not by a human. That worth not being something to take note of, and gain attention from, but to be a catalyst for spirit to do it's work of nurturing and sustaining us.

written by me late summer/early fall 08