[Originally published December 9, 2017]
The following is dedicated to #MeToo, the platform
employed by so many brave women to speak out. The nascent movement marks an uptick on the moral graph of US history, one that
will hopefully endure as a new standard, even as it elicits a higher level of
national justice and a widening florescence of conscience.
This blog has often railed against institutionalized denial The sort of denial that infects the American
psyche in relation to sexism, racism and other forms of oppression. From a psychological perspective, it is
mind-boggling to observe the entrenched, willful ignorance of the nation. Emotionally, it is heart-wrenching, agonizing
and isolating. Feminists challenge an
epidemic of violence and lies. For this
straightforward and brave honesty, they get ignored, passive-aggressively
goaded, punished or attacked. The
problem is like an unseen elephant in every room. Rape, domestic violence, child abuse,
harassment, coercion, stalking, street-taunting, they happen all the time, if
not to you then a friend, colleague, relative or lover,. But no one wants to hear. Men especially are badly and pitiably
lagging. It makes me ashamed to be a
man.
It is obvious that they-who-hide know what's going
on. They know, even while claiming the
opposite. Maybe this knowledge is
subconscious, but it exists. The
'objectivity' of bureaucratic condescension and derision is, in fact, a case of
knowing while pretending not to know.
One of the most common tactics of they-who-hide is to cherry-pick certain
individual cases while refusing to look at the larger picture.
Sexism has an invisible, subliminal, deceitful,
insidious aspect, one that is dynamic, couched in an adaptive ignorance. This ignorance is a great challenge to any
open-minded activist. It forces a mighty
frustration on those who would seek the good.
It is easy for this frustration to slide into hate. Feminists are human. To deal with hate in a healthy way is
incredibly hard. It is a virtuous feat,
one far too rarely validated.
As Donald Trump has demonstrated in his deranged
way, hate can be seductive and magnetic. Hate, wielded by a dark leader, pulls
people into blind passion and locks the doors of critical thinking. Donald Trump's followers go that route. But feminists, seeking to dissolve the power
of ignorance, rather than reinforce it, must avoid that path at any cost.
This is not to say that feminists don't feel
frustration and even hate. They must
strive to form very different relationships with those
emotions than people seduced by demagogues.
In this sense alone, aside from the rest, feminist activists face a huge challenge. The moral strength required to fend off
destructive hate cannot be overstated.
Confronted by the stonewalling ignorance of patriarchy--and all the
violence and wrongness that ignorance cloaks and perpetuates--it is so very
hard to keep frustration from bursting into a froth of spite, and from there
descending into a state of cruelty beyond reason.
Feminists struggle--with great difficulty--to
nurture their ethos and caring while dealing with the pain of their moral
awareness. Again, this is tremendously
hard. And, again, it is little rewarded
or even acknowledged as a task. In
defense of their own sanity, a feminist might step back from a personal
perspective. Go scholarly. However, it is quite possible to step
back in the wrong way, to succumb to a kind of bureaucratic 'objectivity'--the sort of 'objectivity' that is not
reasonable at all, but rather obliterates personal concern and surrenders to
the status quo.
Indeed, our justice system (USA), with its own
'objectivity', fails to see the obvious:
the ubiquitous blight of abuse, derision, dismissal, assault, rape, and
harassment.
When challenging sexism, whether through protest
or scholarship, it is important to appreciate its versatility. When we think of ignorance, we often think of
a flock of sheep. Sheep = dumb. The association is almost automatic. But it is also highly misleading. As I've written in the past, ignorance is
smart. It maintains and regenerates
itself, often through new frames and slants.
It swims in the steady flow of mini-arguments and memes presented by
politicians and media manipulators.
Ignorance contains specious arguments, prejudiced
appraisals, contumacious verisimilitudes.
It includes a hate-fear dialectic.
The fortification and maintenance of sexist ignorance is a mighty task,
a central task, of a male-ruled culture.
It needs to co-opt all cognitive layers of the brains it saturates. Ignorance is not so much about not seeing as
it is a means to entrench 'not seeing' as an unacknowledged norm.
Even the physical senses, studies show, can be
co-opted. Hence someone can see two lines
as being equal, when in fact they are of very different length. Subconscious filters are
vital to the interests of ignorance. Deep within the synaptic pathways--that is, by far, where the primary battle takes place.
The power of ignorance shapes civilizations. Accepted expressions of art, music, science,
religion and philosophy mold minds. One
generation programs the next. Thinkers
and artists rise to prominence because they satisfy the gatekeepers of the
status quo. Genius usually supports,
rather than subverts, what those in power authorize. Such co-opted genius may be zealous and
direct; or insidious and passive, a simple failure to address injustice. Pleasuring and mollifying the masses--a
lotus-eater effect--is at least as important as is the direct reinforcement of
patriarchal ideology. Pleasuring is a
seduction of diversion, whereas direct reinforcement is a legerdemain of
casuistry.
What does it mean to confront ignorance? It means facing a mental power, a political
patience, a confrontational stamina, that far exceeds your own. Ignorance is, in effect, a commodity for
those at the top. It is something
manufactured that pays dividends. A way
to control the masses. The investment is
protected at the Faustian cost of corrupting both society and soul. The process is addictive for those in
power. It becomes habitual, as well as
stressful and desperate. A failure to
properly manufacture ignorance could make the masses to turn on you. Or, perhaps worse, your conscience rises from
its ashes. What more painful than the
realization of your life's purpose as malign?
To conclude, confronting sexist ignorance is a
tremendous task, one carried out by courageous feminists, those who are continuously
tarred with ridicule and threat.
Feminist bloggers receive floods of invective. Graphic depictions of their upcoming murder and rape. To deal with this constantly, or even slightly, is to stare the darkest, most raw side of humanity in the face. It is, in a sense, to witness an archetype of Evil in action. Because it is so hard and courageous to face such total darkness--and tangible physical risk--many feminists eschew their websites and seek other
routes.
Again, the fury that targets them is
torrential. Beyond scary. Welcome to the USA, early 21st century.
Sometimes, however, seemingly out of nowhere, even
during the darkest of times, there is a miraculous shift. For those of the greatest and yet
least-rewarded virtue, those feminists who have challenged the system all their
lives, these rare moments come only after a soul-grinding journey of conflict,
pain, and fortitude. Indeed,
such special people often don't live long enough to see the blossoms of
positive change that they helped to seed.
For all of us, there is the following inspiration
to be had from the #MeToo movement. Even
when we don't think we're making a difference, we well might be. The initial rumblings of seismic change take
place below society's collective mental surface. Only afterward do they manifest consciously.
This quote, from a recent op-ed on #MeToo,
reinforces the point:
We are seeing an example of how social change
often (and increasingly) takes place. Advocates of a cause can push for a long
time with little apparent effect. Then, in a historical blink, what seemed
incredible becomes inevitable. Over a period of years, this is what happened
with the same-sex marriage movement. A type of inclusion that initially
appeared radical and frightening became an obvious form of fairness to a
majority of Americans.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/no-country-for-scary-judgmental-old-men/2017/11/23/4faa93de-cfb2-11e7-81bc-c55a220c8cbe_story.html
------
Posts
