Amos's River of Justice

Tag: Sociobiology

  • The Misogyny Suburb

    Some time ago it occurred to me that my earnest attempts to correct misogynistic notions are based on a misunderstanding. I thought misogynists were not aware of the facts. But when it comes to the battle of the sexes, the facts are not all that important. They are not even the point. Misogyny is an article of faith. A case in point is the imaginary misogyny suburb discussed by Rebecca Solnit in Harpers Magazine. It may be futile, but I will always have sympathy for those who insist on stating the facts.  That’s what Solnit did in her article, Shooting Down Man the Hunter.

    “Sooner or later in conversations about who we are, who we have been, and who we can be, someone will tell a story about Man the Hunter. It’s a story not just about Man but about Woman and Child too. There are countless variants, but all of them go something like this: In primordial times men went out and hunted and brought home meat to feed women and children, who sat around being dependent on them. In most versions, the story is set in nuclear units, such that men provide only for their own family, and women have no community to help with the kids. In every version, women are baggage that breeds.

    “Though it makes claims about human societies as they existed 200,000 or 5 million years ago, the story itself isn’t so old. Whatever its origins, it seems to have reached a peak of popularity only in the middle of last century…”

    This version of human history traces the dominant socioeconomic arrangements of the late Fifties and early Sixties back to the origins of our species. Therefore, Solnit calls it the story of the 5-million-year-old suburb. 1

    Patriarchy is an Article of Faith.

    In the past I thought the facts mattered. So, I walked into Wikipedia’s Patriarchy article and wasted years of my life. My arguments against the nonsensical claims and unfair tactics of unidentified editors changed nothing.

    Now I know better. I have learned for example that while human evolution may not have progressed the way the sociobiologists say it did, everything they say is ‘true’. What’s more, it has always been ‘true’. And last but not least, it always will be ‘true’. Sociobiology is a scientific remake of the Adam and Eve story.

    Misogyny in the Art World

    The Nation Magazine recently published an article about Sonia Terk. 2 I knew her from Albert Gleizes’s 3 biography as Sonia Delaunay. I hadn’t realized she was Jewish, but according to David Cottington (cited below), just being female would have been enough of a handicap among the French avant-garde.

    One of the changes that took place in the French art business was the appearance in the mid-1890s of sufficient numbers of buyers to make speculation in, and collection of, contemporary art feasible. At first, interest was limited to established artists but the entrance of American collectors like Morgan, Rockefeller and Whitney led to a rise in the cost of impressionist paintings and eventually to increased interest in post-impressionist work. This gave legitimacy to neoimpressionists and nabis. Prices for these works were too high for many collectors, but they encouraged a speculative interest at the lower end of the contemporary market, in the work of young, unorthodox or unknown – but invariably male – artists.

    A Separate Critical Category for Women Artists: Femmes Peintres

    In response to the growing number of women studying and practicing art around 1900, (Terk studied at the Palette) a new critical category was added: femmes peintres. Their work was perceived to carry ‘feminine’ aesthetic sensibilities and interests. As one critic helpfully put into words, the works of females threatened to become a plague, a fearful confusion, and a terrifying stream of mediocrity’. This attitude was a direct result of the construction of artistic identity in terms of masculinity. The idea of individualism, the belief in the autonomy of genius, mastery over the city and its urban spaces, were all seen as male prerogatives. The fantasy was the earthy but poetic male whose life is organized around his instinctual needs. 6

    It’s a sociobiological-feminist apology for fossil fuels!

  • New America Foundation, Quiverfull and the Attack on Reproductive Rights

    On March 31, an opinion was published on the Yahoo Contributor’s Network concerning a Tennessee mother who had her son baptized without the permission of her estranged husband. in this man’s opinion she should go to jail. ((Poupard, Vincent L. Mother who baptized children without consent needs to go to jail. Yahoo Contributor Network. March 31, 2012. Cited April 6, 2012. Available: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/03/30/mother-faces-contempt-jail-for-baptizing-children/)) In light of the ongoing attacks on women’s rights, this suddenly seems like a real possibility. ((Indiana’s Judge Christopher B. Haile Inflicting Maternal Deprivation abuse. Fathers Winning Custody. March 6, 2009. cited April 6, 2012. Available: http://fatherswinningcustody.com/indianas-judge-christopher-b-haile-inflicting-maternal-deprivation-abuse/)) ((Armstrong, Ken and Maureen O’Hagan. Seattle Times Special Report: Twisted ethics of an expert witness. Indiana Mothers for Custodial Justice. June 26, 2011. Cited April 6, 2012. Available: http://imfcj.blogspot.com/))

    The political environment has become decidedly hostile to women, and current legislation only reinforces the trend. Rude remarks about female sexual morality have been a strange part of this entire process. I have already said these pieces of legislation represent [intlink id=”849″ type=”post”]the effort to own female reproductive potential[/intlink]. All things considered, it can be argued that the insulting rhetoric is calculated to obscure the real purpose. These things are typically associated with a natalist policy. Apparently, the government of the United States is attempting to increase the birthrate. Therefore, the ‘slut’ remarks are probably a smokescreen. A chaste population is the last thing they want to see.

