Self-deception and traditional gender roles

The means by which traditional gender relations are maintained is through projective identification.

Projection is itself a virtually mystical form of transaction, since most people are completely unaware that they are doing it. Patriarchal texts encourage men to deny the parts of their humanity that they are taught to consider "weak" or more specifically "feminine". These qualities, which all of humanity shares, which include self-doubt, sensitivity, the emotions associated with victimisation and so on, are all denied by males in the process of gaining masculinity. They "transcend" these qualities by denying that they have them, whilst at the same time anticipating that women are defined by them. This is projective identification. The process of projecting one's negative qualities into women must itself feel like an experience of elevation, of spiritualisation -- even though it is based on self-delusion (to a very large part, if not entirely). It is most threatening to patriarchal men when strong women demonstrate to these men that their tricks of transcendence and projection are not all that amazing.

Each tactic of masculine transcendence comes at a cost to women. Those women who understand the intricacies of women's health know that what damages it most is patriarchal projection. The patriarchal investment of negative energies into women also threatens to betray a patriarchal vulnerability. More than often, those women who realise that they have been projected into are also the ones who implicitly understand how and why patriarchal men have been secretly using projective mechanisms.

These women who know men's "secrets" are a great threat to the whole patriarchal edifice.