"He shall rule over you."

In a postmodern world where the ontological basis of all argumentation is a nexus of power, one of the most culturally aggravating things for our new atheistic outlook is where woman is placed in the Christian ethos. Various feminist ideologies point to the "patriarchy" which is, from what a I can gather, the boogeyman of a male dominated world where women have unequal access to public goods.


While I am of the opinion that this so called "patriarchy" is a great chimera of our time and has led countless women to a miserable existence - as the further we deviate from the natural law, the further we remove ourselves from personal happiness - I am more and more convinced everyday that the target of these feminists is not the patriarchy, but Christianity. Indeed, they are synonyms. Since we have no metaphysical foundation, no ontological anchor, we swim in this post Hegelian deluge of power. As Nietzsche so aptly noticed with his metaphysical outlook, without God there is nothing but change and competition for power where one more powerful thing overcomes another. This is the metaphysics of feminism.


While I do not here intend to critique the philosophical problems associated with the Nietzschean or Heraclitian metaphysics of change, it is obvious that such a philosophy runs aground on performative self contradiction, so astute minds need not accept its claims.

That said, I have been reflecting lately on Genesis, where the Lord tells man that his punishment for sin will be bringing forth the fruit of the earth through toil. Laborious work is masculinity's curse for having sinned. On the other hand, the feminine curse is painful labor and that her desire will be for her husband and that he should rule over her. Through the eyes of the "will to power" ethos that is the foundation of modern culture, this passage may look like the foundation of the patriarchy and of sheer domination by man over woman. While history is full of this wicked dominating pattern, I have recently wondered about the psychological impact of this curse?


You see, I notice that our culture, post sexual revolution, dehumanizes women and treats them as sexual objects. Our over sexed culture is extremely "masculine." Biology has both burdened and blessed women with pregnancy, and thus, her promiscuity comes at a far greater price for her than for man. Nature has designed woman to be the bearer of life and as such she is biologically the sexual gatekeeper. That said, our culture has reversed that for woman at the behest of man. At the natural level, male sexuality is determined to spread its seed far and wide. Thus, male sexuality is more "visual" and more "promiscuous." But this is exactly what our culture had done to woman! She parades her wondrous form before the lusting eyes of men, and the modern female hero is the scantily clad super model. How masculine a culture is this feminist one!


So, then, feminist women push the sexual liberation of abortion, contraception, homosexuality, and in general promiscuity without responsibility. This is very masculine, at least at the reductive natural level for men. Because we are rational natures, more is expected of men and virtue/happiness require much more than spreading the seed far and wide.


My recent reflections have led me to the understanding that "he shall rule over you" is not merely a physical or social dynamic, but a intra-psychological phenomena within the female psyche. This is expressed by the aforementioned feminism. Man rules over her by her desire for her husband. In the case of feminism, the desire for the husband is to embrace masculinity as the locus of femininity. It is to make the feminine masculine. This is part of woman's curse.



The feminist push for woman in the workplace reflects this "desire," but furthers the curse by making woman embrace man's curse! In my own life, we haven't been financially blessed where my wife could stay with the children while they were little, and the way this works out is that she ends up managing most of the domestics and still has to work. It's not that I'm not there to help, but the young children just naturally gravitate toward mom, and mom has the gift of nurture that puts her in tune with the children's personhood. In short, she is better suited by nature to understand the children and their needs. With work, we just add that much more burden to her. "Your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you." She desires his curse, and his curse rules over her.