    And the lawmakers continue their assault. Since November’s election in Mississippi, Republicans have been in charge of both chambers of the house and have used their position to target abortion. First, the “Heartbeat Bill” was introduced, which would have required doctors to look for a fetal heartbeat before performing an abortion. The detection of a heartbeat would make it illegal for the doctor to continue. Although this bill never made it out of committee, more recently a measure was proposed that will probably cause Mississippi’s only abortion clinic, the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, to shut down. House Bill 1390 would require doctors working at abortion clinics to be Ob-Gyn certified and have admitting privileges to a local hospital. It has passed both houses and Republican Governor Phil Bryant is expected to sign it into law in a matter of days. ((Schmitt, Barbara A. Controversial Measure Would Essentially Shut Down Mississippi’s Only Abortion Clinic. ABC News. April 7 2012. Cited April 7, 2012. Available: http://abcnews.go.com/US/controversial-measure-essentially-shut-mississippis-abortion-clinic/story?id=16088001#.T4CKKe0SHzI))

    The Think Tank, the Church, and Public Policy

    New America Foundation

    In addition to the obvious concerns about women’s rights, there are at least two important directions for this conversation. First, the decision to increase the birthrate is controversial in itself. Second, the methods reveal much about the country’s current direction and those who lead the way. Apparently, a relatively small group of organizations and churches are at the helm, and for quite some time they have been arguing that a higher birthrate is good for the nation’s economic and political future. The New America Foundation is a key player in this effort and is part of a wider cooperative network. The New America Foundation is a ‘non-partisan, public policy institute’ founded by Ted Halstead in 1999. It is headquartered in Washington D.C. and also has a ‘presence’ in California. Phillip Longman is a demographer and a Bernard L. Schwartz Senior Fellow at the Foundation. Longman claims to be a political centrist, however he is influenced by Rick and Jan Hess, promoters of the Quiverfull Movement. Longman has also endorsed Allan Carlson’s views as put forth in his pro-Quiverfull treatise, “The Natural Family: a Manifesto”. Quiverfull is not centrist. Its political persuasion is conservative evangelical. Allan Carlson is a paleoconservative.

    Quiverfull

    The name ‘Quiverfull’ is taken from Psalm 127: “Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies in the gate.” Quiverfull parents often have more than six children; they are home-schoolers, members of fundamentalist churches, and believers in male headship and female submissiveness. The movement began with the publication of Rick and Jan Hess’s 1989 book, A Full Quiver: Family Planning and the Lordship of Christ. In this book the Hesses argue that God is the “Great Physician” and sole “Birth Controller”. Therefore, a woman’s attempt to control her own body is a seizure of divine power. The movement’s core ideas can be tied to conservative Protestant critiques of contraception. Many conservatives believe that when mainline Protestant churches accepted birth control in the 1950s they opened the way for the sexual revolution. Yet, the feminists don’t escape blame–in this view, feminism is a religion that is incompatible with Christianity.

    Population is a big concern for Quiverfull believers; the recent decline in the birthrate of some European countries inspires great fear, and the world’s political turmoil is said to be a consequence of this tendency. Some beliefs will sound familiar to anyone following the current presidential campaigns. They say the pill is an abortifacient and so they support pharmacists who refuse to distribute birth control on moral grounds. Of course, they extend this right of refusal to corporate entities such as insurers.

    Phillip Longman

    In 2006 Longman’s article “The Return of Patriarchy” was published in the March issue of Foreign Policy, a publication of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Longman predicted that falling birthrates throughout advanced societies will lead to financial, political, social and demographic decline and argued that the return of patriarchy is essential to the recovery of higher birthrates and reproduction. He claimed that the cause of falling birthrates is often the loss of social cohesion and he held the feminists and members of the counter-cultural movement of the sixties and seventies to blame for the childless segment of the population. People naturally avoid the costs of parenthood, he said, and the only reason the human race has not gone extinct before now is, patriarchy. Longman was quoted in an interview published in the Christian Post:

    Patriarchal societies come in many varieties and evolve through different stages, he explains. What they have in common are customs and attitudes that collectively serve to maximize fertility and parental investment in the next generation.

    A culture of patriarchy directs men to their responsibilities as husbands and fathers. Men who fail in these responsibilities are seen as inferior to those who are both faithful and effective. Furthermore, a patriarchal structure holds men accountable for the care, protection, discipline, and nurture of children. In such a society, irresponsibility in the tasks of parenthood is seen as a fundamental threat to civilization itself.”

