Sunday Morning Reflections!
Politics remains full to overflowing with our culture's unconscious gendering of authority. It is mind blowing, after so many years of feminist and queer activism and so much perceived change -- but true.
People, women especially, want to argue that they favor a male candidate over more accomplished females because of what he HAS succeeded in.
Yeah, OK. Anyone running for office has some successes.
But do we stop to really hold claims of success up against others? Do we stop to QUALIFY them? Do we stop to ask how those successes really came to be?
Rarely.
We rarely credit the small victories behind the scenes that make the larger ones possible; or the cross-the-aisle victories that are so crucial right now; or the way the people around us are treated, especially women who make up the bulk of administrative staffs; or the ability to build new coalitions and represent true community interests rather than platforms or the mere rhetoric of "change."
And at the end of the day, the male voices continue to carry more weight than the female. As an extroverted culture, we remain attuned to visible attributes of depth + size = authority.
We are attuned to a gendered world of power in ways we still do not question enough, despite the best efforts of the queer and trans worlds.
So when a big, rough, tough man speaks -- too many voters follow. We think only a man and his old fashioned ways of doing things can win in certain areas. We think "rough and tough" = working class values and progressive change. It doesn't take looking further than our last presidential election to see how superficial characteristics are ruling our elections.
It is past time that voters, and especially women, and especially white women, begin to question ourselves and what makes us feel comfortable and secure, own that, and move on -- even when we do not want to. Or when an accounting for these motives surprises us. Or when we realize the power of our unconscious assumptions, and it makes us uncomfortable.
We have to get to deeper levels of change.
The survival of our planet itself -- and the future generations it supports -- is at stake.
Let's together move beyond our comfort zones, move beyond traditional thinking -- because it is that thinking -- "only so-and-so [male] can win in this location" -- that keeps the status quo the status quo.
And just because you favor one candidate doesn't mean you eat their full table of platform and endorsements. Every candidate is compromised by something because we are all people -- we are all flawed.
Look carefully, listen harder, and choose your flaws with independence and an eye toward the future in which you want your children and grandchildren to live.
The world has changed in the last 50 years -- just not yet enough. Many of our female candidates have had many more success, and at less cost to the humans, communities, and planet around them, than the men against whom they are running.
We just need the courage to believe in ourselves: to see ourselves in women leaders, without cringing or doubting, and believe that women are the stronger, more persistent leaders of the real, lasting, systemic change we need so badly.
