It is said
“When you look into an abyss,
The abyss glares back at you”
(Winking diabolically)
The nastiness of the abyss you’re looking into is yesterdays man. My father’s generation sought to sire only sons to underline their manliness, whereas their rural equivalents used lathis and lots of attitude to emphasize their machoism. Centuries old chutney of patriarchal power cannot help but bring a wistful taste to frequently spouted notions of fairness and gender equality.
For well over 2000 years, man has silenced and repressed half of the world’s population for a variety of reasons. While patriarchy may have originated at a time when typically male qualities seemed more valuable for survival of the species, it possibly gained such dominance because they were better suited for the empire-building that made the world we know today. Perhaps it was either a lesson to Humanity about balance and the pitfalls of pursuing only outer rather than inner power, or quite simply an inevitability based on the natures of the two sexes. Primitive man was physically stronger, more aggressive, with jolts of testosterone his society did not demand he control, while conveniently woman was physically weaker, bound to home and children, and perhaps comfortably resigned to play a supportive role.
The focus here is predominantly on women; while it is encouraging to see women changing and growing, especially to see girls in third-world countries take such motivated first steps as attending school, this will never be enough to achieve true equality or balance until men are motivated sufficiently to gracefully give space to their female counterparts in all key roles of empire building. Why is the primary focus of male driven society restricting itself to issues such as domestic abuse and teen sex (areas in which education is advocated for girls and women rather than boys and men), whereas comprehensive de-reservation for the male bastion is the paramount issue ? What do they think Woman is – a Man with Woe ?