    (He) quotes feminist economist Nancy Folbre, who observed: “Patriarchal control over women tends to increase their specialization in reproductive labor, with important consequences for both the quantity and the quality of their investments in the next generation.” As Longman explains, “Those consequences arguably include: more children receiving more attention from their mothers, who, having few other ways of finding meaning in their lives, become more skilled at keeping their children safe and healthy.” ((Mohler, R. Albert, Jr. Fatherhood and the Future of Civilization. The Christian Post: Opinion. June 13, 2008. cited April 5, 2012. Available: http://www.christianpost.com/news/fatherhood-and-the-future-of-civilization-32799/))

    It seems clear that these ideas provide motive for the laws that restrict birth control and ‘encourage’ marriage. The headline on the cover of that issue of Foreign Policy was “Why Men Rule – and Conservatives Will Inherit the Earth”.

    The Policy Making Network

    As Wikipedia’s ‘Patriarchy’ discussion evolved in 2009, biological determinism was a major argument of the pro-patriarchy editors. At the time I assumed that they represented a minority faction. The individuals and organizations promoting natalism seem to be the missing link.

    Allan C. Carlson

    Allan C. Carlson is president of the Howard Center, a director of the family in America Studies Center, the International Secretary of the World Congress of Families and editor of the Family in America newsletter. He is also former president of the Rockford Institute, where he was a member since 1981. He believes that the post-World War II baby boom in the United States was a Catholic phenomenon, a “heroic” flowering of Catholic family life in America, and he has criticized the impact of feminism on women’s roles in society as disastrous for the family. ((Wikipedia: Allan C. Carlson. cited April 5, 2012. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_C._Carlson))

    The Rockford Institute was founded by Rockford College president John A. Howard in response to the social changes of the 1960s. Allan Carlson was president until 1997 when he and Howard left to form the Howard Center for Family Religion and Society. In 1989, the Lutheran pastor, Richard John Neuhaus and his Religion and Society center were evicted from the Rockford Institute’s New York office after he complained about what he said were racist and anti-semitic tones in the Institute’s Chronicles magazine. Other leading conservatives supported this charge but it was denied by the Institute. Neuhaus’s eviction was interpreted as a division in the conservative movement between paleoconservatives and neoconservatives. ((Wikipedia: Rockford Institute. Cited April 5, 2012. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockford_Institute))

    Richard John Neuhaus

    As a pastor in the 1960s Neuhaus addressed civil rights and social justice and spoke against the Vietnam War. He was active in liberal politics until Roe v. Wade was handed down. Then he became part of the neoconservative movement. He became a Roman Catholic priest in 1990 and was an unofficial advisor of President George W. Bush. In later years he likened the pro-life movement to the Civil Rights struggle. ((Wikipedia: Richard John Neuhaus. Cited April 5, 2012. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_John_Neuhaus))

    The New Biological Determinism

    Allan Carlson, true to his paleoconservative views, uses [intlink id=”6″ type=”post”]sociobiology in the development of policy[/intlink]. ((Wikipedia: Paleoconservatism. cited April 5, 2012. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleoconservatism)) The argument provided by sociobiology goes something like this: Because women are biologically different from men, they have different roles. A woman’s place is in the home. A woman’s most important role is the bearing of children. We have seen that in Longman’s view, patriarchy provides the necessary assurance for this type of social arrangement.

    In Christopher Wolfe’s “The family, civil society, and the state” Carlson argues that while several American political factions uphold family values, they do not have the same definition of family. The type of family structure that Carlson promotes is ‘rooted in human nature: in our genetic inheritance; in our instincts; in our hormones’. He disagrees with those who say the family is changing into new forms better suited to modern life, and claims that the only free cultural choice is between monogamy and polygamy.

    “The so-called ‘changes’ we observe in family living are either deterioration from a natural order, or restoration toward that order: decay or renewal. Holy scripture affirms these truths, and so do the modern sciences of sociology and psychology, sociobiology and paleoanthropology.”

    Religion, History and Dubious Science: the Politics of Birth Control

    Again, this definition of the problem depends on a very selective history. Longman and his fellow pro-natalists insist that everything was fine until the 1960s. This has allowed the pro-natalists to pose as allies of the Libertarians and to blame the feminists and counter-culture movement for any supposed population decline. No one mentions that by the sixties the writings of Thomas Malthus had been widely accepted. Malthus argued for a low birthrate as a response to a limited food supply and a fragile environment. The part played by feminists in this debate differs from the paleoconservatives’ version of it. The people who were fighting for birth control, like Margaret Sanger, were virtually alone in supporting people’s right to have as many children as they wanted.

