God, Evolution, Equality

Apparently, in ancient Egypt, women and men were essentially equally autonomous as men and were free to pursue life. They believed the universe was ordered and rational in truth and balance, and the deity that maintained, indeed represented, this was a goddess called Maat. She was invoked whenever there was something to be judged, and she was the law that Pharaohs had to follow.

The ancient Egyptians were seen by neighboring countries as having their social order screwed up, since in Egyptian culture, men did not find the need to restrict women (other cultures did, in order to keep women focused on child-rearing), and women and men’s roles overlapped more–women in commerce and on ships and doing manual labor and fighting, while it wasn’t seen as odd for men to stay home and do child care while the women were out. Women were still seen as mothers and home-makers first, but they were not constricted by mandate to give birth to a ton of children ( they didn’t need more children for workers), so they had more freedom.

Then the Greeks came along and adopted the same idea but called it Logos.

Then the Christians, and they started out calling it Logos, but ended up with Jesus.

Somewhere along the way the idea that this Maat was the female balance of the universe lost its meaning, because somewhere in there SHE got changed to HE, therefor when Maat/Logos/Jesus is invoked in matters of judgement and rule, the female is not maintained, represented, protected, it’s not respected or valued. This is the world we live in today.

Natalie Angier’s essay “Biologically Correct” gives a great synopsis of what she thinks is wrong with evolutionary psychology today–the belief systems that credit men for being more energetic and ambitious, restless in their sexuality and in life, while women are seen as more sedentary, using their influence to try to trap men into commitments.

She postures that men and women share the same two innate desires: 1) access to resources like water, food, and clothing/shelter; and 2) control over their sex lives and reproduction. And since men cannot give birth, for men number two means control over women.

That women have been solely reliant on a men’s paychecks and support is very recent, she argues. Because, like other primates, human women have always developed powerful networks of community to help them raise their young, giving and receiving the resources needed for survival among their groups.

In these systems, men are not needed for much more than a sperm donation as far as I’m concerned–a good reason for men to restrict women to very confined areas of society, so that they are not able to access the resources and networks that are required for a more independent lifestyle. (Female humans are the only primates that cannot freely walk down the streets of their neighborhood without being harassed and attacked by their male counterparts…WTF?)

Keeping women pregnant is another way to keep women more dependent, which is what Christianity has forced on women since it’s inception. In fact, studies show that when women have control over their reproductive rights, birth rates fall and so does poverty. Obviously the ancient Egyptians did not need as many children as laborers, because women helped with the physical work, so the excuse that a farmer, for instance, needs more children, is bullshit. If the women weren’t pregnant and suckling so much, they’d be plowing and tilling.

I’m not arguing that women today should find ways to not need men–although I firmly believe that all women should be financially and emotionally stable enough (i.e. enough friends and family in their networks) to survive on their own at the drop of a hat. I’m arguing that we humans must have brains big enough to work out a deal that allows women autonomy, respect, and empowerment, while both men and women are happy with their reproductive roles.

life, death, rape, control

I believe there is an emerging cultural movement that isn’t just about women being allowed to wear pants and spit if we want–it’s about a deep, personal, spiritual, and empowering ownership and pride of our own feminine definition of life, politics, and the world. And it’s about sexuality–controlling it ourselves, honoring it, not being ashamed of it, not being used for it.

Getting to this definition inevitably will require healing, the same healing and forgiveness that is needed in our relationships over race.

I like what Sue Monk Kidd says about Patriarchy–that patriarchy is not men or man’s authority, rather patriarchy is a system in which the male authority has been schewed. In many ways Patriarchy is wearing thin, but still we need to step up to over and over in our daily lives in order to press on with honoring our right for a definition of life and systems that includes respect and wholeness for the feminine. In many ways we can be dismembered when we show resistence, but the key to remember is that systems can be changed, the human experience, both male and female, is ever-evolving if we are open to such revelations.

That being said, yesterday at the magazine I work for, some colleagues and I were talking about an interview we are publishing in April about a man on Texas death row, Karl Chamberlain, for tying up, raping, and murdering his female neighbor when he was in his 20s in 1991. It’s been 16 years, and he’s aparently come around 360–carving out spiritual understanding of his fate in a way as to make you believe he is a living example of transforming power and human potential for righteousness.

