[Margaret] So I'm curious...what is meant by feminine energy/male energy? [Arlo] As far as I understand it, the terminology "masculine" and "feminine" as applied to "spirit" or "energy" is derivative of the Euro-pagan traditions which framed specific emotive-behavioral norms towards each gender, and then professed that for humanity to evolve, these forces had to be kept in balance. This has since been overlayed upon the Yin-Yang of the Orient, but as far as I am aware, true Yin-Yang philosophy lacks specific gender marks.
The popularity of this "balance" has been brought against a perceived (and perhaps rightly so) "imbalance" created and sustained within the Occidental traditions (or at least, the popular, exoteric varieties of Occidental thought) that places the "traditional" role of the male as dominant, better and in fact "closer to God" than the subservient, weaker, less important female gender. Recently, the language has been adopted to counter feminism, which according to some, has committed the same devaluation of traditional female roles as the patriarchy it sought to challenge. In this, the counter to male-dominant culture is to divorce "gender" and "role" and promote the adoption of traditional male roles by female gender. Both male patriarchy and this accused feminism devalue and dismiss the traditional role of the female (in European derived cultural histories). A new brand of feminism united "role" and "gender" once again, but this time sought to tip the scales from a patriarchal- to a matriarchal- based appraisal of worth. The traditional role of the female was again tied to gender, however the new understanding elevated the female role above the male role. Men became merely aggressive sperm donors to the female's nurturing and life-sustaining energies. The rekindling of European pagan thought has brought voices from both sides to seek understanding and accept the positives and negatives that occur when either of the gender roles becomes elevated above the other. Books such as "Iron John" sought to re-establish the traditional male "energy" with a nobility and heroism that feminism had torn away, while modern feminists continue to strive to keep nurturing and caregiving as values as important as those of the males. Popular culture has parodied much of this dialogue, from the Brady Bunch episode where Mike and Carol exchange roles and then fail horribly, evidencing the notion that traditional gender roles are innately tied to gender. Other films like Mr. Mom tried to show that while it would be clumsy for a male to appropriate the traditional female role, it was possible, making it a socially-constructed role not a gender-based one. Largely I think many who use these terms see the "traditional" roles as one historically assigned to gender, but not gender-innate. And for a matter of convenience they talk about "gender roles" only because of their long history of being gender-distinct. But many continue to relate the specific gender roles to specific biology. "Women are nurturing by nature," they might say, "and have only been distracted by a society that forces them to adopt male habits". Men, on the other hand, some say, "are aggressive and warrior-like by nature and have been distracted by an emasculating dialogue that refuses to accept any value in these roles". Where this division does parallel the Yin-Yang, I think, is that a deeper (esoteric) reading of the pagan myths places both forms on these energies in each person. That is, no one person is strictly male or strictly female in energy. And balance is not something we seek in the larger cultural aggregate, but inside us as we balance the hunter-nurturer roles within ourselves. At its core, however, it should never be forgotten that this is simply, as Pirsig would say, "just an analogy". That's my take on it, anyways. Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