    The Catholic hierarchy’s position in the birth control debate was resistance to the idea of people having sex without becoming pregnant. Church leaders also worried that if women controlled their own bodies they would be less likely to obey their husbands and the Church. Communists opposed Malthusianism for their own reasons, but were willing to change their population policies depending on the needs of the state. The government of the Soviet Union was the first to provide birth control and abortion, but in the face of war with Germany they banned birth control and paid women to have large families.

    The definition of the problem provided by Longman, Carlson and Quiverfull is criticized for another reason as well. In an essay by Matthew Connelly, author of “Fatal Misconception: the struggle to control world population”, it is argued that predictions about population are a poor guide for policy making. Although the predictions may not come true, they will probably lead to terrifying reactions.

    For most of recorded history population growth has been seen as proof of prosperity and also a measure of sound laws and good government. Based on the birthrate in his time, Teddy Roosevelt was certain America was committing race suicide. As a result, political and religious authorities worked together to deny access to contraception and keep abortion unsafe and illegal. (See link to page 2 below footnotes.)

  • Western Patriarchy

    This was written for the Wikipedia article.  Much of it was deleted in a dispute.  

    Patriarchy is a social system in which the father or eldest male is head of the household, having authority over women and children. Patriarchy also refers to a system of government by males, and to the dominance of men in social or cultural systems. It may also include title being traced through the male line. (Webster’s New World College Dictionary)

    Within feminist theory, patriarchy refers to the structure of modern cultural and political systems, which are ruled by men. Such systems are said to be detrimental to the rights of women. However, it has been noted that patriarchal systems of government do not benefit all men of all classes.

    While the term patriarchy generally refers to institutions, the term is sometimes used less effectively in describing societal attitudes. It has been argued, “Institutions are very persistent and may last, with little change, into a period in which attitudes have altered considerably since the institutions were devised.” Gordon Rattray Taylor used the words “patrist” and “matrist” to describe attitudes (as opposed to institutions), and noted that the outlook of the dominant social group seems to swing between the two extremes. however, the patrist assertion that the patriarchal system of authority was the original and universal system of social organization inevitably leads to the establishment of corresponding institutions.(Taylor, Gordon Rattray. Theories of Matriarchy and Patriarchy. Sex in History )

    History

    Aristotle

    In the third century BC, Aristotle taught that the city-state developed out of the patriarchal family, although he thought the two were different in kind as well as in scale (Lock, John, “Two Treatises of Government, with a supplement Patriarcha by Robert Filmer, edited with an introduction by Thomas I. Cook, New York. Hafner Press, 1947). He wrote that the highest form of human community is the political community. In the Politics, Aristotle attempts to illustrate the nature of the hierarchies that exist in the political community and its subordinate communities. He argues for an origin of male rule. In Chapter Thirteen he states that men and women have different kinds of virtue, “just as those who are natural subjects differ (from those who rule by nature.)” Other types of community, such as the household, are subordinate and inferior to the polis. Aristotle proposed that the household is subordinate to the political community because the aim of life in the household is the mere preservation of life, or the satisfaction of life’s daily needs, whereas the aim of membership in the political community is to live well. He also proposed that the household is inferior to the political community in the character of its rule. In the household, the man rules by virtue of his age and sex, monarchically at best and tyrannically at worst, while in the polis, citizens choose their rulers on the basis of merit. (Stauffer, Dana Jalbert Aristotle’s Account of the Subjection of Women

    Socrates

    Both Plato and Aristotle seem to have followed the lead of Socrates, who denied that citizens had the basic virtue necessary to nurture a good society and equated virtue with knowledge unattainable by ordinary people. During Athens’ struggle with undemocratic Sparta, Socrates favored Sparta (Linder, Doug, The Trial of Socrates).

    Plato

    Plato never mentioned Socrates’ sedition against Athens, but the cosmology of the Timaeus includes the idea that a man who lives well will live a happy and congenial life on his consort star. Failing this his second birth will be as a woman. (41E-42D, on the Creation of Souls).

    The Athenians and the Egyptians Compared

    Other ancient societies contemporary with Aristotle, as well as many Athenians, did not share these views of women, family organization, or political and economic structure (del Giorgio, J.F. The Oldest Europeans. Guadeamus, Caracas, Venezuela, 2003). Egypt left no philosophical record, but Herodotus left a record of his shock at the contrast between the roles of Egyptian women and the women of Athens. He observed that they attended market and were employed in trade. In ancient Egypt a middle-class woman might sit on a local tribunal, engage in real estate transactions, and inherit or bequeath property. Women also secured loans, and witnessed legal documents. Greek influence spread, however, with the conquests of Alexander the Great, who was educated by Aristotle (Bristow, John Temple. “What Paul Really said about Women: an Apostle’s liberating views on equality in marriage, leadership, and love”, Harper Collins, New York, 1991). Eventually, when Alexander wanted to unite his two empires in equality, Aristotle was adamant that all non-Greeks should be enslaved.

