Elisabeta Zelinka, Femininity Undone. Pending Between Anagnorisis And
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Femininity Undone. Pending between Anagnorisis and Peripeteia Elisabeta Zelinka University of the West, Timişoara To a dear friend Anyndia Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars. Khalil Gibran (1883 – 1931) We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. Charlie Chaplin, The Great Dictator (1940) Abstract: The article investigate different Occidental (West European and USA) lifestyles, values and philosophies, in order to arrive at my result: more and more men and women find themselves in the obvious impossibility to live up to the gender/social expectations of the contemporary Occident. The Author argue that societies that have not yet been fully Occidentalized/ capitalized often preserve a higher level of traditional values, such as human warmth, empathy, spirituality and respect towards the traditional family unit as the basic social unit. Scientific materialism, ergomania, super-technology and the cult of hyper-individualistic competitiveness being lesser than in (over)developed Western countries, these developing societies indeed may be considered economically inferior to Occidental Europe and to the USA. Further on, collectivist cultures with spiritual, nonviolent and pacifist (ahiṃsā) traditions (Hindu, Buddhist) again present a more considerable guarantee of humane values and empathy as compared to the individualistic Occidental cultures. Keywords: feminism, Occidental culture, dehumanization, postmodern culture, sexualization Colloquium politicum Vol. 3, Nr. 1 (5), January-June 2012 Introduction The dusk of the 20th century – the dawn of the 21st century, a transitory epoch and stage in human history as well as in the Occidental individual’s psychosocial profile, marked by an instant of anagnorisis: the post Cartesian/post Industrial Revolution paradigms of modus vivendi, epistemology, axiological axes and Weltanschauung prove to be suffocating the Occidental capitalist individual, his inner jihad, his self-analytical needs and capacities, his humanity, inner peace and equilibrium. The present contemporary anagnorisis warns that the super- competitive, over-individualistic, ‘capital’-ist Westerner has traded his inner peace and balance precisely for the present Occidental ‘capital’, thus embracing materialism, “scientific materialism” (Dalai Lama, 2011, 66) and a “McDonaldized” (Ritzer, 2003, 13-50) android-like lifestyle. He has over- technologized / robotized himself and his modus vivendi and he has over- masculinized his axiological system to such extent that now he has become a void, alienated, depressive automaton, diligently attending therapists’ counseling. Moreover, the contemporary Occidental woman is being choked in the vise of traditional gender roles, family and maternity versus the semi- or misapplied gender liberties she has gained over the last two centuries. Methods In the present article I will apply the critical, analytical research method as well as the analytical comparison in investigating different Occidental (West European and USA) lifestyles, values and philosophies, in order to arrive at my result: more and more men and women find themselves in the obvious impossibility to live up to the gender / social expectations of the contemporary Occident. Results: Postmodern Soul. Masculine Ablation and Abolition One of the first psycho-social consequences of the post Cartesian era is the over accentuation of masculinity-related values. The new pseudo gods of the 20th century, that have been gearing mankind since the Industrial Revolution (sterile Reason and Science, unprecedented scientific materialism and positivism, dehumanizing super-technology and schizoid, virtual realities, God replacing Genetics laboratories, the over-accentuated cult of the capital, job and workplace, the aggressive cult of individualistic over-competitiveness) gradually ousted the femininity-related deontological and existential values, although they are a priori conditions for personal inner balance and harmony: empathy, sympathy, spirituality and spiritual / moral values, self-analysis and inner jihad (Nasr, 1987, 33), communicativeness. 