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Male toxicity drips from the support beams of our society like soggy mold on a rainy day. Securing any return to a reasonable, balanced civilization while maintaining a male dominant mindset is impossible. There is no road that will lead us to a more evolved planet without some revolutionary changes in our worldview. We need a new map.
Today, the predominant view of life is through a black and white, masculine-oriented perception of “Us” and “Other”, with “Us” being the worthy and “Other” less than. This skewed patriarchal worldview, based on the notion of life as a life and death competition, leaves behind our shared humanity. It breaks up the biosphere into teams of winners and losers, where ultimately everyone loses. This is just ignorant.
Those of us who “wear the pants” have had a long run at ruling the roost and, truth be told, we have made some incredible accomplishments. But all too often, the cost of those accomplishments has been unfathomable suffering for uncountable beings. We become completely focused on our goals for winning and disregard the implications of how we go about achieving them. Those implications are what’s biting us all in the ass today. Our competitive predilections have torn up the world, making a general mess of things.
So, why wouldn’t we step back and let women lead? It just seems the intelligent way for humanity to move forward. Unfortunately, the old habitual grooves of male dominance are more powerful than any desire to act more intelligently.
Men have been taught that they are the stronger gender—and of course, physically we are, generally speaking. But mere physical strength is a piss-poor yardstick for measuring qualities of leadership.
It’s like we’re bound in the thick, steel chains of the story of men and we desperately need Houdini’s daughters to step up and miraculously free us. We need the wisdom that resides in the depths of those feminine mysteries that create and nurture life.
Men have been dealt a full house when it comes to brute force. Because of that dense power, we believe that leadership is our territory. We even put it in our holy books, ensuring Eve would always be considered second fiddle, made as a gift for Adam, like a snow blower or new television. And leading from that brute force, look at the world we have created—what a fart-whistle!
Despite those perceptions born from a masculine-centric point of view, more of us see the need for women to take over and start making the important decisions—women tuned into their authentic, feminine power. We need those divine and sacred mysteries that have been hidden in the shadows of male superiority to rise and shine. It’s time to wake Herstory up!
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if women held most of the seats in Congress and not the other way around? We were truly excited when it looked like we were about to elect the first woman president. But the last gasps of toxic masculinity ruled the day, smashing our hopes with a political baseball bat wielded by the greatest examples of schoolyard bullies the republic has ever witnessed.
Our country and the world need the joint energies of healing and nurturing that are found on the feminine side of the spectrum. If you have a shred of awareness in you, you know this is true. We have been starved for that supportive and restorative aspect of the feminine energetic and have floundered.
We require a different way of doing and being, a new worldview. And who better to usher it in than the carriers of new life, the more honestly aligned with the elemental and natural life forces that fuel our existence. We desperately need those who create and hold the sacred space in our homes to create and hold that space for our global village.
Women have the skillset required to see us through the next decades. Bad management of the more masculine skillsets are what got us to this dystopian crossroads. It would be a good idea for the pendulum to swing the other way for a generation or two—a woman president, vice president and speaker of the house—why the hell not? We should hold this possibility and each work for it in the best way we can.
Think of the evolutionary leap for “Man”-kind if we can consciously admit we need help from the other side of the coin, that we need a softer, gentler, and more loving approach than the approach of bullies just trying to win.
Instead of being consumed by those stories of male dominance that run through our head like a bunch of unruly cowboys, we can focus on the big picture, on what needs to change if we are to evolve. And that means we can create a new map that can lead us on a new road, one more nurturing and healing toward each other. We can disarm the cowboys and cultivate a more peaceful inner-landscape. This is where change will be born.
Having the willingness to do this carries us through the gateway of transformation. As we hold onto that simple willingness to foster a new worldview, where the gifts of women are truly revered, especially their gifts of natural leadership, we will begin to see change. So, this becomes the question of our time, are we willing to be led by women? If yes, then make it so.
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Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
In 2018, I see no valid reason why Congresses and Parliaments and cabinets and board rooms and workplaces shouldn’t or wouldn’t or can’t or won’t look like the rest of society (which, among other visible characteristics, is currently about 50 percent female). And, as the waves of historical inertia subside, I think we will see the fruition of this much sooner rather than later: The equal, proportional representation of its members is the metric of a democratic & egalitarian society. But I think you’ve turned gender into a panacea; where all faults and failings can be laid at the feet… Read more »
Thank you for your thoughtful comments. I truly appreciate the engagement. I will say you seem to have mistaken me for an academic, some political theorist proposing a system of governance. Really, I’m just sharing a sketch, a little drawing of “what if” based on a long life brought up in a patriarchal society that seems to value those general traits attributed to the masculine side of things—brute force, competition, conquering one’s “foes” and taking what one needs without thought or concern about what the other may need. Obviously, I’m speaking with the broadest of brushes. Obviously, the character of… Read more »
You’re welcome. I’m not sure I wholly follow along where you say that “this is about feminine and masculine energies as understood by mythological thinkers. It’s intended to be simple, like a sketch.” Even simple things can lead to comprehensive questions and issues. I would like to consider where you posit: ”And damn! Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a woman president, vice president, secretary of state, etc..” Well yes, but also, -maybe- ‘no’, too- Because wouldn’t it first hinge on who the woman is, as much as it does simply that they are a woman? Or should we… Read more »
Mostly_123, if you don’t currently write for The Good Men Project, perhaps you should consider submitting something. Anyway, it’s apparent that we are writing from two completely different POV’s. You are writing from the current worldview of “what is”, the paradigm we consider today’s reality. From this worldview, I completely agree with you that there is no comparison between the leadership skills of an unread, reality TV star and a world-class former First Lady, United States Senator and Secretary of State. Gender has nothing to do with it. Also, the current worldview considers it somewhat normal that 95% of the… Read more »