    Aristotle and the Jews

    About 200 BC the Jewish Philosopher Aristobulus of Panaeas claimed that Jewish revelation and Aristotelian philosophy were identical. Before another 200 years had passed it was said that Aristotle derived his doctrine directly from Judaism. In the 12th century Aristotlianism was harmonized with Judaism by the Talmudist, philosopher and astronomer, Maimonides. Subsequent rabbinical thought includes such pronouncements as “Eve was not created simultaneously with Adam because God foreknew that later she would be a source of complaint. (Gen. R. xvii), and “Nine curses together with death befell Eve in consequence of her disobedience” (Pirke R. E. Xiv.; Ab. R.N. ii. 42). While Maimonides dared to contradict Aristotle’s ideas in matters of faith, it wasn’t long before the Islamic Philosopher Averroes, endorsed them without reserve. Aristotle in Jewish Legend

    The Christians

    For the last 1800 years Christian leaders have placed great emphasis on the creation of Eve, believing that the story was historical fact, rather than androcentric myth. Combined with the account of the Fall in Genesis, Chapter 3, it has been used as evidence of insurmountable character defects, not just for Eve but for all women. In the 2nd century Tertullian, the son of a centurion and a pagan until middle life, told women believers, “Do you not know that you are Eve?…Because of the death which you brought upon us, even the Son of God had to die” (De cultu feminarum, libri duo I, 1).

    In the 4th Century, the basic attitude was one of puzzlement over the seemingly incongruous fact of woman’s existence. Augustine of Hippo said he could not see how a woman could be any help for a man if the work of childbearing is excluded. However, it was only with Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century that Aristotle’s teachings emerged in the official teachings of Roman Catholicism. Aristotle’s assertion that women are misbegotten males can be found in the Summa Theologica, I 92 I ad 1. The influence of combining Aristotle’s theory with Biblical interpretations can’t be overestimated.

    Christine de Pizan on the Christian Canon

    In about 1404 Christine de Pizan wrote “Le livre de la cite des dames”, a systematic feminist treatise arguing against the misogyny in classical works and the Christian Canon. After the advent of printing, the discourse became known as “the Querelle des femmes” and continued for the next 400 years.

    Sir Robert Filmer and the Divine Right of Kings

    From the time of Martin Luther, Protestantism regularly used the commandment in Exodus 20:12 to justify the duties owed to all superiors. ‘Honor thy father,’ became a euphemism for the duty to obey the king. But it was primarily as a secular doctrine that Aristotle’s appeal took on political meaning. Although many 16th and 17th century theorists agreed with Aristotle’s views concerning the place of women in society, none of them tried to prove political obligation on the basis of the patriarchal family until sometime after 1680. The patriarchal political theory is associated primarily with Sir Robert Filmer. Sometime before 1653, Filmer completed a work entitled Patriarcha. In it he defended the divine right of kings as having title inherited from Adam, the first man of the human race, according to Judeo-Christian tradition.

    John Locke on Filmer

    In 1688 John Locke called Filmer’s all-powerful prince “…this strange kind of domineering phantom called the ‘fatherhood’ which, whoever could catch, presently got empire and unlimited, absolute power.” Locke asserted that if ‘honor thy father’, places everyone in subjection to political authority, then it couldn’t mean the duty owed to natural fathers, since they are subjects. By Filmer’s doctrine fathers have no power since power belongs solely to the prince. Locke also observed that those who propose political rights based on this commandment invariably omit the word ‘mother’ which is present in the Biblical verse. (His editor, however, made a note of Locke’s inconsistency in attributing natural law to the governance of relations between a father and his children, while stating that the law governing relations between a man and his wife is based on legality, or on Eve’s punishment after the Fall. Two Treatises of Government).

    Aristotle’s view, by Locke’s time elevated to an anthropological doctrine, was not weakened by this argument, and subsequent writers continued to give credence to Filmer’s views.

    Nineteenth Century Feminism

    In the 19th Century, Sarah Grimké dared to question the divine origin of the scriptures. Later, Elizabeth Caddy Stanton used Grimke’s criticism of Biblical sources to establish a basis for feminist thought. She published The Woman’s Bible, which proposed a feminist reading of the Old and New Testament. This tendency was enlarged by Feminist theory which denounced the patriarchal Judeo-Christian tradition. (Castro, Ginette. American Feminism: a contemporary history. New York University Press. 1990)

    Theosophy, Evolution and Racism: Patriarchy at its Worst

    In Europe, from about 1770, the rationalist Enlightenment and the desire for mystery had brought about a resurgence of a synthesis of Gnosticism, neoplatonism and kabbalistic theosophy. This particular version arose first in the utilitarian and industrial countries of America and England, with the theosophy of Madame Helena Blavatsky. This had a profound impact in Germany where it fit into the lebenzreform movement. It is likely that Adolf Hitler was influenced by Blavatsky through the writings of Guido von List and Lanz von Liebenfels.