28 Vol. 3, Nr. 1 (5), January-June 2012 Colloquium politicum Moreover, the unresolved, swift transition from the traditional societal and gender values to the postmodern gender roles has inflicted psychosocial wounds, questions, mistrust and alienation: (semi)masculinized, frustrated women and castrated, frustrated men. We are facing a challenging 21st century reality: neither-nor entities trapped within postmodern hermaphroditism and their traumatized offsprings, misbalanced family harmony and shattered childhood and youth. Therefore I dare pose the following interrogation: has the postmodern Occidental android failed the ideals of the French Revolution of liberté, égalité, fraternité, ideals that he so desperately fought for, no longer than two centuries ago? After self-sacrifice and bloodshed for the ‘liberty’ of his spirit and mind, he in fact paid reverence to the Industrial and to the Scientific/Technological Revolutions, becoming their ‘soul-washed’ and brainwashed, automatized slave. Consequently, another psycho-social issue needs to be faced: is the Occidental ‘slave’ on the verge of an imminent illumination and peripeteia? Will the 21st century give him the force to veer around or will he dissolve in the contemporary web of paradoxes and of oppositional binaries: (apparent) utmost freedom and human rights versus drifting, alienation, neuroses, metaphysical loneliness, incertitude, divorces, unprecedented informatization versus lack of knowledge in maintaining gender and family roles, super technology gagdets versus lack of time, religious liberty versus pseudo-gods? It is a fact that the illuminated minds of the 19th – 21st centuries have been constantly warning the Occidental android over these dehumanizing jeopardies: all the aforementioned masculine / masculinizing values, macerate the quintessence of the ‘eternal feminine’, the subsistence of the affection based family and of community life. In the same line of thoughts, illuminated minds are warning the postmodern hyper rational human: Anne Lamott (1994, 112) argues in her bestseller Bird by Bird: Some Instruction on Writing and Life: “You get your intuition back when you make space for it, when you stop the chattering of the rational mind. The rational mind doesn’t nourish you. You assume that it gives you the truth, because the rational mind is the golden calf that this culture worships, but this is not true. Rationality squeezes out much that is rich and juicy and fascinating.” Similarly, in his shattering speech The Great Dictator, Charlie Chaplin emphasizes the same scientific materialism that has overshadowed the human being’s soul, intuition and humanity: “we have lost the way. We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost. We think too much, we feel too little” (The Great Dictator, 1940). 29 Colloquium politicum Vol. 3, Nr. 1 (5), January-June 2012 A Culture of Aggressiveness and Psychosocial Exhibitionism The majority of contemporary literature also mirrors the aforementioned dehumanization of the Occidental individual and the aggressive overtaking of his soul by hyper-technologized, over-competitive individualism. The list is long, yet not exhaustive: Isaac Asimov’s works, especially his celebrated novella Profession (1957 / 1959), Cunningham’s Specimen Days (2005), Coelho’s Veronika Decides to Die (1998), Huxleys’ Brave New World (1931), Jelinek’s The Piano Teacher (1983), Orwell’s Animal Farm (1945) and 1984 (1949), Gabriel García Márquez’s novella Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1981), Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus (1984), Charles Stross’ novel Glasshouse (2006) or Foucault’s concept of the Panoptic Tower in his Discipline and Punish (1975), further developed by Shoshana Zuboff in In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power (1988), Jensen and Draffan in Welcome to the Machine: Science, Surveillance, and the Culture of Control (2004 ). Secondly, the entertainment and the film industries mirror the same set of psychosocial, emotional, cultural and familial vise crushing the confused Occidental individual, especially the contemporary woman and her transition- trapped family. It is imperative to mention that neither of them proves able to provide the postmodern woman with viable advice or existential role models that might function for her and for her family. Some of the best examples of cinematic productions in this sense might be: Nip / Tuck (2003 – 2010), Sex and the City (1998 – 2004), Private Practice (2007 - 2013), Lipstick Jungle (2008 - 2009), Grey’s Anatomy (2005 - ), Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001), Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004), The Hours (2002), Wit (2001), Elegy (2008), Sex and the City (2008), Amour (2012), October Baby (2011) or Eat, Pray, Love (2010). Thirdly, within music industry, the overwhelming majority of Western female superstars / postmodern goddesses promote the same aggressive,