Well, that isn’t my opinion. I had already read his bio. online a few months ago after I saw some of his poetry in a previous issue of our magazine, some of which touched me deeply. And I was outraged at his crime. This, along with the constant reminder in independent media about women being raped during their work for the military and for security companies and then punished for it, while the men are protected, being slapped on the wrist or promoted, depending on which way the wind is blowing that day; and the constant reminder in my neighborhood of women abusing and neglecting their children, oblivious of what that says about their own abuse (I don’t really see men abusing children, because there are never any men with their children–invisible abuse); and regular reminders from D about his clients (he treats people addicted to drugs, most of whom are members of the poorest socioeconomic class in the country) who are men abusing and cheating on women and women abusing and being raped and used by men–this all informs my daily world view.

So, after reading the article, I hated the way Karl Chamberlain was asking for our readers’ time and attention. I hated that he knew our readership is mostly a demographic that does not believe in capital punishment. And I REALLY HATED that he writes (online) bio after bio about how wonderful he is now, including his understanding that he committed a horrible act by murdering his vicitm, without a single mention of the rape that preceded the murder. That he had gone to her apartment to borrow sugar, then left, and then went back with duct tape with which to tie her to her bed. Where are his notes about that? The nightmares or suffering that caused? I was outraged that he apparently is not repenting for the rape–at least not publicly.

Instead Chamberlain repeats the sentiment over and over that he thinks that punishment by death would be too easy on him. That living with what he’s done would make a far better punishment. To me, his tone smacks of martyrdom. I’m sure he has received a lot of hate mail. But there are also people writing him letters, reading his poetry and giving him a reason to fight death–THIS is why he is appealing his sentence, not because he’d like to live to suffer more.

I don’t know this man, nor do I know what kind of person he’d be if freed from his sentence or even prison. But I do know that I can’t reconcile what he has done with what he now claims to be. To fight for Karl Chamberlain’s life because one does not believe the death penalty is effective or because one believes that the death penalty should also be considered the murder of life that’s better off alive, is to jump over all the mess in the middle where Karl Chamberlain used his power to strip a woman of hers in the most henious way possible. It’d be the argument of someone who hasn’t suffered equally, who doesn’t understand the terrorizing pool of missery and helplessness that people like Karl Chamberlain create in others. I guess it’s possible that the argument against Karl Chamberlain’s death could be the argument of someone who has suffered such, but who has become spiritually transformed enough to forgive–but that could just be a made up story, too. I fear that many of our readers are in the first category, and it pisses me off that he gets to use them and their time in so many pages.

We’ll see when the letters to the editor start to come in, which I’m sure they will! I hope that people will be responding to more than just his story and the surface topics of the death penalty/murder/spiritual therapy, and we’ll be justified in printing his interview with deeper dialog about crimes against women and and the structures of patriarchy that make them possible.

By the way, I don’t believe capital punishment is effective or fair, just as I don’t believe our judicial and prisons system are effective or fair. But these days I am leaning towards not understanding why we hold onto life and death as such precious and holy events as though we have any control over it. The more practical concept to hold onto to me would be to make our current lives as enjoyable and comfortable as possible (including the use of great health care), which would require ridding the world of people who cause this much suffering in others. I believe we should revere life and honor it. But to value it over death philosophically might cause more harm than good………

Sexism vs. Racism vs. Whhhaaaaa?

Okay, so in the past I have tried to illustrate the effects of deep-seeded sexism by likening it to racism in a way–a woman can’t walk into a grocery store stocked with male clerks, security guards, and deli personnel without having “The male gaze” following them; just as a black person can hardly walk into a grocery store stocked with white personnel without being profiled.

