File spoon-archives/bataille.archive/bataille_1999/bataille.9908, message 173


Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1999 10:00:08 +1000
From: David Quinn <davidquinn-AT-ozemail.com.au>
Subject: re: dis and dat


Dan Rowden wrote:

>>>Men spend a lot of their time trying desperately to turn a blind eye to
>>>this incongruency.  How could they love a woman if she is not just like his
>>>idealistic image of her?  How could any man actually love the irrational
>>>and unconscious bag of bones and blood that she is, in reality? 
>>
>DQ:
>>Perhaps the principle is the same as when people join religions they know to
>>be foolish and crazy - such as the Hare Krishnas, Jehovah Witnesses, the
>>Orange people, the Roman Catholics, and so on.    Here the whole point is to
>>abandon rationality at the door and thereby free oneself from all the
>>responsibilities and cares that come with being conscious.   Perhaps by
>>getting involved with a woman - who, just like a clown, regularly puts on
>>her lipstick, earrings and dresses and behaves in her bubbly, childish
>>manner - a man hopes that the foolishness of it all will save him from
>>having to partake in a more conscious kind of existence.  
>
>Woman is a holiday from consciousness, no doubt about that.  And most men,
>it seems, are determined to have extended holidays.  Perhaps this is one of
>the motivating forces behind the backlash against feminism (such that it
>exists)?  Women *appeared* (and I stress "appeared") to be getting more
>serious, more socially concerned, more politically/philosophically aware,
>more aggressive, more career minded, more business-like, more independent:
>dare I say it - more masculine! Perhaps many men saw this as the erosion of
>their holiday possibilities.  All of a sudden they saw Disneyland being
>turned into a hive of political and philosophic activity, a very serious
>place indeed.  I'm sure this panicked quite a few men. 

And women even more so.   If it's the case that man sees woman as an
excellent holiday from consciousness, then woman sees the femininity in her
own mind as a realm of existence from which she must never, under any
circumstances, depart.  A woman leaving the feminine behind is a bit like a
fish leaving water behind - she tends to thrash about in panic.    This is
what will always stop her from becoming enlightened. 

The essential problem is that girls, unlike boys, don't get the chance to
plant strong masculine roots at a very young age.   So they end up having no
alternative but to stagnate lifelessly within their femininity and become
mediocre beings, which is the lot of nearly all women.   No doubt, there are
exceptions.  Marsha Faizi seems to be a woman who can leave her femininity
behind for extended periods of time, even though she clearly suffers for it.


David Quinn


   

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