One adopts a tactic that is similar to the union "work to rule" when one has no way to more physically escape the patriarchy. One accepts the rules laid down by the patriarchy, along the lines of firm gender division. Only, one interprets them rather more consistently than the patriarchy is wont to do. For patriarchy requires to see a struggle against the shackles of shame and authoritarian rule that it imposes. One is supposed to engage in a lifelong attempt to raise oneself above the level of one's imputed baseness, with the outcome as a generally a foregone conclusion: One is not expected to win this artificially constructed battle for obvious reasons -- in patriarchy's ideological terms, one does not, because one cannot, overcome one's "nature".
Consistency in conformity to "the rule" is an excellent antidote to suffering the lashes of patriarchal shame. In terms of this alternative solution to one's that may eventually drain all your energy through speaking out, one does not provide anyone the spectacle of struggling against one's putative "nature", as one is actually required to do. Rather, one calls the patriarchal bluff by giving in to it entirely. That is, one temporary adopts the role -- only more consistently than generally anticipated -- in accordance with one's putative feminine nature.
I have found that failing to engage in a moral struggle against oneself raises the patriarchal ire like nothing else. It can even put the patriarchy into a veritable panic mode.
So if my clothes drape a little long on me, to mix it with the plates, and you happen to disapprove, do not be too surprised, if I seem to look toward the heavens, in astonishment (along with you) as to where this clothing could have come from and how they made their way to alight upon me.
The female world is an entirely passive one, and hence the passive tense: "It seems like nothing can be done about this!"
In other words, concerning all things putatively feminine -- I am as mystified as you are!!
1 comment:
Good! :-)
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