Here's kinds of questions this blog will address over the coming months:
Love:
What happens when a man falls in love?
Do men connect to women differently than women connect to men?
Why do many men have a problem with commitment?
What drives a man towards a specific "type" of woman?
What are men afraid of in a relationship?
Do men bear a grudge against women?
Why are relationships in general so hard these days? Was it easier in the past?
Why do men often have trouble saying "I love you," and what is the cure?
When we fall in love, we think she's a goddess; when we break up, we call her a bitch. What's that about?
Why is the shape of a woman's body so important to men?
Why is our society fixated on slender young women with big breasts -- a figure that rarely occurs in nature?
Why is the pornography industry so vast? Is it a healthy sexual outlet or does it damage men's relationships with women?
Work:
What's in it for men to accept women as equal partners at home and in the workplace?
How did feminism become a dirty word?
Why do men have difficulty hearing women, and what can be done about it?
Do men and women have different innate skills and talents, or do we all have the same basic abilities? What's the current brain science have to say?
Can men truly accept women as "the boss" at work?
What can women do to break through the glass ceiling?
How might the world of work change if women helped make the rules?
Power:
Are men ready for a woman President/Prime Minister?
Is one women on the Spreme course an example of gender balance?
Why is their such widespread violence towards women in the world?
Is patriarchy -- the rule of males over females -- biologically innate, or ordained by God? If not, how did it start, how could it end, and how can we create a different future?
What is the role of climate change and the creation of patriarchy? (The answer to this one is scary).
What can each of us do in our daily lives to contribute to ending patriarchy and furthering equal partnerships between men and women?
How can one replace a system of dominance and win/lose with one of shared power and collaboration?
What's the best response of egalitarian cultures to "traditional" cultures that deny women basic human rights?
Reading over this list, I confess I don't have the answers all figured out in neat little blog packages -- but I sure think the questions are interesting and worth exploring.
Did I miss something important? Please add your questions to the discussion, and I will do my best to cover them in a future post.
Chapter Outline:
Why an ordinary guy like me cares about these questions.
What drives men's unconscious feelings towards women.
Patterns of relationships, and the "archetypes" of the Goddess that define how men relate to the women in their lives:
1. The Great Mother, Gaia
2. The Maiden: Persephone, Artemis, Mary
3. The Lover: Aphrodite, and Pandora, her "bad girl" counterpart.
4. The Wife and Queen: Hera
5. The Mortal Mother: Demeter
6. The Woman at Work: Athena
7. The Homemaker: Hestia
8. Woman the Witch: Hekate
Male archetypes, how they relate to women, how women relate to them:
1. Zeus the Patriarch
2. Heracles the Hero
3. Apollo, God of Reason
4. Aries the Warrior
5. Eros the Lover
6. Hermes the Trickster
7. Dionysos, the Wild and Free
8. Hephaistos, the Wounded Nerd
(Most of the questions in the overview will be dealt with in the course of examining each archetype, above, and what they reveal for our relationships today).
From personal to social transformation:
I believe society gives us most of our cues as to how to relate and respond to the opposite sex. Similarly, self-knowledge about what drives our personal relationships can be an engine of social transformation. The last section of this project will attempt to outline ways in which men and women can act to help us move beyond patriarchy, so that our children may more naturally forge free, strong and sustaining bonds with those they love. Also, how we live makes a difference for other societies where women remain in bondage that is equivalent to slavery. What positive role can we in the West have in creating global egalitarian transformation?
Finally, I intend to add a troubleshooting section to address readers questions and comments - both practical and theoretical - that arise along the way.
Tim
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Tim Ward
author photo
Tim Ward
About Me
- Tim Ward
- Maryland, United States
- I'm a Canadian-born author of 4 books on spiritual/travel literature, including 3 books on Asia and Buddhism (Arousing the Goddess, the Great Dragon's Fleas, and What the Buddha Never Taught, www.timwardsbooks.com) Savage Breast: One Man's Search for the Goddess was my fourth book, which took me to all the sacred Goddess temples and shrines of southern Europe. Writing this last book has convinced me that the most important task for our generation is replacing the power structures of patriarchy. Men and women need to work together in true partnership in order to create a better future(www.savagebreastbook.com). What's in it for men? I believe men desire deep, meaningful relationships with women, yet most of us feel profoundly thwarted in our attempts at love. The purpose of this blog is to engage men and women in learning about the unconscious forces that drive men in their relationships with women. By becoming conscious of what drives us, and by discussing these things openly, I believe we can forge a better path to healthy, loving relationships. And that this will create a more balanced society for all of us.
4 comments:
Wow. These lists of questions and chapters look great, Tim. They sound like the makings of a thought-provoking and very necessary book. You're off to a good start with the blog, too, I think. You've given people lots of meat to chew on, to respond to.
I was especially struck by one of your last questions: "What positive role can we in the West have in creating global egalitarian transformation?" This is a thorny yet critical issue. I think it's pretty important to try as hard as we can for what I call "multilateral disarmament" of the gods. I'm not so certain it would be good for the west to use Goddess spirituality and archetypes to become sane, while the old Saharasian cultures continued to pattern their lives after their psychotic war-gods ('psychotic' being a term Richard Dawkins applies to Jehovah in The God Delusion).
Athana: Thanks. I agree. Islam and Christianity are stuck in feudal metaphors in which God is "Lord" who deals out punishment for lack of loyalty. How to shift this metaphor to that of healer, lover, mother...that's the question.
Tim
Hi, Tim -
I followed Athana over, but I was looking at the site earlier because someone asked me to review your book. This looks like an interesting project. I look forward to some good discussions.
Hi Tim
Just found your page, interesting questions. Will certainly return. And will link to it from my page.
I think Athana has identified one of the major - if not THE major issue that you address but would go further than her in saying that unless we are working towards creating a new global paradigm then we are in effect kidding ourselves that we are in fact doing anything other than whistling in the dark.
I agree that knowing what to do is tricky - Goddess knows I am stuck in navel-gazing mode much of the time.
Look forward to a long conversation on the nature of a goddess-focussed masculinity
Post a Comment