[MD] A Passionate Woman

[Arlo Bensinger]

[Margaret]
So I'm curious...what is meant by feminine energy/male energy?

[Arlo]
As far as I understand it, the terminology "masculine" and "feminine" 
as applied to "spirit" or "energy" is derivative of the Euro-pagan 
traditions which framed specific emotive-behavioral norms towards 
each gender, and then professed that for humanity to evolve, these 
forces had to be kept in balance. This has since been overlayed upon 
the Yin-Yang of the Orient, but as far as I am aware, true Yin-Yang 
philosophy lacks specific gender marks.

The popularity of this "balance" has been brought against a perceived 
(and perhaps rightly so) "imbalance" created and sustained within the 
Occidental traditions (or at least, the popular, exoteric varieties 
of Occidental thought) that places the "traditional" role of the male 
as dominant, better and in fact "closer to God" than the subservient, 
weaker, less important female gender.

Recently, the language has been adopted to counter feminism, which 
according to some, has committed the same devaluation of traditional 
female roles as the patriarchy it sought to challenge. In this, the 
counter to male-dominant culture is to divorce "gender" and "role" 
and promote the adoption of traditional male roles by female gender. 
Both male patriarchy and this accused feminism devalue and dismiss 
the traditional role of the female (in European derived cultural histories).

A new brand of feminism united "role" and "gender" once again, but 
this time sought to tip the scales from a patriarchal- to a 
matriarchal- based appraisal of worth. The traditional role of the 
female was again tied to gender, however the new understanding 
elevated the female role above the male role. Men became merely 
aggressive sperm donors to the female's nurturing and life-sustaining energies.

The rekindling of European pagan thought has brought voices from both 
sides to seek understanding and accept the positives and negatives 
that occur when either of the gender roles becomes elevated above the 
other. Books such as "Iron John" sought to re-establish the 
traditional male "energy" with a nobility and heroism that feminism 
had torn away, while modern feminists continue to strive to keep 
nurturing and caregiving as values as important as those of the males.

Popular culture has parodied much of this dialogue, from the Brady 
Bunch episode where Mike and Carol exchange roles and then fail 
horribly, evidencing the notion that traditional gender roles are 
innately tied to gender. Other films like Mr. Mom tried to show that 
while it would be clumsy for a male to appropriate the traditional 
female role, it was possible, making it a socially-constructed role 
not a gender-based one.

Largely I think many who use these terms see the "traditional" roles 
as one historically assigned to gender, but not gender-innate. And 
for a matter of convenience they talk about "gender roles" only 
because of their long history of being gender-distinct. But many 
continue to relate the specific gender roles to specific biology. 
"Women are nurturing by nature," they might say, "and have only been 
distracted by a society that forces them to adopt male habits". Men, 
on the other hand, some say, "are aggressive and warrior-like by 
nature and have been distracted by an emasculating dialogue that 
refuses to accept any value in these roles".

Where this division does parallel the Yin-Yang, I think, is that a 
deeper (esoteric) reading of the pagan myths places both forms on 
these energies in each person. That is, no one person is strictly 
male or strictly female in energy. And balance is not something we 
seek in the larger cultural aggregate, but inside us as we balance 
the hunter-nurturer roles within ourselves. At its core, however, it 
should never be forgotten that this is simply, as Pirsig would say, 
"just an analogy".

That's my take on it, anyways.