Joss Whedon is always my hero

[alonewiththemoon]

Post by Joss at Whedonesque that starts with the "honor" killing of Kurdish woman Dua Khalil and expands across the world:

"Women’s inferiority – in fact, their malevolence -- is as ingrained in American popular culture as it is anywhere they’re sporting burkhas. I find it in movies, I hear it in the jokes of colleagues, I see it plastered on billboards, and not just the ones for horror movies. Women are weak. Women are manipulative. Women are somehow morally unfinished. (Objectification: another tangential rant avoided.) And the logical extension of this line of thinking is that women are, at the very least, expendable.

I try to think how we got here. The theory I developed in college (shared by many I’m sure) is one I have yet to beat: Womb Envy. Biology: women are generally smaller and weaker than men. But they’re also much tougher. Put simply, men are strong enough to overpower a woman and propagate. Women are tough enough to have and nurture children, with or without the aid of a man. Oh, and they’ve also got the equipment to do that, to be part of the life cycle, to create and bond in a way no man ever really will. Somewhere a long time ago a bunch of men got together and said, “If all we do is hunt and gather, let’s make hunting and gathering the awesomest achievement, and let’s make childbirth kinda weak and shameful.” It’s a rather silly simplification, but I believe on a mass, unconscious level, it’s entirely true. How else to explain the fact that cultures who would die to eradicate each other have always agreed on one issue? That every popular religion puts restrictions on women’s behavior that are practically untenable? That the act of being a free, attractive, self-assertive woman is punishable by torture and death? In the case of this upcoming torture-porn [the movie Captivity], fictional. In the case of Dua Khalil, mundanely, unthinkably real. And both available for your viewing pleasure."

Comments

[silas7.livejournal.com]

A good article, and a grim reality.

Far be it from me to "judge" another culture, but since all cultures have this belief that women are innatedly inferior, I can just judge all clutures and be inclusive.

[atalanta.livejournal.com]

I am happy to judge this, personally.
And you can judge that action and whatever mindset/history/cultural practices lead to it without judging The Culture as a whole, if that bothers you, don't you think?

[silas7.livejournal.com]

Totally. There's a difference between saying "honor killing is an abominable practice." and saying "Kurds are abominable because they practice honor killing."

[adarklake.livejournal.com]

I came to a similar theory as Whedon's when I read The Mists of Avalon. It was like a revelation to me. It all became clear.... Women posses much greater fortitude, much greater capcity for love, much more courage. Now I understand women. Now I *only* fear men. Now I aspire to find feminine strength within myself, and know the world is a safer place due to the presence of women's strength. Yes these are generalizations, and I know there are anecdotal exceptions abound. I also know these may sound like sexist statements. Regardless, I believe them to be true, in the aggregate.

And to women's courage, men are not only lacking in comparison, but further, rife with fear. It is this fear, this terrible fear, which drives them to their eternal and systematic oppression of women. So afraid of women's strength, so afraid to put love first, so lacking the courage that true love requires, that being surrounded by others who have this power it like living a constant nightmare. It drives men crazy, and they lose their connection with their soul, and become monsters.

Think about it: If love became the rule of law - what would men's fate be in this world? Our only advantage (phyical strength) would be neutralized, and instead of near omnipotence, we would be reduced to a disfunctional second class devalued fringe species that men try to make of women, in all societies.

I saw the Dua Khalil video as well, and was horrified in a way I rarely am. Perhaps 9-11 was the last time a news story hit me that way. I tried to imagine the minds of the men in that video. I saw them for what they were - terrified. This women, no - a girl, dared to love. They just couldn’t handle it. Only 17, and with the power of a goddess, and the potential to change everything, right in their midst. Where did she come from?? How could this happen?? Like an alien invasion, and their reaction was survival instinct. Their entire way of life, *everything* they know... their very being and existence threatened, by this entity. They threw everything they had at her, because they knew nothing short of that could extinguish her strength. And if it required tanks and missiles, and even their own lives, they would have used them as well. EVERYTHING was at stake. That's pure fear, baby. That's pure terror. And in the end they failed to extinguish her love, and they all know it. And so in her death, their fear is only multiplied.

Amazing, isn’t it? She dared to love. The rule of law can NEVER become love, or men lose everything.

I still have, sadly, perhaps many lifetimes of work to go on myself. I mentally imagined myself transported into that scene. I think my reaction would have been one of pure fear. Fear of those men. They'd murder me as quickly as they did her, if I tried to intervene. Perhaps some of the men there were simply afraid to intervene, like I would have been. That makes me (to my own horror) so close to those men. Oh god(dess) thank you for not giving me such a test. I have so far to go.

Now I imagine a variety of women I've know, from mothers, to friends, to lovers. Women I know well. In most cases I think there would be no hesitation to intervene, there would be no thought, only action, stirred by the white light within. That's pure courage, far beyond men's understanding & experience. THAT is what men fear in women. There you have it.

So to answer Joss Whedon's challenge, I will start small. Yes, I'm virtually devoid of the courage to try to save Dua Khalil. But perhaps just repeting her name again... the exercise of exploring myself in a journal entry, and putting some understanding energy out there, is one tiny bit of love, love for myself, love for her, which, when added to a million others' can make a sustantive change in the world.

[silas7.livejournal.com]

Be very careful. By turning women into all loving, all powerful super-goddesses you are turning them into abstracts. Everyone knows fear.

Perhaps there's a level of empathy that I as a white male never needed to have. I'd like to think that I'd have tried my damndest to save her. But I"m pretty far removed from the reality of violence. I haven't seen a fight in years, let alone been in one. Who knows how you'll react when put up against the reality of violence?

28 weeks later showed a scene where a woman put her life at risk to rescue a child that wasn't even hers. Her husband fled when zombies attacked, rather than try to fight and save her life. There's an interesting parallel; would you risk your own life to save someone elses, if there was very little to no chance of actually saving the person and getting both of you killed? A rabid crowd aren't that much different from rage fueled zombies.

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

It's not just sex. It's also race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, culture, social standing, economics, blah blah blah. People are generally quite ignorant and frightened of anyone who's different and the genetic prerogative- eat or be eaten- demands that one subjugate those who are different, and by extension, establishing their own superiority.

See also- Rudyard Kipling's "White Man's Burden", Mein Kampf, "God's Chosen People", the Hindu caste system, Paris Hilton's plea for clemency, etc etc.