May 30, 2007
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Whedon on Women
When I read on firedoglake that Joss Whedon has a 'blog, I thought: Great! Dude's sharp, entertaining...
But it turns out it's not his 'blog, it's a 'blog for fans of his work, though he did post a piece to it. And the piece in question is an impassioned plea for answers as to why it's so universal that women are on the shit-receiving end of so many cultural and social norms. The piece is sparked by the recent stoning to death of an Iraqi teenage girl who was seen talking to someone from another sect, and draws parallels to the portrayal of women in US mass media.
And it sent me off thinking, so here we go:
The question is: Why do so many in the world (both men and women included) seem to operate under the assumption that women are somehow inferior?
And my answer is this: Ubiquity. There's always a woman around to blame for something. Or there's always the threat against men of saying they're feminine or sissies, or any of a million other take-downs. If 'the other' weren't so ubiquitous, and were in fact rare, there'd be no example, nothing to compare. No one would know what you were talking about when you said they were being a 'bitch,' or a 'sissy,' or whatever.
Ultimately, if the lower caste weren't half of your family/group/tribe/society, you'd have to share power with twice as many people.
So when you see the video of that girl being stoned (it's widely circulated on the 'net, and easy enough to find, so I won't link), what you're seeing is not ignorance or hatred, though of course it's easy to find ways to make those words apply. What you're seeing is a soulless power, flexing its muscles. And part of what makes it tragic is that this power doesn't really understand itself. It just rolls right over its victim: the girl who dared to speak to someone from the wrong sect. Those doing the stoning are killing a part (maybe a huge chunk) of themselves, but their sacrifice gives them power, whereas the girl is now undeniably dead.
And that, in a nutshell, is how power works. And until we understand this, we won't be able to change it for the better. Appeals for decency don't limit power; paradoxically, they contribute to the power held by the transgressor. Hand-wringing over how to exorcise this evil that lives inside us misses the point, because the 'evil' is actually power. We have to re-define power to be equitable rather than divisive, so that its expression is healthy.
Comments (12)
I think at the end of the day its about physical strength. The US may have female miners but very few other countrues have women doing male 'jobs'. South Africa may have equality on paper but our rape statistics are the highest in the world. Equality has just meant that men get their own back in the worst way. They force women to submit sexually. Women are weaker in the rest of the world. Their bodies ability to get over bearing children takes far longer because food and medical care is different. Even something like menstruation makes them weaker. In the western world this is not even noticed. In South Africa that time of the month means taking a few days off work as women do not have access to sanitary towels. They are too expensive. And South Africa is one of the more civilised African countries. Certainly in Africa women are still dependent on men to provide.
Fear keeps women under submission.
True. And while that may explain the origin of the women-are-weaker idea, it doesn't explain how that idea stays afloat in places where there's better health care for women, and more legal protections against discrimination and so forth.
if we truly had power do you think anyone would truly, really give that up? I pondered that reading this...
That's why I'm talking about redefining power rather than giving it up.
This probably explains why his female lead characters always have super-powers!
Huh. Interesting thoughts. I tend to agree more with the first commenter. As for your subsequent question, I think it HAS spilled over into other fields. You don't see male scientists dissing female scientists (for being female, I mean). It almost only happens in the "uneducated" world. Of course, there are wife abusers in the corporate world, too. (Duh.) But I think open discrimination becomes less and less of a problem, the more educated the men and women.
So, I guess my idea of an answer to this age-old problem is a) physical strength, and b) lack of education.
But, see, that's the problem: It's 'age old,' despite education. It continues now, among the educated and affluent. Whedon's affluent-society example is this new movie called 'Captivity,' which is about a woman who is kidnapped and tortured. The ads were super lurid. The film's producers say it has an 'empowering' ending, but what kind of real empowerment can such a set-up provide? And more to the point: Why does such a movie get made? What need does it serve?
I've put the power line along gender boundaries, because that's what the stoning video implies, and what Whedon is talking about. But I've tried to move it into a discussion of power outside gender. If you look at other movies that are popular right now, you see the same thing: Saw, Saw II, Saw III, Hostel, Hostel II... Our national discussion of torture policy turns into media criticism of shows like '24.' These are all stories about power and dehumanization.
We are a nation coming to terms with our darkest power motives through mass media. In Iraq, apparently, they've already worked it out and public stonings aren't so surprising.
Ha ha watch Michelle become all irate!
OK, I think it's really repugnant that actually stoning someone because of adultery or gang-raping them to preserve the family honor is even remotely considered the same as you know, impossible beauty standards or lurid sexualization of violence for advertising purposes.
I get all pissy when first-world women gripe about how fucking oppressed we are. We're not oppressed as a whole, we're *inconvenienced*. Like, you can say that women in the West are oppressed, literally oppressed, when we have no laws to protect us from (at random) being sold into slavery; being killed for not marrying the man chosen for us; having our clitoris and labia cut off with a tin-lid or sharp rock. Our laws at least acknowledge our right to be protected, which is something you can't say in Saudi Arabia or Somalia or Indonesia.
To me, sexism and misogyny are SO NOT THE SAME.
Now, I also disagree that educated men don't discriminate. My doctor told me I should have a total hysterectomy via an email. Your education can make you into a sexist jerk-off.
I'm not familiar enough with your larger argument to actually comment re: a healthy expression of equitable power. I would hazard a guess that power cannot be equal. It wouldn't be power then, would it? I mean doesn't it have to be wielded to be power? But philosophy in general runs out of my head like water through a colander, so. Mostly I had to comment here because argh, directly comparing media exploitation of women with death by stoning = lame.
Sexism is just one of the shapes of force. It stays alive because some people still use their various means of power to force others. When you initiate force against another person it is always wrong, always an act of aggression, always a misuse of power. But when you use your power to defend yourself or others against force, to respect and uphold all the rights that you and others each equally possess, then you are using power in a healthy way. Defending and maintaining yourself without destroying any liberty in the process is the key. That way you truly grow, not just grow big. Giving up on your principles is merely another way of giving up.
Zarabeth? Zatchu?
when I was in Egypt, I was facinated with the whole thing. Everything about it. The beauty and craftsmanship of the old Egyptian temples and art. Such a weaving of male and female. Truly beautiful and graceful. The whole history of ancient egypt is full of all sorts of human faults. But in the pure expression of the culture, it's a mixed thing. In ancient Egypt women could own property, could decide on marriage and divorce for themselves. They could even be Pharoah. And the powerful contrast of modern Egyptian society. I felt it was cold, harsh and menacing. It took me a week or so, but then it hit me. The feminine was supressed. In obvious ways like how women and girls were treated, but also in how the whole country worked. After the three weeks I was there, I was so ready to get home, I missed the more sensual side of things, the mixture of the two. I found it so interesting, but at the same time so oppressive. I'll never really understand what it feels like to be a part of that, but I could see it and feel it. And it was ugly. It's very sad to me, how much as been lost to time there.
Iz me =) {*waves*} "There is no other"
Sorry, you maybe probably didn't know that I still read this journal regularly. In which you quite often have a lot of good stuff to say, by the way.
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