GENDER POLITICS STILL
The Current Avalanche
"Me Too"
Bright lights suddenly explode into every corner of our relationships in the world. This is nothing new historically speaking as many of you know well. The current pain pouring out from women might be cleansing if it manages to open the door to long term, ongoing in depth cultural analysis. My hope for this moment is that, while we go on naming names, demanding accountability and freeing specific women from decades of silence, we do not get caught in the temporary glee that sudden liberation too often brings. After the rage and grief, we are still the same species and we need each other if we intend to change the rules of the game. A World wide perspective is necessary as well.
~*~
Here's bell hooks in 2016 at The New Museum
RADIO
This past week on NPR
"In the wake of the Weinstein scandal, an ever-widening stream of
accusations against powerful men has prompted a considerable amount of
soul-searching. On Twitter and elsewhere, one book that has been
mentioned is bell hooks’s "The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and
Love," from 2004. The book was somewhat controversial among feminists
because, rather than excoriating the worst behavior of men, hooks
analyzes masculinity as a kind of regime that oppresses everybody,
including men. She sees child abuse, sexual abuse, and shaming as
rampant conditions that predispose psychologically damaged boys to
violence. hooks tells David Remnick that if we don’t try to understand
the male psyche we cannot solve the problem."
LISTEN
RECOMMENDING
"The Will To Change"
"Everyone needs to love and be loved -- even men. But to know love, men
must be able to look at the ways that patriarchal culture keeps them
from knowing themselves, from being in touch with their feelings, from
loving. In The Will to Change, bell hooks gets to the heart of
the matter and shows men how to express the emotions that are a
fundamental part of who they are -- whatever their age, marital status,
ethnicity, or sexual orientation. With trademark candor and fierce
intelligence, she addresses the most common concerns of men--
fear of intimacy and loss of their patriarchal place in society-- in new
and challenging ways. She believes men can find the way to spiritual
unity by getting back in touch with the emotionally open part of
themselves -- and lay claim to the rich and rewarding inner lives that
have historically been the exclusive province of women. A brave and
astonishing work, The Will to Change is designed to help men reclaim the best part of themselves."
"The Will To Change"
Preview the Book
https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Will_to_Change.html?id=G28LTQltyVAC&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&q&f=false
LINKS
Biography
Then there's our current President who, by example, has demonstrated nothing but contempt.
I have no more to say.
3 comments:
people, we are all people with all our foibles & graces, hopes and dreams...
hope you don't move forward from this post for a bit,
i am still here, absorbing...
all this is bringing forward an inner scream from childhood. i am one of the "lucky" ones. i used abuse to become fierce, to self-protect. to break through despite. but in this survival i also left many things behind as so many do (if they are "lucky" as i). as an adult, i try to regain the good. i see with different eyes. i feel with a different skin. like a few other things, i found a way to use the pain to my advantage. to stand strong. i know others did not have such a path. hence, pathmaker...
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