How did women become the other and subjected to so much abuse at the hands of men? In the context of a perfect Creation everything had a perfect beginning. “But then a fly came into the ointment, a forked-tongued dualistic ‘snake’ into the garden (Gen. 3:1-13). This snake was a liar and the Father of Lies (John 8:44). He induced Adam and Eve to use their dualistic reasoning minds to create still another polarity, this one an entirely unnatural one, one not found in Nature or anywhere else in the creation of totally good wholeness (each made up of a positive and negative pole) that God had just finished making. Falling for the snake’s seduction, Adam and Eve used their dualistic reasoning minds to create the wholly artificial, synthetic, and false polarity of good versus evil. This, as well we all know, is the ‘original sin.’ The original sin—as described with great accuracy in the third chapter of Genesis—is believing that there is such a thing as sin in the first place! And from this original lie has come so much misery.”[i]
So if the snake is to blame, why do women too often elicit fear in men? How else to explain, for example, the treatment of Native American women today. “Over 84 percent of Native women have experienced violence in their lifetime, and over 56 percent of Native women have experienced sexual violence. This is data directly from the federal government—and these are probably low estimates.”[ii]
Men might be quick to deny that they fear women but the evidence to the contrary is overwhelming. For example, when women in America were struggling for equal rights, how their leaders were depicted as the other revealed how men were indeed threatened. “Throughout the 19th century and into the 20th, Americans had encountered images showing suffragists as old, mannish and unattractive. In pursuing the vote, women were portrayed as threatening national values, the sanctity of the home and their husband’s masculinity.”[iii]
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Supplemental Reading: Women, The ABC’s of Simple Reality, Vol 2
#8 The Female Other
[i] Henry, Roy Charles. The ABC’s Of Simple Reality Volume II. May 2018, p. 239.
[ii] Cahill, Cathleen D. and Sarah Deer. “Native Women’s Uphill Battle for a Voice.” The New York Times. August 16, 2020, p. 24.
[iii] Diamond, Anna. “Adding a Pen to the Might of the Sword.” The New York Times. August 18, 2020, p. 30.
