Saturday 9 April 2011

The unnatural state of female oppression

Many people in the first world have the impression that misogyny no longer plays a significant part. This, in itself, can be a huge impediment to redressing wrongs. Much misogynistic behaviour falls under the auspices of "natural behaviour" -- seeking either to express it (for example, by punitive male aggression) or to bring it about (for instance, by compelling women to become passive).

Despite the psychological attraction of doing what comes naturally, it has hardly been nature itself that has produced the idea of essential male and female natures. Rather, it has been the philosophers, psychologists and politicians of previous eras who have determined what is "natural". Consider, for instance, that if "natural" female nature is posited as not aggressive, indeed passive and very emotional, then to the degree that a woman departs from this character (which is also inevitable to the degree that she is human and expresses human behaviour in all of its manifest complexity) she can be heavily penalised "for her own good".

No comments:

Cultural barriers to objectivity