    List sought a chauvinistic mystique for the defense of Germandom against the liberal, socialist and Jewish political forces in the late Wilhelmine Era. His blueprint involved ruthless subjection of non-Aryans in a hierarchical state; qualification of candidates for education or positions in public service, as well as in professions and commerce, based on racial purity. All non-Aryans were to be slaves. His political principles included racial and marital laws, and a patriarchal society where only male heads had full majority and where only Ario-Germans had freedom and citizenship. Each family was to have a genealogical record, proving Aryan lineage. he proposed a new feudalism where only the first-born inherits. These ideas were published as early as 1911 and were similar to the Nuremberg Laws of 1935.

    Darwinist writers, who wrote of blond, blue-eyed Aryans, were influential in the writings of von Liebenfels. Von Liebenfels had illiberal, pan-German and monarchical sentiments. He believed the lower classes were inferior races and must be exterminated along with the weak. Socialism, democracy and feminism were his most important targets. Women were a special problem in his view because they were more prone to bestial lust. He advocated brood mothers in eugenic convents, sterilization and other practices that later influenced the Third Reich, apparent in Himmler’s anticipation of polygamy for his Schutzstaffel (SS), care of unmarried mothers in SS homes, and musings on the education and marriage of chosen women (Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, The Occult Roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan cults and their influence on Nazi ideology: the Ariosophists of Austria and Germany, 1890-1935, New York University Press. 1992).

    Romantics and Marxists

    By 1673, Francois Poullain de la Barre, “On the Equality of the Two Sexes”, had turned feminism into a systematic Enlightenment philosophy (as opposed to the previous Renaissance feminism).(Feminism) However, in 1861, Johann Jakob Bachofen, a German romantic and writer of the counter-Enlightenment said that matriarchy preceded patriarchy, and is superior to patriarchy on moral grounds. Bachofen influenced Karl Marx and Frederick Engles. Marxist analysis has been a basis for subsequent feminist thought. (Stjepan Gabriel Meštrović, Durkheim and postmodern culture. A. de Gruyter, New York. 1992) From the beginning, socialist feminists in France, for example, were challenged by the republic, which “oppressed them as workers and women; by Marxism, which ignores gender; and by the misogyny of their socialist brothers. This struggle continues within all parties of the left (History of Feminism).

  • Patriarchy

    This was written for the Wikipedia article.  Much of that article was deleted in a dispute.  

    What is Patriarchy?

    Patriarchy is a social system in which the father or eldest male is head of the household, having authority over women and children. Patriarchy also refers to a system of government by males, and to the dominance of men in social or cultural systems. It may also include tracing title through the male line (Webster’s New World College Dictionary). Feminist theory considers rule by men to be detrimental to the rights of women. However, patriarchal systems of government do not benefit all men of all classes.

    Patriarchal Institutions versus Patriarchal Attitudes

    The term patriarchy generally refers to institutions but the term is sometimes used for societal attitudes. It has been argued that “Institutions are very persistent and may last, with little change, into a period in which attitudes have altered considerably since the institutions were devised.” Gordon Rattray Taylor used the words “patrist” and “matrist” to describe these attitudes. He noted that the outlook of the dominant social group seems to swing between the two extremes. However, the patrist assertion that the patriarchal system of authority was the original and universal system of social organization leads to the establishment of corresponding institutions (Taylor, Gordon Rattray. Theories of Matriarchy and Patriarchy. Sex in History ).

    History of Western Patriarchy

    Aristotle

    Patriarchy
    Antique illustration of Aristotle Credit: ilbusca

    In the third century BC, Aristotle taught that the city-state developed out of the patriarchal family. However, he thought the family and the state were different in kind as well as in scale.[mfn]Lock, John, “Two Treatises of Government, with a supplement Patriarcha by Robert Filmer, edited with an introduction by Thomas I. Cook, New York. Hafner Press, 1947[/mfn] He wrote that the highest form of human community is the political community.

    The Politics

    In The Politics, Aristotle attempts to illustrate the nature of the hierarchies that exist in the political community and its subordinate communities. He then argues for an origin of male rule. In Chapter Thirteen he states that men and women have different kinds of virtue, “just as those who are natural subjects differ (from those who rule by nature.)” Other types of community, such as the household, are subordinate and inferior to the polis.

