Understanding Feminism (Women: Your opinions)

Post Reply New Topic

But i dont think most advocates of second wave feminism would advocate the perpetuation of a victimhood persona, mainly down to the basic fact that it is profoundly disempowering which essntially accepts as given a basic power structure but advocates that those who are in power do not abuse their power. But it does nothing to challenge disparities of power. In that sense i agree with Nietzches concept of resentiment and think that any radical politics should be about advancing the interests of a hitherto oppressed group by taking power rather than asking for the sympathetic treatment of those in power..

I think part of its biological, like women wanting men to be dominant in a relationship and men wanting to be dominant. However, I think bad culture has developed around biology in the past to overcompensate for it to the level of domination and manipulation . I think a lot of the Christian guilt centered around the passions is such a reaction. I'm not even saying I'm against Christianity, but I'm against tradition for traditions sake, and I think there needs to be room for us to reinvent our own mythos. I can even see why there's guilt around sexuality, but the way society approaches it isn't always healthy and can be quite counter-productive.

On the general issue of Feminism, I can understand the reaction, as Western culture has neglected, for centuries, to develop its own feminine mythology. God is represented completely as a Father figure, but I think its time he finally finds a romantic interest, because women are forever patronized in this model. The feminine is forever only represented through a physical, human form, like with the Virgin Mary, and never in any heavenly sense.Females are forever daughter and bride, but never God. Redeveloping the heavenly mother I think would bring more balance to how we perceive male-female relations. I think there's evidence that the holy spirit, often depicted as neutered and formless, was actually described in terms of femininity in the past, and it might be useful in Christian thought to revive this image of the holy spirit. Either that, or abandon the masculine role of the Heavenly Father.

I think even within the abrahamic traditions there is ample scope to develop more feminine friendly brands of spirituality which have been done by various women mystics over the centuries.

Starting with the texts, it is well known that the term YHVH contains two masculine letters and two feminine letters. In the Qur'an each surah (barring one) starts with Bismillah ir rahman ir rahim (in the name of Allah the compasionate the merciful). Both rahman and rahim which are two of the 99 names of God refer to 'feminine' attributes of the deity and their consonontal roots R, H, and M are the same consonotal roots used for the arabic word for womb.

There are examples of mysticisms throughout history that articulate feminine brands of spirituality within the abrahamic framework. There is a fascinating book by Grace Jantzen called "power, gender and christian mysticism" which gives a very deep exploration of themes to do with this from the inception of christianity to the medieival times. It also delineates how what we count for orthdoxy can be viewed as a result of a masculinist will to power supressing alternative more direct modes of spirituality as articulated by xtian mystiics.


Not wanting to derail this discussion any further, but i am currently doing islamic studies on uni and have written two A+ essays on feminism and masculinity in islamic discourse. if anyone requests ill paste on here or pm...

As for women and men wanting dominant or submissive types tied to gender. I think there is an element of fluidity that means that one archetype need not be tied to a particular gender. I myself can be a bit of a 'sub' but im a bloke who likes football and in the correct context can be the very opposite of submissive!!

Edited to add: yeah holy spirit was referred to as greek work Sophia the feminine word for the archetype of Wisdom. The hebrew word shenikah (sp) is equivalent feminine word referring to the presense of God. If i remember correctly a lot of this thinking of masculine and femine aspects of the diety and human interrelationships and the cosmos has a lot of influence from neoplatonism..