"This leads
to the idea that Pike explains on page 6 when he says, “Men, as they tend to
perceive the situation, are the creators of civilization. Men, as they tend to
perceive the situation, are the creators of civilization and the architects of
progress, whereas “women are the manifestations of nature. The implication is
that men develop culture in order to understand and control the natural world,
while women, being the embodiment of the forces of nature, must be brought
under the civilizing control of men”. It makes me wonder how twisted the image
of nature is. That to some degree nature is encapsulated to connect with women
but subordinately be controlled by men. In totality men have created culture,
build civilizations, and deconstructed nature, and thus given nature its name.
So if women were to be the “symbol” of nature they are also controlled, and so
are the views towards Latinas (and other women in the world)." - Melisa Garcia
Melisa,
ReplyDeleteGreat post and a lot to think about! My first inclination is to think that (hopefully) the way of thinking you've described in your quote and response is something of a dying mentality. I can't say that I am entirely confident that it is though, especially when considering cultures that have gender-ized concepts and gender roles that are even more steadfast than our own.
I think there is at least some movement in the right direction, but certainly not in any sort of monolithic fashion. Hopefully cultures and societies can continue to discover more and more liberating ways of shedding these pretenses within gender and in how we conceive of our earth and its resources. In the mean time I think it is important that we take stock of just how strange and wrong these ways of thinking are. I think this is definitely something that is important to talk about, a discourse on gender perceptions is something we probably need to become more comfortable and well practiced in as a society.
-Mike