Fear of Women Without Guilt

We are in the midst of a transition. The old patriarchal world, which I call analog, is a world in which Newton mechanics have prevailed, through the invention of fire, and the first and second industrial revolutions. In this old world, nations were constructed within the framework of social orders that were subjugated by religions and diverse ideologies.

Except for the matriarchal order, which is buried in the depths of history, all the old world orders have one common factor: men, who compose half of the world’s population, do not share power with women, who make up the other half of the world. Women have been governed through being silenced, oppressed and forced into passivity. This treatment, in spite of some exceptions, has never changed. I wonder why it is so.

Why have men considered it necessary and justifiable not to allow any authority to women for thousands of years? Given the difficulties we have in understanding men, is it still possible to explore the reasoning behind this? Are men, by their account, really superior, and more powerful and intelligent than women?

Men think they are physically stronger than women. Therefore, all around the world, apart from a few exceptions, the male fist is exemplified in army and police forces that consist mainly of men. And this male fist is under the command of governors, most of whom are also men.

Men, who can lock onto a single purpose, have come to the forefront in the single-minded advancement and development of the analog world. Therefore they suppose themselves superior to women. Because of this assumption, they are seized by the delusion that if ever women were to take part in any kind of governmental organization, women would make mistakes, they would break the established patterns and even put lives at risk. It naturally follows from this that women are inherently guilty.

In male-dominated societies, the smallest organizational unit, the family, is represented by men. The moral and religious foundations of these societies have also been constructed by men. A man has to protect his own honor to preserve the family integrity. The honor of the family can only be endangered by women. The woman might choose to pursue another man, either sexually or emotionally, which would put the family’s honor at risk.

When this happens, man considers that his value within the social order decreases. His fundamental social existence is threatened because in male-dominated social organizations, such as the family, the honor of men is determined by the behavior of women. Even in secular societies, social mores are rooted in religion. On the other hand, in religious societies, morality and social mores are inevitably under the control of religions. In such situations, the only power that can disturb the order is the demand by women for an individual existence. In other words, women are perceived as being naturally guilty.

There is no difference in terms of woman’s existence between the Western societies, which suppose themselves to be developed, and the societies that are referred to by the West as developing countries. In the Western countries, women are given non-functional, puppet-like positions only if they pretend to be like men.

From the very beginning of human society, after the matriarchal system was destroyed, once the patriarchal system prevailed, fear has united men. The name of this fear is: fear of women.

This fear, felt by men towards women, is the result of religious and moral indoctrination. Women have internalized this fear, and it has become a guilt complex. This guilt complex manifests itself in women through their relationships: they act as doormats. Men wipe their feet on them, and women see this as being legitimate.

In societies organized along religious lines, the basic strategy is to limit women’s visibility by veiling them. Women are kept busy in the sacred role of the mother, in giving birth, and they are made to obey the head of the family, namely man. In such societies, the idea of women having a profession or career, and working side by side with men other than her relatives, is completely unacceptable. If women work side by side with men, the evil within them cannot be controlled. Should they do this, women would harm the honor of their men. Put simply, women are guilty just because they are alive.

From the men’s point of view, women deserve this violence because of their inherent guilt. Women feel deserving of this violence because of their deep-seated guilt complex.

In the old, analog world order, men and women could not live within the framework of their existing individual sexual identities. In the male-dominated social order, those who complain about this situation are not those men who use women as commodities, they are not those men who think they can use women and are satisfied by doing so, but they are women, living with men and finding it impossible to take ownership of their bodies.

When power and money are taken out of the equation, men do not know how to be with women and share joy and pleasure. These men are not at one with their true natures. This causes women who have relationships with these men to lose their connection with their own true natures. The new digital world order has the potential to be a world where women and men who are brave enough to connect with their true natures can co-exist. In the digital world, women’s sexuality could be based on their true nature, and they would no longer be the victims of guilt on account of it. Men would reconnect with their true nature and with women without resorting to violence. Men must pass through the border of fear, which is woman. Men and women can cross from the analog to the digital world to reach each other through the border of fear.

Editor’s Notes: Composite one by Ricardo Lago; photograph two by Gigi Ibrahim; photograph three by Bitsorf; photographs four and five by Ben Raynal; photograph six by Laura K; and photograph seven by John Perivolaris.