MATRIARCHATE, PATRIARCHATE OR GODLY ANDROGYNY: how to find balance without losing your integrity
Salvador Dali. Woman with flower head, 1937 / wikiart.org
In modern society, there are dramatic changes in the status of men and women. The model of patriarchy, masculinity, has long since faded away, and no one is interested in the model of matriarchy when a woman dominates and turns into a masculine image. How do we acquire the status quo and, without flirting, get away from pathological forms of interpersonal relationships? The truths of ancient and classical philosophy will help us find the answer to this question.
The robotization of modern man’s way of life displaces co-creation, individuality, and identity. It is essential to reflect and realize the need for a real culture that contributes to the discovery of all potentialities in man and reveals him as a co-creator, creator, and embodiment of his project of life in a holistic unity.
Modern society poses new challenges that often imposed pseudo-forms can not provide.
Human needs a very different relational culture that desires to be more human.
ANDROGYNY — THE PHENOMENON OF HUMAN INTEGRITY
The outstanding thinker of antiquity, Plato, described in his famous myth «The Symposium» the phenomenon of human integrity. According to the myth, earlier, the earth was inhabited by beings who contained both male and female likenesses.
They possessed godlike qualities and capabilities. The gods were jealous of them, sent destructive forces upon them, and they split in two. Since then, everyone has been searching for their lost half, but not literally. It is about the need to restore their lost unity.
Creating such a balance and harmony of masculine and feminine energies will give a state of wholeness and maximum opportunity to manifest and reveal oneself.
Androgyny is a quality of human integrity, which allows the union of the best of male and female in relation to the world.
For example, it is possible to strengthen the feminine ferment in culture to balance the power strings in the modern world with kindness and gentleness. Pressure, suppression, and rigidity can be balanced by leaving freedom of choice, empathy, and tolerance. Women’s qualities can strengthen men’s and vice versa: men’s qualities can strengthen women’s. We are talking about their combination, harmony, and balance, which contribute to the maximum disclosure of personality.
KANT’S ETHICS
Kant’s ethics is a description of morality as the highest, «pure» attitude of man to man, man as a personality, man as himself — as an aim, not a tool. The theory of the founder of German classical philosophy states that such an attitude between people is the level of the highest human culture. But why is it so difficult for it to materialize in society? Perhaps because there are not enough qualities of the soul that could raise a person to a higher level of development.
DEVELOP BY RISING ABOVE HIS FORMER SELF
Our world is a world of quantity, not quality, and sometimes, person is lost and split by the quantitative to the detriment of the qualitative. That is why he is not satiated and does not have fullness in everything. Joys are replaced by dim flickers, and people are left with discounted joys.
A person needs to be consciously oriented in the choice of cultural and moral values and responsibly participate in the formation of his value system. Then, it will not be challenging to make a choice in favor of real spiritual culture and not satisfied with its imitations.
Stendhal once said: «In love, the soul envelops the body; the naked body has a new soul — love».
Plato would say, soaking in this love, the body becomes a fleshly expressed soul and a soul-filled body.
Culture with true values carries the charge of morality, education, beauty, and thirst to develop and become better; it always acts constructively and does not destroy man’s holistic structure. Moreover, it brings love, love for everything.
It is a relationship based on higher ideals, it is the displacement of old patterns of relationships that are destructive and oppressive to the dignity and freedom of the individual.
Development is impossible without the affirmation of values at the personal level, which allows one to realize the potential of uniqueness, the uniqueness of one’s individuality, the formation of qualitatively new relationships, new co-creation models, and partnership.
The model of androgyny and androgynous culture provides an opportunity for the manifestation of the best in a person, which is revealed through the partnership of a man and a woman in various forms.
REVOLUTION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MAN AND WOMAN
Interpersonal relationships are our relational culture that desires to be more humane. By revisiting the manifestation of male and female energies within oneself and realizing their work in oneself, a person can rise to a more qualitative level of relationship: to a person of the other sex, to the world, and to the Absolute. The way out of this revolution is equality of men and women and equality of people with different souls and bodies.
The qualities of man and the qualities of woman can activate each other. We are talking about their combination, harmony, and balance, which contribute to the maximum disclosure of personality.
Today, there are different opportunities to develop models of partnership based on the highest values — love, respect, dignity, freedom, creativity, and mutual understanding:
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Tenderness is a feminine quality. Caring and thriftiness are masculine qualities. The combination of these two streams manifests subtlety of perception, warmth in relationships and attitudes, as well as the ability to understand and reveal. In the negative manifestation — rudeness and roughness manifest ignorance and boorishness.
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Reverence — purely feminine energy, to the masculine stream, belongs reasonableness.
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Prudence — in the combination of these two energies are born reverence for life and the desire to create. The negative aspect manifests devaluation, leveling, destruction of what is, and the extreme point of these minus energies — cynicism.
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Integrity and purposefulness — are, respectively, feminine and masculine energies. In the combination of the two streams is born solidarity, completeness, and goodness. In the negative manifestation — sharing, «to snatch a piece», splitting, in the personal aspect of losing their integrity and will.
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Diversity, breadth of soul — a feminine quality.
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Moderation — is a masculine quality. In combination, these energies give fullness and sufficiency. In the negative aspect, omnivorousness (as opposed to feminine diversity) and excessiveness (opposite to moderation) are manifested. Hoarding and the extreme point — greed.
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Androgyny — feminine energy.
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Androgynism — is masculine energy. Accordingly, each of them shows such a balance and combination of feminine and masculine, which gives the most entire disclosure of personality and its realization. The best qualities of the feminine or masculine energies are manifested in perfection, respectively gender. This is a whole personality that reveals new programs. In negative manifestation, it is solidification, disintegration, degradation, and splitting of consciousness to deviations of the psychics (extreme point).
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Immanence — is feminine energy.
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Totality — is masculine energy. When combined, these two streams give peace and the ability for self-mastery and power. In destructive manifestation, it is the total absence of self with all sorts of substitutions. It is the constant manifestation of the self in masks, where one has forgotten who one really is and forgotten one’s role (extreme point).
These examples indicate that the properties of masculine and feminine energy are capable of enhancing and revealing new qualities of the soul.
HUMAN VALUE SYSTEM — THE DRIVING FORCE OF PROGRESS
One should not take the human value system lightly and superficially. Today, these concepts are sometimes covered with sarcasm, skepticism, and even cynicism.
A human is responsible for the formation of his value system and the development of his worldview. We often encounter amateurism rather than professionalism.
The moral component plays a vital role here. Because one of its aspects is a person’s responsibility for his actions and deeds.
Each person’s system of values is a part of the general culture. Values of moral culture act as a unity of national and universal. It is impossible both without the values of a particular national culture and without national values created by mankind.
The value sense of spiritual culture can act as a driving force of social progress only when the creative potential of such culture is based on a common system of values formed throughout history.
Modern society needs a completely different culture of relations, which could manifest the whole essence of humanism. Then, a person will not have to choose among various kinds of simulacrums and pseudo-forms. His «clarity, precision of consciousness» will be directed to true meanings.
