Pegging the Patriarchy in The Cage
Gweetings, Sweet Ears.
In my 15 minutes on the Interwebs this week I found out that sperm donor Elon has ten children, some via IVF. He believes that falling fertility rates threaten humanity than more global warming and it is his duty as a rich white billionaire to contribute to population growth. A gang of his Silicon Valley billionaire friends call themselves pro-natalists and think that selecting babies based on genetic testing is not only normal, but desirable as it should improve the human race.
We have raved in the Cage about governments intervening in the fertility of their populations. A recent UN study shows that three quarters of the world’s nations have fertility policies. 69 nations aim to slow population growth, 55 nations want to increase it. The agenda is often loaded, though. Singapore’s president, Lee Kwan Yu once sponsored love boat cruises for educated citizens in an effort to raise Singapore’s collective IQ.
Echoes of the Handmaid’s Tale, me thinks, and further evidence of the campaign by the patriarchy to protect the patriarchy. The legislative agenda to remove women’s rights in the USA goes hand in hand with the fear of women displayed in conservative politics in both that country and Australia. On one hand, legislative abuse of women is milder than shooting or beating them to death; on the other hand, it prevents women gaining eminence in the public sphere and so retards the evolution of gender balance and respect for women in society.
We tick off Naomi Klein’s the ten easy steps to fascism with alacrity.
Citing smart people who happen to be female, Hannah Arendt reminds us that states resort to violence when they no longer carry the authority to make change peacefully. The nexus between Trump’s disaffected base and the Silicon Valley elite is narrow but potent.
Of course Elon, The Donald, and the rest of the one in ten million (the one per crore) hide behind their screens like the Wizard of Oz but KrystalNacht requires a mob as well as shock-troops and the January 6th attacks on the White House demonstrates those linkages in action.
So, my challenge Sweet Ears, is to ponder how we respond to the patriarchy as it closes ranks in preparation for the Event. The “event” being the major social disruption due to environmental collapse that will likely kill billions of people.
Of course, we have discussed, here in The Cage, the disgusting comments by NSW Attorney General Speakman, Premiers Perrotet and Palaszczuk and Qld Police Chief Katarina Carroll celebrating the incarceration of Climate Activists. In discussing that we have pointed out that despite the hopes of these public figures, the message they send to the rest of us is that protest works and that power is slipping away from the fossil fuel lobbies and their feudal knights in shiny pant suits.
Today I want to explore the relationship between the male focus on fertility and that fear of loss of power … between the domination of women’s bodies and the rise of fascism. Theweleit’s 1987 book Male Fantasies: women, blood, bodies, history was dedicated to the exploration of that relationship.
Domestic violence, is a localised expression of that lust for gratification by domination. Self-identified involuntary celibates, take that public in the mass shootings they commit across the US. Frustrated by their failure to enjoy sexual gratification, jealous of the men who do, they target the people who reject them, or enjoy what they cannot, in other words everyone else.
No wonder then, we label masculinity toxic. The question, though, is how we get men to evolve, to give up their privilege?
Can we be trained? Must we be forced? Surely masculinity itself is not toxic.
The appeal by Clementine Ford for men to stop stealing women’s moments of glory is one example of the ongoing appeals by feminists for men to evolve.
It is accompanied, though, by the recognition that men will not willingly walk away from their privilege, a third party must be involved.
Pete the Temp is one of many voices reminding us that Power cannot be granted but must be taken
Kurdish women took that literally and fought ISIS alongside Kurdish men with the explicit intention that their participation on the battlefield would earn them equality in civilian society. In line with that line, many Kurdish cities have administrations with men and women operating as joint leaders.
Slavery was not abolished by a slave revolt, but by the morally outraged allies of slaves passing laws to restrain the privilege of slavers.
So we must join forces to take power, shame the powerful and wrest their privilege from them,
Women in positions of power make a big difference, the evolved males standing with them accelerate the process.
The rise of pronatalism among the tech-elite and the anti-feminist agenda of conservatives around the world, though, makes it clear, this will not be a gentle process. The battle lines are being drawn.
Sometimes it feels safer inside.
