Friday, September 2, 2011

Gross


Not everything grosses me out. Blood doesn't phase me. Most horrific sights don't phase me. I guess smells phase me a little if they are disgusting enough or associated with disgusting things. I used to think poop was abhorrid, but not so much anymore. Old, fermenting saliva though, that's a smell I definitely do not like, and the other day I had to experience it once more when I opened up the machinery of my sink's drain due to a clog. yuck!

But among physical things, I'm not all that grossed out by very much. What gets me is human nature.

I recently began re-reading the novel Frankenstein for a class. I appreciated it the first time, but this time certain details have been brought to my attention that are conflicting within me. You see, Frankenstein is largely a feminists' story...a story about how "the men's world" is monstrous and to be abhorred--or so they claim. As I read the story again, I notice how Shelly is setting up the story in a way that tears down the cultural structure she lived in. --It isn't that I feel she had good reason to do so, because I believe in her time women were considered lesser beings to be subjected to the whims of men, but what I am conflicted about are HER reasons for doing so.

Let me just jump to the case, otherwise this article will be too lengthy, and without pointing fingers at specific people, because no matter how I put it, it is controversial:

Women will never be on the same intellectual, spiritual, emotional, or physical level that men are. --Now before you jump the gun and accuse me of being sexist, let me state something about men:

Men will never be on the same intellectual, spiritual, emotional, or physical level that women are.

How can that be? How can they both be that way? How can men and women NEVER cross paths?--Because they ARE men and women. We are different.

A comment was made today in class that "that's what women do...they give birth to women". What do men do? They do not hold the keys to life. Men go to war and bear the burdens of death--or they ought to.

My ethos may betray me, but I am under the experiences in life to say that women ought not enter man's world, just as men ought not enter women's world. And I don't mean to make a clash between definitions here. I mean to say that women are in the sentries of life. They are the guardians of all godly powers of procreation.

In my religion, there is a document that explains what the purpose and definition of a family is. In that document it explains some details about what the role of husbands and fathers are, as well as the role of women. Paraphrasing, it states that women are in charge of nourishing the family and children. It says little more than that about women, and yet it goes into quite a deal of depth about how men are to preside over the family, to ensure the proper material provisions, etc. etc., and then it states that men, too are to nourish the family and children. For quite some time in my life I have wondered why women would be given a charge over something that men were also meant to do, and that was the only thing they were to do. I believe very much in my religion and am under the understanding that this document is from God, and so the thought of questioning hasn't ever conquered my soul. But still (let me put yourself in my position), if God told you this, would you not wonder what the grand meaning of it was?

A week or so ago, I believe I have come to an understanding of the meaning of this, and it has only solidified my understanding of humanity and how a perfect society would exist. (That's what religion is all about isn't it? explaining how perfect society functions and seeks to work towards that perfection [heh, don't quote me on this, it's a thought provoking question])

In the perfect world, one which will one day encompass this earth, women WILL nourish the family. Not in an intellectual, cultural, emotional, physical, or spiritual sense, no. To nourish is "to strengthen, build up, or promote", to "sustain", or to "cherish, foster or keep alive". In the perfect world, women will be the guardians of relationships. They will protect and encourage the development of relationships. They will build a home where friendship, loving, bonding, respecting, and leading and following is permitted. For, without relationships, what are we as a human race? We are nothing. We have nothing if we are not connected in some way.

It took me quite a deal to realize this; but the more I look for evidence of it, there is a copious amount of evidence for this truth. What does Satan do that is one of the banes of women? He encourages them to gossip--to tear down relationships. He forces them to be timid, so that when dignity and honor and respect and love are on the line, they are too scared to permit it. He attacks their ability to give birth to God's spirit children, and when they lose their virginity in a bloody mess of disgust, not sanctioned by a committed relationship of marriage, he causes them to question the existence of true relationships.

To keep alive. Women are to devote their lives to keeping alive relationships, particularly the important ones.  If a person were to be dying--dying an emotional death in which they had no friends, no family, nothing. Would not the Samaritan woman rescue him?

Men, too, have a responsibility to nourish relationships, but in the perfect world, men will provide the bulk of the physical work--the work that brings in food and shelter and continued prosperity. This isn't to say that women won't work--relationships are formed by working together. What this DOES mean, is that men are to be the leaders. they are to preside. to be the head. And a good leader knows that his best employee is himself, he leads by example, he does what he can to reach the goals that he and his followers are trying to accomplish.
In a family, the man is to be a leader and the woman is to ensure that the relationships are fused tightly together. If either party fails to fulfill their purpose, then the whole structure crumbles, because a leader can only lead if the communication lines are in place so that his ethos supports following. If the son and the father are at odds with one another, the woman should step in to assist a tighter connection between them. Leaders never maintain their rule by themselves, but they require the help of others. The wife should help the husband.

Let me clarify something important: Women and Men CAN be equal, but they cannot be compatible if they are equal. What I mean is (insert some philosophy here) that if two people who were identical, except for their genders were to meet, they would not be compatible. They would likely be at odds with one another. They would not get along. This is because good relationships are formed when different people come together and bring their own pathos, ethos, and logos to the table. Opposites attract best because they balance each other out and create order. Two ends of a magnet repel one another because they are too similar.

So Mary Shelly brings up an interesting social ideal, but I do not buy into it. If I lived in her time I would fight against it, because I see now that what she wanted was a great social change. She wanted women to be on an equal plain as men were, yet their society was structured in a way that it was prosperous to the purpose of men and women. I largely believe that Shelly's argument is fallicious(sp?): what she is really at odds with is the intellect of man. Men of her day were stupid. They were pompous, they were arrogant, and to be such is no crime if they truly are what they say. But these men did not possess the wisdom to understand that women had a greater purpose that they were not permitting.

As I study this gross history of ours, I sometimes recognize where society got off track. I believe that these notions of equality in men and women are so off track now that our society has become worse in this area than it was back then. We were fools to stray from the system of Judges and families. And ever since we took our own path, we have ever been striving to fill in holes that 'our' system could never facilitate. This has made for a gross looking, odd smelling, complex machine.






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