Sexual Politics - Essay Example

PATRIARCHY INTRODUCTION: Politics is generally a realm of power-centered play ground. It comprises basically two groups of people—one to rule and theother to be ruled—in which the ruled mass must necessarily posses the qualities of subordination in one or in all respects. In any kind of politics this is the basic undertone. In social interactions too this formula works out. Although Status and knowledgeable capability form part of these criteria, sex is an easiest core of distinction to stratify a set of population on the grounds of frailty. This being the general formula adopted, the reason for male ruling or trying to govern females is still obscure. In what way male community is more powered than females? Answer to this question was derived in a deformed state. That is, the biological importance given to male community is the seed bed of all these chaos. As far as the physical strength is concerned no specific distinction is found in human anatomy. Physical strength is something related to the food habit and exercise practices followed by individuals. The role of males in procreation has wrongly been assigned a greater importance from time immemorial keeping females in a relatively lower plane. This is where the crux of the entire scenario lies. A phenomenon in which two entities are the comprising units, and in which the responsibilities and activities are equally shared among the entities, is it nice to adjudge one to be superior to the other? In sex, the biological convenience of males occupying an upper position is wrongly construed as a rule of law to consider males as superior in extra sexual ambit too. The recent evolution of feministic views in many societies is also subjected to certain limitations of underplaying the dominance of females, despite the fact that women begin to occupy increasingly greater fields of occupation whence, males are alone believed to be fit to occupy. Even in the aristocratic realms where women are in supreme power, the real power of governing lies in the hands of males leaving the ‘Queen-bee’ status to the women in top brass. An analysis recently made by Rachel Stone (2007) on ninth century marriage disputes revealed that despite the patriarchal basis of Carolingian society, the power even of elite men over women and marriage was often highly contingent. However such restrictions on power did not endanger the gender order. The masculinity of the men involved in these marriage disputes like archbishops, popes and kings was not questioned. (Rachel Stone, 2007) The biological bias is the chief predictor of male domination in several societies leading to or exacerbating the condition to male chauvinism via patriarchy. Such narcissistic awareness had paved way to allow only the males in the forefront and women in the backdrop. What has made women, who are actually equal in almost all realms and activities to men in their life, to go along with and accept this masculine intransigence? Perhaps, the attainment of a natural equilibrium may be ascribed to such enduring traits of women in any society. EVOLUTIONARY THEORY: Evolutionary theory attempts to explain a little bit why and how such equilibrium is tended to be reached. Mating preferences throw light on the theory. In our social interaction, some are found to be more attractive while others are not. Some are perceived as potential mates and some are not. What is the criterion that decides attractiveness and unattractiveness? Mere concept of beauty alone is not able to cover the term attractiveness, because beauty is a triad between the seer, the seen and the heed. Perfect compositions of all the three alone constitute beauty. The genetic predisposition to search for sex and also for falling in love fixes the mating preferences. Prevalence of un-identical desires among men and women opens a fresh gate for mutual love and attraction. Men look for certain physical attributes that signal health and fertility in women whereas women consider men to be attractive if they are capable of protecting them and their children. (Buss, D.M, 1989) (Sprecher S, et al, 1994). Women’s preferences for men to be good providers reflect their hoary economic dependence on men rather than genuine biological preferences. Cultural obligations, playing an important role in mate preferences, keep women in a less dominant stature. Evolutionary theory has thus given way to Social Exchange theory, which provides explanation for contemporary situations, wherein women with more economic power reveal physical attractiveness as their mating preferences. (Eagly. A.H & Wood. W, 1999). A comparative study carried out by Carrie Yodanis in 2007 revealed that women’s money management skills involved more work than power. (Carrie Yodanis, Sean Lauer, 2007) JEAN GENET’S VIEW ON LOVE: Love is something connected with caring for others that germinate within the self nurturing humanity. Romance is something that develops love partly in a route of possessiveness. Thus ‘love’ is feminine and ‘romance’ is masculine. But in Jean Genet’s angle, Love and romance are viewed as myth. Genet is of the view that masculine romance exploits the feminine love and consequently degrades both love and romance reducing them to mere myth. The domination of males is depicted in such a strong mode that even males are perceived as females, expropriating the femininity in males. In his view homosexuality among men is regarded more acceptable socially than lesbianism Jean Genet considers the abandoned child as a victim of the perversion of homosexuality. The establishment of patriarchal construct in social structure is vividly represented in the way in which even a perversion like homosexuality among men is acceptable while that between women—lesbianism—is something cruel or sin. Such a single-sided approach towards homosexuality vividly depicts how men are strongly against the sex realm of women. Wanting a woman for sex by a man is in no way balanced with wanting a man for sex by a woman. Acceptability, in fact with pain, of this injustice by women is mislabeled as justice. Really this is a ‘cruel justice’. Acceptability of this ‘justice’ by many women is still the unresolved phenomenon. GOVERNANCE THROUGH VIOLENCE: Governance, in accordance with Kate Millet, is generally through consent either imposed or through violence. Sexual