Doru Pop Patriarchal Discourses and Anti-Feminine Attitudes in Romanian Political and Media Cultures

Caietele Echinox, vol. 30, 2016 : Repenser le politique… 303 Doru Pop Patriarchal Discourses and Anti-Feminine Attitudes in Romanian Political and Media Cultures ABSTRACT The official statistics made public by This paper has three main research objectives. The the national institutions and the European first is to analyze the main types of representations research barometers confirm a fact other- and roles attributed to women in the Romanian wise clear for those living in our society: political sphere. The second is to describe the social Romania today is still a predominantly roles ascribed to women in various fields of visual patriarchal society, where multiple gender culture. By overviewing several discourses used in gaps are creating huge inequalities between fields like media, advertising and cinema, this men and women. This male dominant analysis searches for clues in the inner mechanisms of contemporary Romanian social dynamics. The society is also macho-ist, in the sense that it final and overall objective is to provide a map of the cultivates a type of masculinity which is representations of women in both public and private arrogant and aggressive, displaying violent space in Romania today. The research focus is to and rude behavior as a sign of dominance. sum-up the main elements of what could be called One of the most important gender the “Romanian imaginary” with respect to the disparities is at the level of decision making, representations of femininity, womanhood and, manifested in the radically different political generally, the relationship between males and roles attributed to males and females at females. Finally, this relationship between men to various levels of administration, both national women is used as an indicator and as an explanatory tool for understanding the more profound mech- and regional. According to some data pro- anisms that are operating in the deep rooted biases vided by the Ministry of Labour, this gap is of Romanian society. By using a series of case unequivocal at the highest levels of govern- studies from the political sphere and the media, the ment, with the political representation in the author searches for arguments that would explain Bucharest Parliament displaying an explicit the formation and the continuation of a patriarchal discriminatory attitude towards women. Even culture, dominated by a “macho men” mythology. if more than 51% of the electorate is KEY WORDS composed of women, currently only 9,4% Patriarchy; Feminism; Gender and Culture; Political of the members of the Senate and 11,2% of Discrimination; Violence Against Women; Media the House of Representatives are women. Representation of Women; Objectification. Out of the 22 ministers of the cabinet, only 3 were women with the situation getting DORU POP even worse at the local and regional public Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania administration level, where only 7% of the [email protected] Doru Pop 304 county managers (prefects) of representing of femininity and woman- and 4% of the mayors are hood. women at this moment. The The main concept used here will be statistical data makes clear that the Roma- “imaginary” which, although a theoretical nian politics is dominated by men1. Even barbarism, covers and describes the common the United Arab Emirates have a higher rate mechanisms of the collective psyche. Using of political participation of women in the the term of imaginary (and not imagination) overall process of decision making. This is allows explaining the dominant types of why the first research question of this paper relationships between men and women in will deal with the political representations Romanian society, media, politics and of women. private space. Other major discrepancies are observable in multiple other social contexts, yet, as shown by the main indicators of Eurostat, in A Brief Historical Survey the Masculine the Romanian society there is an extremely Over-Empowering in Politics high gender gap in education, labour and wages, health and overall access to re- When I am describing Romanian soci- sources2. For example, although 60% of the ety as patriarchal I am using the classical graduates of higher education are women, definition of the concept, as it was ex- the teaching staff remains predominantly plained and detailed by Kate Millett3. The male at the tertiary level. The inequalities most important part of this definition, useful continue in the general workforce, since the here, is seeing patriarchy as a trans-political rate of employment is 20% lower for wom- form of politics, beyond specific governments en than for men and the medium wages of and ideologies, since it is a manifestation of women are 8% lower than those of their exclusive male power. There is a long male counterparts. These genders gaps in history of patriarchy and of patriarchal social relevance are even more profound politics, as convincingly this classical feminist when it comes to the public imaginary and author claims, which cannot be determined the cultural roles women are distributed in by