    Aristotle proposed that the household is subordinate to the political community because the aim of life in the household is the mere preservation of life, or the satisfaction of life’s daily needs, whereas the aim of membership in the political community is to live well. He also proposed that the household is inferior to the political community in the character of its rule. In the household, the man rules by virtue of his age and sex, monarchically at best and tyrannically at worst. In the polis, citizens choose their rulers on the basis of merit. (Stauffer, Dana Jalbert Aristotle’s Account of the Subjection of Women

    Socrates

    Patriarchy
    Illustration of a bust of the Greek philosopher Socrates after Visconti. credit: Gwengoat

    Both Plato and Aristotle seem to have followed the lead of Socrates. Socrates denied that citizens had the basic virtue necessary to nurture a good society. He equated virtue with knowledge unattainable by ordinary people. During Athens’ struggle with undemocratic Sparta, Socrates favored Sparta (Linder, Doug, The Trial of Socrates).

    Plato

    Patriarchy
    Plato (Greek philosopher, 428/427 BC – 348/347 BC). Lithograph after an antique bust by Joseph Brodtmann (German-swiss engraver and publisher, 1787-1862), published c. 1830. Credit: ZU_09

    Plato never mentioned Socrates’ sedition against Athens. However, the cosmology of the Timaeus includes the idea that a man who lives well will live a happy and congenial life on his consort star. Failing this a man’s second birth will be as a woman. (41E-42D, on the Creation of Souls).

    The Athenians and the Egyptians Compared

    Other ancient societies contemporary with Aristotle, as well as many Athenians, did not share these views of women, family organization, or political and economic structure.[mfn]del Giorgio, J.F. The Oldest Europeans. Guadeamus, Caracas, Venezuela, 2003[/mfn] Egypt left no philosophical record. Herodotus, on the other hand, left a record of his shock at the contrast between the roles of Egyptian women and the women of Athens. He observed that Egyptian women attended market and were employed in trade. In ancient Egypt a middle-class woman might sit on a local tribunal, engage in real estate transactions, and inherit or bequeath property. Women also secured loans, and witnessed legal documents.

    This changed, however. Greek influence spread with the conquests of Alexander the Great, who was educated by Aristotle.[mfn]Bristow, John Temple. “What Paul Really said about Women: an Apostle’s liberating views on equality in marriage, leadership, and love”, Harper Collins, New York, 1991[/mfn] Eventually, when Alexander wanted to unite his two empires in equality, Aristotle was adamant that all non-Greeks should be enslaved.

    Aristotle and the Jews

    About 200 BC the Jewish Philosopher Aristobulus of Panaeas claimed that Jewish revelation and Aristotelian philosophy were identical. Within 200 years, it was assumed that Aristotle derived his doctrine directly from Judaism. In the 12th century the Talmudist philosopher and astronomer, Maimonides harmonized Aristotlianism with Judaism. Subsequent rabbinical thought includes such pronouncements as “Eve was not created simultaneously with Adam because God foreknew that later she would be a source of complaint (Gen. R. xvii). “Nine curses together with death befell Eve in consequence of her disobedience” (Pirke R. E. Xiv.; Ab. R.N. ii. 42). While Maimonides dared to contradict Aristotle’s ideas in matters of faith, it wasn’t long before the Islamic Philosopher Averroes, endorsed them without reserve. Aristotle in Jewish Legend

    Adam and Eve: Patriarchy in Christianity

    For the last 1800 years Christian leaders have placed great emphasis on the creation of Eve, believing that the story was historical fact, rather than androcentric myth. This has been used as evidence of insurmountable character defects, not just for Eve but for all women. In the 2nd century Tertullian, the son of a centurion and a pagan until middle life, told women believers, “Do you not know that you are Eve?…Because of the death which you brought upon us, even the Son of God had to die” (De cultu feminarum, libri duo I, 1).

    In the 4th Century, the basic attitude was one of puzzlement over the fact of woman’s existence. Augustine of Hippo said he could not see how a woman could be any help for a man if the work of childbearing is excluded. However, it was only with Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century that Aristotle’s teachings emerged in the official teachings of Roman Catholicism. In the Summa Theologica, Aristotle asserted that women are misbegotten males (I 92 I ad 1). The influence of combining Aristotle’s theory with Biblical interpretations can’t be overestimated.

    Christine de Pizan on the Christian Canon

    In about 1404 Christine de Pizan wrote “Le livre de la cite des dames”. This was a systematic feminist treatise arguing against the misogyny in classical works and the Christian Canon. After the advent of printing, the discourse became known as “the Querelle des femmes” and continued for the next 400 years.

    Sir Robert Filmer and the Divine Right of Kings

    From the time of Martin Luther, Protestantism regularly used the commandment in Exodus 20:12 to justify the duties owed to all superiors. ‘Honor thy father,’ became a euphemism for the duty to obey the king. But Aristotle’s appeal took on political meaning primarily as a secular doctrine. Although many 16th and 17th century theorists agreed with Aristotle’s views concerning the place of women in society, none of them tried to prove political obligation on the basis of the patriarchal family until sometime after 1680. Sir Robert Filmer is primarily responsible for the patriarchal political theory. Sometime before 1653, Filmer completed a work entitled Patriarcha. In it he defended the divine right of kings as having title inherited from Adam, the first man of the human race. He based this theory on the Judeo-Christian tradition.