politics obtains consent through the "socialization" of both sexes to basic patriarchal polities with regard to temperament, role, and status. Members cherish in themselves and find convenient in subordinates: aggression, intelligence, force, and efficacy in the male; passivity, ignorance, docility, "virtue," and ineffectuality in the female. In terms of activity, sex role assigns domestic service and attendance upon infants to the female, the rest of human achievement, interest, and ambition to the male. (p.26). As such it is a combination of action and power to act upon, which are dispersed among both sexes. The natural flow of power and action between the two sexes is quite amazing. A virtual chain of cause and effect is inherent in such flow. Males while exercising their power to rule the other sex get still more power through the acts of females, continuing the chain without any break. In some societies and countries, women take the role of empowering and action simultaneously assuming a lead role, thereby they become the rulers. Who ever be the ruler, the concept of subordination is constantly maintained, keeping always the ruler at a state of might. The acceptance of a value system, not necessarily a biological force, is the chief guiding in power and ruling. Kate Millet finds it difficult to locate the origin of patriarchal construct in societies. However, he bolsters the views of anthropologists that patriarchy is not of primeval origin. Kate Millet assumes a hypothetical pre-patriarchal period in which he does not smell any power drift as found in the current cultures and politics and believes the prevalence of an equalitarian atmosphere. The author believes patriarchy in religions might have stood in support of social patriarchal construct by way of creating male gods, emphasizing the role of phallus in procreation. This analysis sounds brilliant. Religion that pervades any society is a powerful media for propagation of a concept. Although the chronological origin, when such phallus oriented worship and social practices could not be located, the author clearly lands on a derivation that religious patriarchy played key role is sexual politics too. “The enormous social change involved in a sexual revolution is basically a matter of altered consciousness, the exposure and elimination of social and psychological realities underlying political and cultural structures.” (pp362). Affording a ruling scepter in the hands of males has thus become traditional in which women and their passiveness—especially biological passiveness—have become predictors of such patriarchal environment that has currently taken the form of a chauvinistic trend. How the this violent trait of men is endured by women for ages? A recent study conducted by Tuija Virki (2008) pronounces the active and skilful emotional management of violence prevention, in which feminine emotional skills were analyzed if they were capable of preventing violence. The findings of the research revealed that an ‘emotional habitus’ acquired socially with regard to gendered values of caring work was able to persuade and negotiating with violence. The study took into account the gender inequalities and internal contradictions connected to the social formation of the emotional skills. (Tuija Virkki, 2008) SOCIAL TRANSPARENCY AND SEXUALITY: In any social interaction, transparency is the strength. This is because the more the transparency, the more developments in interactions that strengthens the relationships. Obviously the non-transparency leads to reduced interactions weakening the relation ships. Unfortunately, interaction between the only available two sexes is clouded by an illusory mist of non-transparency. The sexual freedom, which fell on the heads of women in late fifties and sixties via proliferation of contraceptives, has given way for women to conceal their power of procreation. The other side of this sexual freedom towards men also has its impact. Men have begun to still consider women as relatively a lower gender as their fertility is kept behind the screen. Fertility oriented connotation of female strength has thus lost its strength of transparency. Women have thus become simply the objects of love, passion, sex and everything naming females as frail sex. Such frailty emerges out of lack of self recognition by women. A recent study by Charity B.et al (2007) reveals that women with a history of sexual victimization were having difficulty in identifying risky cues and not perceiving their own vulnerability for future assaults. (Charity B. et al 2007) Affixing such inanimate and object like stature for womanhood exacerbates the plight further into the evolution of male domination and chauvinism. Although the kingdom of Men was capable of using this trend towards their benefits, it was—and probably is-- a tremendous burden on them to cope up with, since maintaining an illusory disparagement was quite an unnatural force to sustain. ‘Kill to love’ is awkward. ACT OF SEX: The works of D.H.Lawrence and Norman Meiler analyzed by Kate Millet in the light of purely phallus oriented approach vividly reveals that even the mention of female genitals in more than a stereotyped term ‘cunt’ is a disgrace to males. But the phallus and other parts of a male physique are afforded a standard of worth, pride and everything. D.H.Lawrence in his Lady Chatterlys Lover, depicts Oliver Mellors as the personification of phallus of the age. “She enjoys an orgasm when she can, while Mellors is managing his own. If she can’t, then too bad.” (p.240). These lines visualize the sheer non-rhythmic sexual intercourse between Mellors and Connie. The highly sadistic deliberate withdrawal by Don Cipriano in the Plummed Serpent at the verge of female orgasm tells the psychological incompetence of males in satisfying women. Such eons-old bullying of females towards their passiveness has concealed scores of masculine weakness behind their so-called physical strength. Mellors talking to his own penis in a lewd style: “Dost want her?.. Lift up your heads...” speaks much about the emphasis laid on phallus which was really worthless in maintaining an erection. D.H. Lawrence by portraying Connie as a fearful heroine who however loves the phallus of her lover spells the intimidating role of Mellors. When all the activities attempted to conceal the