Dual nature, yin and yang

[hyphenate]

I have been reading Chris Hedges book, American Fascists, and I came upon an interesting statement. Hedges talks about how the religious right (the whackos, IOW) has a great deal of male-dominant history, and that women are all subservient to men. Well, we know that already, don't we? But then he mentions the duality of the right, where everything is laid out in completely black and white terms, with no capacity for shades of gray at all. (We knew that, too)

But while he is making his point, one thing occurred to me that he didn't mention, and I'm wondering if this is somehow accepted by males of the RRR contingent. If their "God" is a male, and everything is completely polar in their limited world, wouldn't that make the devil a woman? Sort of like God's better half? And since "giving in" to "Satan" means (unspoken) to allow science and knowledge to be more important than emotions and blind faith, wouldn't that also mean that the RRR believes women are smarter than men, and that's one of the reasons RRR men hate women in general, that by their own plan of worship, women have (figuratively) got them by the balls?

Understand, I'm only talking about those on the far-wrong of the political and religious scale--those who are patsies for everyone from Rush Limbaugh to Pat Robertson, and a few notables in between. Those who will attempt to keep women in their place, suborn them and keep them in the kitchens, barefoot and pregnant. However, having said that, it does seem that through much of the past two millennia that the role of women has barely managed to make it to first base because of the men in the world in general. Before the Xian revolution, women often had much better lives in some places where civilization flourished--Egypt, Rome, even Greece. Then suddenly, (well, over a couple of hundred years, actually) women became less regarded, had no way to defend themselves, were accused of being witches (which actually relates back to the unspoken thought that the devil is a woman), were burned at the stake as heretics, necromancers and in league with the devil. Very few women in the past two millennia have been lauded in any role where men were always the heroes. And it's only been in the past century and a half that we finally see women being allowed to participate in formerly "male-only" roles.

So, it is clear--the RRR still fears women, believes the master of temptation is really a "mistress" and that they (men) are really the impotent ones in society, because otherwise they wouldn't be putting all the constraints on us that they have. :)

[knitter4democracy]

1. Sounds like some guys I went to college with.

Stupid evangelical college. *sigh*

Usually, in my English classes especially, the loudest sexist jerks were the ones who knew that the women in the class had better ideas and were smarter, so they'd do anything to bully and intimidate us into shutting up. I was never any good at that. ;)

[Occam Bandage]

2. The sexualization of Satan is interesting, but it doesn't *quite* work that way.

The God/Satan split is not a male/female split, but a rational-man/animal-man split. God is austere, removed, and possessing infinite wisdom, infinite intelligence, and the ability to create, preserve, and love with pure agape. He is male, but is nonsexually male; he possesses the essence of creation of life, but is not a being desirous of pleasure. He creates to create. He doesn't fuck.

Satan, on the other hand, is wildly emotional, cunning, and violent. He possesses arrogance, charisma, and while he possesses power, it is power to destroy and to corrupt. He is male, and sexually male. While he does not create life, he enjoys pleasure--especially the pleasure derived from treating others as objects, whether to be abused, to be manipulated, or to be fucked. He is in Medieval art frequently depicted with grossly oversized genitals, as well as other features reminiscent of the wild satyrs of Greek mythology; a Satan without hooves, without horns, without shaggy legs is rare indeed.

Satan is the embodiment of man as an animal. God is the embodiment of the perfection of man as a rational creator. (As a bit of an aside, they are not equal; dualism is considered a grievous error by the Catholic and Orthodox churches. Christianity believes that rational-man is inherently triumphant over the animal-man, and along with that God is inherently triumphant over Satan.)