Subservience versus being of Service

[Guest guest]

Hi All,

       I was in the midst of a fascinating discussion on another list, and

had some thoughts on social conditioning and womanhood, and I want to share

these thoughts with you on women, subservience, and the difference between being

subservient and being Of Service. To me these thoughts are directly related to

why it is so important to remember to work with and elevate the Divine

Feminine to a status that is equal to the Divine Masculine. Our spiritualities

and

religions are the templates by which we live. Often even Divine Feminine

Beings are made to seem lesser to the Divine Masculine beings in some ways, and

I

feel this has a profound and far reaching deliterious effect on women's role

in society. Here is my informal essay on this topic:

       It's tough to be a liberated woman today.  Sure if one is surrounded

in a nuclear community that honors women that is nice, but otherwise, the rest

of society in general is fairly unevolved, imho.

       There are business women, who are fairly evolved -- professional women

-- who are fairly evolved, but even among them often what one finds is merely

a flip flopping or trade off where the woman assumes the work place freedom

of a man, and at the same time continues to devalue herself as a women: some of

the BIOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS of womanhood are STILL seen as sickness while male

biological FUNCTIONS are seen as glorious and viagra is advertised on all the

sports games!   When my sister recently had a baby, the rather progressive

place she works for gave her 3 months of maternity leave but do you think they

would Call it maternity leave?  No.  They called it "Temporary Disability" and

my

very strong willed and independent sister who's always said she'd rather be a

man, had a very big identity crisis learning how to honor the biological

Functions of womanhood.

       I remember my mother cursing about the curse of womanhood.

       I think women will be truly liberated when we are able to celebrate

ALL facets of our being.  It's not balanced to celebrate our freedom in the

workplace and continue to unconsciously or consciously devalue ourselves as

women

and see our bodily functions as illness and act out roles of subservience,

even in the workplace.

       It is not that passivity is bad.  But it is the imbalance that is not

right, when men are overly aggressive and women are overly passive due to

social conditioning -- passive or even worse "subservient."   I  think

SUBSERVIENT

is a word that most women can relate to having felt a need to grapple with at

some point or another.  I know I sure Have !  

       There is nothing about childbearing that requires Subservience in

women -- THAT's the work of patriarchal mysoginist conditioning  :-)

       There's Nothing absolutely Nothing about being a home-maker and/or a

stay at home parent that requires subservience.  Any man or woman should be

free to be a homemaker and or stay at home parent ( my sister's husband is now

staying home with their baby and he is the one who likes to cook ).

       There's nothing about the childbearing role that requires women to be

subservient.

       That word, Sub-servience, really sums it up.  I have some friends who

are fun to be around sometimes but then they get into fixes with each other

because he's a male chauevenist pig sometimes and she seems to feel it's her

duty to let him be one, even though she has complete freedom in the workplace

and

a nice job, when she comes home, she is expected to be the subservient one. 

Sometimes she fights back but all in all, largely her role is a Subservient

one.  I think many women feel this way and are conscious of it, even business

and professional women who may find at times that They are the one who will

without being asked make another pot of coffee.  And then there are those who

act

this role out unconsciously their whole lives.  Women are natural caretakers,

and in the immediate aftermath of having a baby they are in need perhaps of

some support, and  I think this has been exploited by a patriarchal culture and

turned into Subservience in women. 

Grrrr....

       I think it's wonderful to be of Service and Everybody wants to be

necessary and part of the great Works, but to be of Service and to be

Sub-Servient

are two entirely different bags of worms !

       I was at the doctor's office the other day and overheard two men

talking in the waiting room.  One man was preaching to the other in a

conversational tone, about, yes i kid you not, the evils of matrilineal

societies and how

they have higher divorce rates because the women are always calling other women

for support, namely their mothers.   What a bunch of scary scary hogwash.  As

far as I'm concerned, this man's statistics are not necessarily true, but

even if they Were true, it might be a sign that those men they are married to

might need to change a little, but NO, in the eyes of these men, the world

functions better when men are in charge and women are Sub-servient.

 

Peace, Love and Hugs,

Cathie