weakness of male cult fail, men resort to attack women. The fear of dismissal, divorce and violence on personal, sexual and economic arena is made to be persisting in the minds of women. This tool of intimidation is used to rule women by men in almost all culture. However there exist several discussions and debates that decry against discrimination and oppression against women; but the masculine society adopts fascinating techniques to divert all sympathy for itself. Masculinity that considers the menstrual flow of women as something unchaste and un-sanctified never treats nocturnal emission even as ugly. The double standards adopted by masculine society are thus illustrated in a fantastic way. The contempt for women as laid by the author is the very fear of males over the female powers of giving life to the fetus. In sex too every man fears that his virility and subsequent masculinity would be suspected or under weighed or paid no notice of by the woman whom he proposes to impregnate or just enjoy with. Out of this fear, he often spreads scores of lies in the minds of woman and sometimes threatens her to get his wish of having coitus fulfilled. The hypocrisy of male community is well established in either condoning their weakness and ugliness or exaggerating the tell-tale flamboyance. A nineteenth century dispute over the admission into membership of the Girl’s Friendly Society ended only in 1936 on abandoning the virginity policy by the society. Such abandonment of the rigid virginity policy too was found to be enforced due to drastic decline in membership. (Vivienne Richmond, 2007) Accepting female sexuality though not at par with males has just begun along with femininity perception spreading sporadically all over the world. CONCLUSION: Sexual politics is a realm where so far males are ruling females. The inherent urge for males to dominate has unfortunately fallen on the other sex – the only available female sex—created for social interaction and development of well being. The internal conflicts and contradictions are to be resolved after crossing so many obstacles and after meeting several challenges. The basic self – recognition system has to undergo radical changes, which itself is many thousand miles away. Sigmund Freud’s way of assigning a sexual meaning to every events of human life span has been refuted by many theorists who followed him. Even some ardent followers of Freud like Alfred Adler were going away with the views of Freud de-emphasizing sex in favor of the sources of unconscious conflicts. However, Freud’s ideologies could not altogether be rejected as invalid. This is the strength of Freud’s interpretations. His approach towards narcissism is still unable to be diluted by the findings of the researches that followed. The concept of id, ego and super ego is yet to be analyzed and understood in depth. The present position of self consciousness is in midway between id and ego. Freud’s contention that attaining perfect equilibrium in the stage of ego alone would pave way to the attainment of super ego can never be challenged in any manner. Aggressive utterance of words expressing the genital organs during emotional outburst especially anger and violence is still the sign of under development in our evolution. Creation of Humans in nature is just a milestone of the biological development in the evolution. To Know the Self knowing others is a must. Nature has biologically paved way for such knowledge by enabling human race alone to copulate among the partners/mates face-to-face. The stagnation in the narcissistic awareness of human beings indicates thousands of miles to go. Egoic consciousness is just a stage of evolution in which identification of the Self predominates. On analyzing Abraham Maslow’s (1970) need theory and perceiving the current state of human evolution in the light of that theory we can understand that the theory delineates clearly where the human race still is. In his view people who attained the self-actualization position were very few including Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein and Mahathma Gandhi. Even the attainment of self-actualization is the top most position in self-identification stage only. Self-realization is far high to reach. The current state of self-identification restricted to mere narcissism and body image is just immediate after the primitive stage of self-consciousness, in which only the appetites of the self was the focus. As long as the desire for power is clubbed with narcissistic awareness, the problems, inequalities and dangers to one sex are uncontrollable. Power to rule, if accompanies a corporate psyche in which both labor and fruits are shared among the constituent members irrespective of gender differences, then an equilibrium between the sexes can be attained and sex-bias would be slowly evaporating. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Reference list— Buss, D.M, 1989, “Sex differences in human mate preferences: Evolutionary hypotheses tested in 37 cultures”, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 12, 1-49 Carrie Yodanis, Sean Lauer (2007) “Managing Money in Marriage: Multilevel and Cross-National Effects of the Breadwinner Role” Journal of Marriage and Family 69 (5), 1307–1325.) Charity B. Hammond, Karen S. Calhoun (2007) “Labeling of abuse experiences and rates of victimization”Psychology of Women Quarterly 31 (4), 371–380 Eagly. A.H & Wood. W, 1999, “The origins of sex differences in human behavior:Evolved dispositions versus social roles, American Psychologist, 54, 408-423 Maslow A.H (1970) Motivation and Personality, 2nd ed, Harper and Row, New York. Rachel Stone (2007) ‘Bound from Either Side’: The Limits of Power in Carolingian Marriage Disputes, 840-870, Gender & History 19 (3), 467–482 Sprecher S, Sullivan Q and Hatfield E, 1994, “Mate selection preferences: Gender differences examined in a national sample”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 1074-1080 Tuija Virkki, 2008, “the Art of pacifying an aggressive client:’feminine’skills and preventing violence in caring work”, Journal of Gender, Work and Organisation, Vol. 15.(1), 72-87) Vivienne Richmond (2007) "It Is Not a Society for Human Beings but for Virgins": The Girls Friendly Society Membership Eligibility Dispute 1875-19361 ,Journal of Historical Sociology 20 (3), 304–327 Read More