The Seven Subtle Seductions Of Patriarchy

[lildreamer316]

Talk by Rel Davis, minister, August 8th, 1993.

1- Life is a game and the goal is to win.

2- Everyone has at least one person who is inferior to them.

3- Society is based on a pyramid and it's always better at the top.

4- Possession of things is a value in and of itself.

5- Only humans have feelings.

6- Women are objects to be used by men and men need these objects (women) in
order to survive the hierarchy.

7- Force is the legitimate determinant of the truth, justice and human rights.

<snippity-snip>

Think about the last several movies you've seen and you'll realize that practically every movie (and most novels and TV programs as well) will demonstrate the "validity" of these paradigms:
The good guy has to win. (#1)
A fight always decides who is right. (#7)
The good guy "gets" the girl – and usually money as well. (#6 & #4)
Destruction of material things and of nature is taken for granted. (#5)
Comic relief usually involves some pitiable (obviously inferior person to be laughed at. (#2)
The plot resembles a game more then it does life. (#1)
The good guy always comes out on top. (#3)

<BIG Snip>

SEDUCTION #7: FORCE IS THE LEGITIMATE DETERMINANT OF TRUTH, JUSTICE AND HUMAN
RIGHTS.

This is the Superman paradigm. As long as Superman is stronger then anyone else, then his concepts are the right ones.That we accept this premise is evidence of the strength of the patriarchy for it is logically indefensible. If the good guy could not beat up the bad guy, it wouldn't make any difference in what was "just" and what was "unjust". Yet practically every movie involves just that, the hero always is able to defeat the villain with force.Think about how many of the winners of the past were nothing but villainous bullies. And how many of them are today seen as heroes. William the Conqueror was nothing but a marauding pirate. The Spanish Conquistadors were brutal bandits. George Washington and his band were heroes because they won. Had they lost they'd have been hanged as traitors.

Force proves nothing but physical strength. We need to return to an attitude that strength is less important then unity with each other and with nature.


http://www.ladyoftheearth.com/lessons/seven-seductions.txt

--I think this is EXTREMELY apropos today. Anyone? (Riane(sp) Eisler, perhaps?)

[barbaraann]

1. That is really good.

I have to add something I heard Mary Daley say about patriarchy with regard to Christianity which has really stuck with me:

(paraphrased from memory) They replaced the Tree of Life with a corpse on two dead sticks.

http://cat.nyu.edu/wickedary/dalyinfo.html

[shance]

2. Great stuff lil dreamer***Important information to open eyes.

Thanks.

[Vladimir]

3. I agree, it is apropos

but I would query the phrase : "return to an attitude that strength is less important then unity with each other and with nature". I am not sure that this attitude was ever much prevalent in human society - or at least in historic society.

[lildreamer316]

5. Yeah. I

think she is a little wicca-one-with-nature etc. leaning on this (duh to me considering the source) but I thought the article made some very important points concisely. I had to read ALL of Chalice & the Blade to get this!B-)

[H2O Man]

4. Very interesting.

This is the type of thing that is always fun and, I think, valuable to discuss. I would question #4, as accumulation of wealth begins with agricultural societies, and is not dependent on being patriarchal or matriarchal. However, for all practical purposes, it is a part of the current pathology our culture suffers from.

[Vladimir]

6. Fair point, although as I was taught it

patriarchal ordering of society started around the same time as societies were becoming agricultural, so there may be a link there anyhow.

[Cleita]

11. Some would disagree with you.

Some believe it began when horses were tamed and bronze was invented. Then chariots and swords were possible making war much easier to wage at a distance. Since the winning side would kill all the men and enslave the women and children, then women became to be thought of as property.

But nobody really knows. It's just that Mediterranean mythology points to the male gods conquering the female goddesses through rape, or the female goddesses depicted as monsters or conniving tricksters that men again had to conquer.

It seems then that there was a time women were in charge. Also, the stone age agricultural communities were occupied for very long lenghths of time pointing to peace more than war, so I believe patriarcy began with the Bronze Age, not the invention of agriculture.

[acmejack]

7. six is usually stated 'Women as chattel"

nt

[lildreamer316]

8. True. See link for clarification; she

goes a little farther than that in her detailed explination in the article.

[lildreamer316]

9. Shameless self-kick

[kaitykaity]

10. Missing some things.

How the inferiority of women is structured into the
system -- father god, patrilineage, illegitimacy, sexual
double standard, just to name a few.

You got the spelling right. "The Chalice and the Blade."
Essential reading.