    John Locke on Filmer

    In 1688 John Locke called Filmer’s all-powerful prince “…this strange kind of domineering phantom called the ‘fatherhood’ which, whoever could catch, presently got empire and unlimited, absolute power.” Locke asserted that if ‘honor thy father’, places everyone in subjection to political authority, then it couldn’t mean the duty owed to natural fathers, since they are subjects. By Filmer’s doctrine fathers have no power since power belongs solely to the prince. Locke also observed that those who propose political rights based on this commandment invariably omit the word ‘mother’ which is present in the Biblical verse. (His editor, however, made a note of Locke’s inconsistency in attributing natural law to the governance of relations between a father and his children, while stating that the law governing relations between a man and his wife is based on legality, or on Eve’s punishment after the Fall. Two Treatises of Government).

    Aristotle’s view was not weakened by this argument. It had been elevated to an anthropological doctrine.

    Nineteenth Century Feminism

    In the 19th Century, Sarah Grimké dared to question the divine origin of the scriptures. Later, Elizabeth Caddy Stanton used Grimke’s criticism of Biblical sources to establish a basis for feminist thought. She published The Woman’s Bible, which proposed a feminist reading of the Old and New Testament. Subsequently, feminist theory denounced the patriarchal Judeo-Christian tradition. [mfn]Castro, Ginette. American Feminism: a contemporary history. New York University Press. 1990[/mfn]

    Patriarchy
    “Elizabeth Cady Stanton (November 12, 1815 – October 26, 1902) was an American social activist, abolitionist, and leading figure of the early woman’s movement. Illustration was published in 1882″Credit: denisk0

    Theosophy, Evolution and Racism: Patriarchy at its Worst

    In Europe, from about 1770, the rationalist Enlightenment and the desire for mystery had brought about a resurgence of a synthesis of Gnosticism, neoplatonism and kabbalistic theosophy. This particular version arose first in the utilitarian and industrial countries of America and England with the theosophy of Madame Helena Blavatsky. This had a profound impact in Germany where it fit into the lebenzreform movement. Blavatsky probably influenced Adolf Hitler through the writings of Guido von List and Lanz von Liebenfels.

    Guido von List

    List sought a chauvinistic mystique for the defense of Germandom against the liberal, socialist and Jewish political forces in the late Wilhelmine Era. His blueprint involved ruthless subjection of non-Aryans in a hierarchical state; qualification of candidates for education or positions in public service, as well as in professions and commerce, based on racial purity. All non-Aryans were to be slaves. His political principles included racial and marital laws, and a patriarchal society where only male heads had full majority and where only Ario-Germans had freedom and citizenship. Each family was to have a genealogical record, proving Aryan lineage. he proposed a new feudalism where only the first-born inherits. These ideas were published as early as 1911. They were similar to the Nuremberg Laws of 1935.

    Lanz von Liebenfels

    Darwinist writers, who wrote of blond, blue-eyed Aryans, were influential in the writings of von Liebenfels. Von Liebenfels had illiberal, pan-German and monarchical sentiments. He believed the lower classes were inferior races. It followed that they must be exterminated along with the weak. Socialism, democracy and feminism were his most important targets. Women were a special problem in his view because they were more prone to bestial lust. He advocated brood mothers in eugenic convents, sterilization and other practices that later influenced the Third Reich, apparent in Himmler’s anticipation of polygamy for his Schutzstaffel (SS), care of unmarried mothers in SS homes, and musings on the education and marriage of chosen women.[mfn]Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, The Occult Roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan cults and their influence on Nazi ideology: the Ariosophists of Austria and Germany, 1890-1935, New York University Press. 1992[/mfn]

    Romantics and Marxists

    By 1673, Francois Poullain de la Barre, “On the Equality of the Two Sexes”, had turned feminism into a systematic Enlightenment philosophy (as opposed to the previous Renaissance feminism). However, in 1861, Johann Jakob Bachofen, a German romantic and writer of the counter-Enlightenment said that matriarchy preceded patriarchy, and is superior to patriarchy on moral grounds. Bachofen influenced Karl Marx and Frederick Engles. Marxist analysis has been a basis for subsequent feminist thought.[mfn]Stjepan Gabriel Meštrović, Durkheim and postmodern culture. A. de Gruyter, New York. 1992[/mfn]  From the beginning, socialist feminists in France, for example, were challenged by the republic, which “oppressed them as workers and women; by Marxism, which ignores gender; and by the misogyny of their socialist brothers. This struggle continues within all parties of the left (History of Feminism).

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