Posts Tagged Divine Feminine
The Mad Masculine
I finish reading an email from my friend Jeanne, who is wrapping up her third week as a volunteer medical person in Haiti, and turn to the news that a sixteen-year-old Turkish girl has been buried alive by her family for having boys as friends.
My nervous system suffers a disconnect.
In the wake of a horrible natural disaster, one overwhelmed woman somehow finds an inner strength and resolve to continue on, doing what must be done in conditions that are hellish, unimaginable, while elsewhere in the world men find it possible to bury a child alive, her lungs and stomach filling with soil.
Who are we? Of course, I want to applaud the woman, and I want to destroy the men. Though my spiritual practice counsels me that every life is precious, that killing is a terrible sin, I admit to a reservoir of rage that would happily roll out over the planet and extinguish every monster male who currently perpetrates violence against women. It would ravage the insane family members who murdered the child; it would reduce to cinders the fifty men who buried a girl up to her neck in a sports stadium, then hurled stones at her head until she died; it would sear the devils who use war as an excuse to rape and disfigure females; it would choke to death men who physically and emotionally abuse women in relationship.
What is their behavior? Hatred of the Divine Feminine? Fear of it? Do they black out, not knowing who they are or what they’re doing? Are they born malignant, or do they become that way? Are they simply evil?
How do we respond? Abuse-Poetry encourages women to write about their experiences. Poetry promotes healing even here, but if we aren’t going to kill them all, what do we do about the man-monsters themselves?
Man-Monster Poetry could be part of a solution. Resources could be dedicated to forcing perpetrators of the crimes I’ve mentioned here to participate in writing workshops. Encourage or prod them to write their stories and listen to victim stories.
All that’s clear is that something more needs to be done. Are we incapable of thinking of intelligent, compassionate solutions? We live in an entertainment culture that blunts the immediacy of human life. Imagine all the money spent on Super Bowl advertising. Imagine just one company taking its million-plus dollar fee for thirty seconds or a minute of TV time and instead pledging it to ending violence of any kind against women. Imagine every Super Bowl advertiser doing that. Would we survive as a culture, as humans? I’d like to know what you think. I’d like to hear what you feel.
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