I have a hard time with the Masculine vs. Feminine thing.
Men and Masculinity are associated with strength, fighting, warriors, anger, truth, the right, the color blue, the elements air and fire, the sun and more.
Women and Femininity are associated with emotions, being gentle, quiet, deceit, the left, the color pink, the elements earth and water, the moon and more.
However there are emotional men and angry, fighting women. There are strong women and weak men. Don't even get me started on the whole men are truthful and women are deceitful things. Why is a baby dressed in blue automatically assumed to be a boy? Why can't boys wear pink and purple?
Some explain it as the Anima/Animus. Put simple, Men have a little women in them and women have a little men. Here's what I mean:
The anima is the feminine aspects of a male psyche: for example, gentelness, tenderness, patience, receptiveness, closeness to nature, readiness to forgive, and so on. The animus is the male side of a female psyche: assertiveness, the will to control and take charge, fighting spirit, and so on.
Every man has a feminine component in his psyche; every woman has a masculine component in hers. Unfortunately, for centuries, and particularily in the western world, it has been considered a virtue - 'the done thing' - for men to suppress their femininity; and until very recently women have been socially conditioned to think it unbecoming to show their masculinity. One result of this has been man's bad treatment of women. Man's fear nad neglect of his own femininity have had dire consequences. Not only has he repressed the femininity in himself; but also, being frightened of women - who are 'the feminine' par excellence - he has suppressed them, kept them subordinate and powerless
From: http://www.mythsdreamssymbols.com/animaanimus.html
My problem with that thinking, is that it still has showing emotions (for example) as a feminine thing. When men do it, it's because they have a little of the feminine in them. Why can't it be that everyone, male or female is different in their own way? Some men are emotional and some aren't. Some women are strong and some aren't. Why can't the only difference between men and women be their genitals?
Research has shown actual difference in the brain and brain structure of males and females. So is it these differences that make many women show their emotions more? Or is it just conditioning from the world that says women are allowed to show emotions but men aren't? I don't know.
2 comments:
What you have to remember about male and female views is that they will differ from culture to culture, person to person. Western thought and Eastern thought are not the same, also if you are working with male or female energies in magick and you do not go for the symbols of man and female in regards to color, emotion etc. then they are not going to work for you and any magic you do will be less effective. There is no right way or wrong way with such things they are only possible methods of looking at something. The Universe is a giant enigma a large sphere and we as humans are light shining on one small part of it bringing with us our own beliefs and such so what we see is reflected as such. I hope you know what I mean. I agree with the animus thing Men have "female" qualities and vice versa. But a lot of the things you mentioned are why I don't wrk with God and Goddess energy. If I am working with Emotion I tend to focus towards the element of Water not the feminine. If you have more questions or are interested in discussing this more email me.
Love
Tony
Kathleen,
I noticed that you linked to my blog, and I want to thank you for that.
I also see that you are thinking (or at least 8 months ago when you wrote this, you *were* thinking) about the anima/animus atchetype. I don't know if you've seen, but on my blog I've written a few times about my meditations in which I've interacted extensively with a woman who claims to be (and acts like) my anima. For this reason, I tend to think that the mental distinction between male and female is real, useful, and desirable. But I also think it's very much a continuum, not a cut-and-dried split.
As a Druid, I also believe in reincarnation, and I strongly suspect that we incarnate as different genders at different times. If that's the case, then "male" and "female" are simply clothes that we wear during a given incarnation.
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