You could come up with a lot of anecdotal evidence that “I don’t feel sexism,” or “Where I am I feel pretty good.” But the fact is that most of us feel sexism and racism in almost every corner of our lives…. and when we don’t think it’s there, it’s just because we are not paying any attention to it, or something else that is good is taking center stage. For instance, a woman who has advanced in her company beyond her initial expectations and has the respect of her boss, is friends with most of her coworkers, and feels damned comfortable in her stride is doing relatively AWESOME compared to, say, her mom trying the same thing 40 years ago, and so has a much easier time ignoring the fact that Joe blow down the hall is always trying to trump her suggestions in planning meetings because she turned his date request down or that Johnny Jump Up on the second floor has one less degree than her and makes 30% more in pay in less years spent climbing the same ladder to corporate success. And she surely doesn’t notice that one of the reasons for his climb in salary (that started higher than hers in the first place) was that he asked for %40 more raises than she did over the past eight years, while our friend the woman sat tight , not believing that she had any right to such frequent pay raises.

Anyway, I could go on and on about the vague and hard to pin-down ways that woman are still oppressed, while I need not go into such diatribes about racism because it’s already on the tips of everyone’s tongues. The point is that it is not productive or wise to try to determine which “ism” is more oppressive. And it is humiliatingly ignorant to assume that racism is a more “interesting” topic than sexism (especially for women!) on the basis of it’s oppressive powers.

If Hillary Clinton wins the upcoming democratic nomination, it is not a loss for blacks. And if Barack Obama wins, it will be no more “interesting” than if we were to open the door to women in the presidency. Either of the candidates as president of the United States is a long-awaited step in the right direction of empowerment for long-oppressed people.

The sad part is that a lot of progressive people are rarely as ready and willing to reflect on, take workshops in, or discuss their sexism and its effects on our society to the same degree that they are with racism. I’m not sure how many people I speak for, but to me the dismissal of sexism to “secondary” ism status denies my condition as a woman.

Here is a must read article threshing out more on this complicated topic.

Creating an Equosphere

The feminist thing these days isn’t about turning our current patriarchy into a femosphere. It’s about equality. Most people understand that there is still a lot of racism in our culture, but sexism is often quickly dismissed as being “over” or only a platform for lesbians and bull dykes to steal the reins of life out of men’s hands..

Seriously now, this is one side:

And then we go to the middle, where we can see that a lot of women are completely intimidated by the stigma that goes along with considering yourself a feminist. Three or four months ago I felt the same way. Some friends and I were starting up a regular meeting to talk about Women’s issues and Feminism and I argued for a while about calling it a Feminism Group..until I realized that I was just scared to go political (by embracing a heavily political word into my self-definition) about my rights. Well, fuck it, you can’t skirt the system and make a difference in your own lifetime!

I had personal fears too: I was raised in a Catholic/old-school-American culture, which makes me afraid of being considered a lesbian if I want to stop shaving my legs or if I act as powerfully and aggressive about my goals as men do. I was afraid that people would consider me a mud-slinger and man-hater instead of what I hope to be–someone who can dialog about differences and who is seeking a common ground based on equality, fairness, truth, and forgivness.

It’s hard for women and men to feel empowered to take back politically heavy words and use them in their identity. Seriously, society has a lot of power:

Are You A Faminist?

But I think we’re onto something new these days. Most feminists I know are absolutely not man-hating. They are simply demanding to be looked in the eyes, given equal pay, to be educated as well as men, respected for their ability to calculate sound judgment and remember to stay emotionally connected. I think a lot of men are on board with this too. And are being challenged to reflect on the roles they are forced into.

I think we are all so deeply moved by sexism that it’s almost impossible not to fuck up, as we are still practicing and exercising our brains out of the rot that thousands of years of patriarchy has put them in. And so I think forgiveness is a large part of this process–for ourselves and for other people–while we dialog and challenge each other in new ways of living with each other.

To Quote a Man–
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (in The Gulag Archipelago) put it this way: “The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but through all human hearts.”

Feminism is part of wisdom, which I guess is something you have to believe in in the first place–you have to be in touch with the fact that there are common threads in humanity: to understand the pain of other people, to be able to relate to what motivates people (esp. when you are at odds with them), and to be able to see them, literally, as you see yourself–with all the self-worth you have directed towards them at the same time.

And then you have to ACT as though these things are your philosophy–which is, in my estimation, a life-long lesson-session

It sucks we can’t be closer to that sooner, in which case i think we’d have less violence and hate and greed. And would eliminate the need for Feminism altogether.

Here is a woman on her shit–