There are so many pat things that we all say about what life is like, we have heard them so often that we sometimes just nod along. It can take a jolt to make us question them, like Dany, breaking the wheel (for you GoT fans).
The other day I heard a bunch of older men speaking, they were all nodding at each other about how the nature of life was conflict - in whatever way, that conflicts arise and are dealt with and so another arises, and so it is and so it is and so it shall be.
I think there's something peculiarly male and patriarchal about this idea, and I hope that as the structures of patriarchy crumble (they are crumbling, it's not pretty), so this notion can be questioned more. I don't believe there is anything truly warlike naturally within men, nor that there is anything intrinsically peaceful within women, but it has fallen to women in patriarchal society to do the emotional labour of bringing people together, which has been seen as part of their motherly role, women forge life and so protect it, while men are more expendable. Such ridiculousness. Let it end.
The other day I heard a bunch of older men speaking, they were all nodding at each other about how the nature of life was conflict - in whatever way, that conflicts arise and are dealt with and so another arises, and so it is and so it is and so it shall be.
I think there's something peculiarly male and patriarchal about this idea, and I hope that as the structures of patriarchy crumble (they are crumbling, it's not pretty), so this notion can be questioned more. I don't believe there is anything truly warlike naturally within men, nor that there is anything intrinsically peaceful within women, but it has fallen to women in patriarchal society to do the emotional labour of bringing people together, which has been seen as part of their motherly role, women forge life and so protect it, while men are more expendable. Such ridiculousness. Let it end.
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