Dear Arthur, I must say I would have
written the last sentence differently myself, repeating the title and
finishing the political theme, “V is for Volcana, vote and
victory.”
But I don’t think this can be called ‘male
bashing’, if for no other reason than she did express the conviction that the
patriarchal paradigm hadn’t been entirely healthy for men, either. I’ve
reduced her speech to the points I found most interesting, below.
Karen
Let's hear
it for a feminist paradigm. Golda Meir, Margaret Thatcher et. al.
really will change things. Hmmm.
I thought we
were beyond the era of "male bashing."
Perhaps Ms.
Fonda's estrogen levels need a bit of a boost. "V" for
Vagina, for vote, for victory.
(or for
vomit.)
arthur
Quote:
"Maybe
at some earlier stage in human evolution, Patriarchy was what was needed just
for the species to survive. But today, there's nothing threatening the human
species but humans. We've conquered our predators, we've subdued nature almost
to extinction, and there are no more frontiers to conquer or to escape into so
as to avoid having to deal with the mess we've left behind. Frontiers have
always given capitalism, Patriarchy's economic face, a way to avoid dealing
with its shortcomings. Well, we're having to face them now in this
post-frontier era and inevitably -- especially when we have leaders who suffer
from toxic masculinity -- that leads to war, the conquering of new markets,
and the destruction of the earth.
However,
it is altogether possible, that we are on the verge of a tectonic shift in
paradigms -- that what we are seeing happening today are the paroxysms, the
final terrible death throes of the old, no longer workable, no longer
justifiable system. Look at it this way: it's Patriarchy's third act and we
have to make sure it's its last."
V is for
Volcano
By Jane Fonda, AlterNet, 112403, Viewed on
120103 @
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17248
…Yes,
men and boys receive privilege and status from patriarchy, but it is a
poisoned privilege for which they pay a heavy price. If traditional,
patriarchal socialization takes aim at girls' voices, it takes aim at boys'
hearts -- makes them lose the deepest, most sensitive and empathic parts of
themselves. Men aren't even allowed to be depressed, which is why they engage
so often in various forms of self-numbing, from sex to alcohol and drugs to
gambling and workaholism. Patriarchy strikes a Faustian bargain with men.
Patriarchy
sustains itself by breaking relationship. I'm referring here to real
relationship, the showing-up kind, not the "I'll stay with him cause he pays
the bills, or because of the kids, or because if I don't I will cease to
exist," but relationship where you, the woman, can acknowledge your partner's
needs while simultaneously acknowledging and tending to your own. I work with
young girls and I can tell you there's a whole generation who have not learned
what a relationship is supposed to feel like -- that it's not about leaving
themselves behind.
…Another
thing that I've learned is that there is a fundamental contradiction not just
between patriarchy and relationship, but between patriarchy and Democracy.
Patriarchy masquerades as Democracy, but it's an anathema. How can it be
democracy when someone has to always be above someone else, when women, who
are a majority, live within a social construct that discriminates against
them, keeps them from having their full human rights?
But
just because Patriarchy has ruled for 10,000 years since the beginning of
agriculture, doesn't make it inevitable.
So, as
Eve Ensler says, we have to change the verbs from obliterate, dominate,
humiliate, to liberate, appreciate, celebrate. We have to make sure that head
and heart can be reunited in the body politic, and relationship and democracy
can be restored.
…We
need to really understand the depth and breadth of what a shift to a new,
feminine paradigm would mean, how fundamentally central it is to every single
other thing in the world. We win, everything wins, including boys, men, and
the earth. We have to really understand this and be able to make it concrete
for others so they will be able to see what Feminism really is and see
themselves in it.
So our
challenge is to commit ourselves to creating the tipping point and the turning
point. The time is ripe to launch a unified national movement, a campaign, a
tidal wave, built around issues and values, not candidates.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