historical specificity or particular cultural the Romanian society. Thus the second re- contexts. It is rather a manifestation of a search question will analyze the representation process designed to “control and subordinate” mechanisms of women. women throughout known history. Last but not least, the purpose of this This gender based segregation was paper is to provide a general map of the seen by the classical Marxist theorists, as it media discourses related to women and their was developed mostly by Engels in his identity formation. Looking into recent Ro- famous work “The Origin of the Family, manian cultural, media and political repre- Private Property and the State”4, with links sentations, the focus will be to describe how to patriarchal exploitation and capitalist pro- women are portrayed in various fields in duction. In fact, as later suggested by Juliet visual communication. In contemporary Ro- Mitchell5, patriarchy is in and of itself a manian society the discourses that are used form of ideology, a cultural manifestation of in politics and society become practices in sexual domination, which is not strictly the private space, so the transfer from ad- linked to capitalism or labor exploitation. vertising and media images will allow us to In the following I will be using this describe in qualitative terms the Romanian cultural approach definition, or even more imaginary today, the elements and structures specific, a description of patriarchy as a Patriarchal Discourses and Anti-Feminine Attitudes… psycho-cultural manifestation. It is this Returning to the specific 305 aspect of the patriarchal relations that my Romanian historical back- analysis would be focusing on, a patriarchy ground, I must begin by defined as a type of relationship which has stating that patriarchal mentalities continued most primitive roots in our civilization, ones to dominate our society even during com- that can be traced as early as the 2nd millen- munism. Although the main Marxist ideo- nium before our era6. Particularly the impli- logical values were centering on the cations and the recent manifestations of this liberation of women from the captivity of mythological and cultural function of patri- the bourgeois exploitation, this promise was archal values, which was transmitted in never fulfilled, since even during the com- human societies as a bi-product of historical munist regime in Romania women continued relevance, is the object of this interpretation. to be distributed in subservient and domestic In order to have a more nuanced dis- roles. cussion about the gender roles in contemporary Romanian society, I think it would be proper to add to patriarchy another important Submitting Ourselves to the All-Powerful notion, a necessary distinction which is Father provided by the term machismo. Even if initially the concept of “macho” was used The fact that Nicolae Ceauşescu for describing Latin American gender cul- developed his own cult of personality, based tures, machismo represents a type of mascu- on the patriarchal mythologies and the linity which is often manifested in countries Father-figure imaginary and was inspired by like Romania. By macho I understand a Stalin or Mao, lead to the accentuation of form of masculine social behavior by which the traits of an already paternalistic society. virility is presented as socially desirable, as Using the overall submissiveness existing in privileged and valuable, without being Romania and by replicating pre-existing necessary dominant in terms of the political paternalistic discourses, Ceauşescu projected order. A macho culture invests manhood himself as the “Father of the nation”. In this with “special” qualities and persuades even new “socialist patriarchy,” which fed on women that being a man is better and that traditional nationalistic predispositions, the women need to accept this “natural” trait of Supreme Leader claimed that he descended males. As Guttman described “macho” in its from the great kings of the past (like Bure- Mexican context, this is a term circum- bista, the so-called creator of the Dacian scribing various types of male behaviors, state). As I detailed in another research8, from public displays of virility in gangs to this patriarchal leadership constructed a new clear male chauvinism in the work space. “Macho Romania,” where the public imagi- Thus we must understand the role played in nation was flooded with images built upon society by the psychology of machismo – the symbolics of masculinity. As seen in which is including a certain phallic self- this illustration showing Ceauşescu taking identity and ostentatiously exhibition of the “scepter of power” as President of So- typical aggressive attitudes. The macho is cialist Romania, the typical kingly pose was always “in charge,” takes over discussions borrowed in a society apparently designed and is constantly controlling others by to bring forward equality (photo 1). Albeit asserting its manhood, even cultivating a ideologically the regime was supposed to certain disrespect towards authority or create gender equality, during the Ceauşescu social restrictions7.

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