Rubbing Salt In The Wound

There has been a spate of posts and comments recently on gender politics or something to that effect. I would point to a post at Mad Priest's blog in which he danced once again along a thin line between satire and facile provocation.

In a seemingly indirect response, Elizabeth Kaeton has posted a very passionate piece on what she calls The Unholy War On Women. Cyber friends of mine have also posted some very worthwhile comments, and I encourage you to peruse them all. Elizabeth et al. challenge us to make a stand against these horrible crimes - something beyond writing checks to organizations.

I find myself at a loss as to how to proceed. It's not that I disagree with her passionate cry to end the horror. However, I am not convinced that the heart of the issue is gender. In reporting on the outrages occurring in Darfur, South Africa and other places, she emphasizes the plight of women and children. I am not denying that what is occurring is without a doubt monstrous and horrible. I can't help wondering about the men.

As I read and reread her posting, the following words kept buzzing around in my head: gender, race, class, gender, race, class...which of the legs of the stool is really at the heart of the issue? Behind these words lurked an even more abstract concept: power.

We have been told that rape is not a sexual act. Rapists rarely if ever are raping to achieve purely sexual gratification. Power and anger and impotence are braided together - the violent act an expression of rage. This is the true issue occurring in the Genesis story of Sodom. Lot welcomes the messengers of God, but the others want to glory in their dominance and sodomize the strangers, humiliate them and demonstrate their power over them.

And Lot offers up his virginal daughters to the angry mob. (a bit problematic that, don't you think?)

They reject this sexual offering and turn on him as outsider as well. Rape is not about sex, it's about power.

We know the rest of the story. Although God has bargained with Abraham to spare Sodom if ten good souls can be found, only Lot, his wife, and daughters are spared. As they are fleeing down the road, Lot's wife cannot help herself and in defiance of God's order, turns back and is transformed into a pillar of salt...the last victim of Sodom. So the use of the penis as a weapon has been with us since the beginning.

Lord Acton said it well: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." What are we to do if this tendency towards violence and domination is inherent to our being? In 1998, researchers in Uganda witnessed a group of chimpanzees beating on and swaggering around another male chimp's freshly killed body. The victims windpipe, fingernails and testicles were torn out. Further research has revealed that "lethal coalitionary aggression" is part of the "normal behavioral repertoire" of the species (David Watts, Yale University).

So back to my three words - gender, race, class - if we are hardwired towards violent confrontation, and a balanced power dynamic is knocked askew, then the powerful begin to be corrupted and act out their violence on any one of the three legs of this stool. In fact, one might say that the most likely victims will be those who have all three strikes against them - the wrong class, the wrong race, and the wrong gender.

This does not always equate to poor, black women. Think of the situation in Zimbabwe. Rich, white farmers ended up being the wrong class, the wrong race, the wrong gender.

Elizabeth and her commenters have called us to action. How, I ask, do we eliminate power from humanity? That, I believe, is the source of this violence.

I am reminded of the words of Jesus regarding the poor always being with us. At first glance it may seem that I am taking that bit out of context. Yet, the woman who broke open the expensive oil to anoint Jesus was criticized because that money might have been better spent on the poor. Jesus's comment is not a denial of the plight of the poor and a justification for doing nothing. Rather he is acknowledging that there will always be the poor in need of assistance and that not doing other equally important tasks focusing solely on the poor is a futile task.

There are those who seem to take the butterfly effect to heart. In their minds, it is important to call out evidence of misogyny wherever they see, hear, or read it. They believe, they seem to have to believe, that such actions will eventually create change in the world. I admire their courage and spirit. I understand the intent.

I myself put great stock in the words of Maya Angelou who refuses to allow an individual to remain in her home if he utters a racist remark because she believes words have energy and existence and power - and she refuses to contaminate her home with that negative energy.

However, like the woman and the expensive oil, perhaps there will be times to let someone else fight the battle--to not spend all one's energy on anger in defiance of the world's misogyny. Mad Priest can be a bit of a prick sometimes, but I for one will only tilt at his windmill on occasion.

Peace.