The other day I attended a beautiful concert at the Malmö Festival, being able to really enjoy the festival rather than work for the first time in 6 years. It was a nice show and the artist on stage had a very clear message of women liberation and empowerment.
What struck me is that as the artist was talking about woman plights and women rights, she did so in a very masculine way. It was nearly completely in the immature masculine mode of aggressively taking back and gaining the upper hand in the competition between the masculine and feminine.
As I think about it I realise that this is most often the case, very seldom do we hear a voice of the mature masculine or the mature feminine from the feminist movement (nor from any of the corresponding masculine groups either). I am moved to ask, what would a feminist movement look like that actually fought for and promoted the mature feminine? What would the political debate look like if it came out of the mature feminine rather than out of the immature masculine?
I know that in the Swedish discourse at least this will ruffle some feathers, it is almost forbidden to talk about the masculine and feminine as separate energies. Maybe this is where we go wrong and get lost in the battle of the sexes. Instead of nurturing and loving the feminine and the masculine we try to suppress these energies and pretend they don’t exist or that they are all the same.
In the current climate I do not think I can call myself a feminist anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for equal rights, equal pay, equal opportunities. The societal gender roles are corrupt and bankrupt and needs to be discarded as antiquated models that no longer serve. What I am opposing is the petty competition, the taking back and getting back attitude. The militant move to press the oppressor and the myth that it is easy and smooth sailing to be a man in this post-modern yet still patriarchal society. At the same rate as femininity is being discarded true masculinity also takes the hit and we all loose as we are washing out the baby with the bathwater.
I would love to see a feminist movement that actually fought for the feminine, for the feminine to be recognised and praised. A movement that was equally concerned in keeping and giving space to the masculine. A movement that celebrated our diverse strengths and allowed for our beautiful differences.
