Men’s Liberation?
Beyond the Disposable Hero
– from Integral Life, with Warren Farrell and Ken Wilber
– from Integral Life, with Warren Farrell and Ken Wilber
Dr. Warren Farrell talks with Ken Wilber about power, oppression, and the urgent need for men to begin redefining their roles for today’s world.
Some key points:
- “Power” is not defined by the amount of control someone has over others, but the amount of control one has over his or her own life.
- Feminism can be defined as freeing females from being coerced into traditional female roles, and the same work needs to be done by men.
- Feminism did a great job of exploring issues of male power and female powerlessness, but not a great job at exploring issues of female power and male powerlessness.
- In terms of recognizing and developing their power, men are in a similar position today as women were in the late 1950’s, at the dawn of the feminist movement.
- As long as men do not rise to the challenge of redefining themselves for today’s world, women continue to be pressured to learn how to “row on both sides of the boat,” while men keep to their own side. The result? The boat just keeps going around in circles….
- In order to succeed, men need to learn from the feminist movements of recent decades, and use their work as a jumping-off pointand not to hold feminism or women’s studies as an opposition to men’s liberation.
- In order to take a truly comprehensive view of sex and gender, we need to look through at least four lenses: subjective/psychological (e.g. masculine vs. feminine), objective/biological (e.g. male vs. female), intersubjective/cultural (e.g. gender roles and definitions of “man” and “woman”), and interobjective/social (e.g. the techno-economic realities of the time).
Nick Robinson
What a great post. I really like your approach to things. Been following you on Twitter for a while but hadn't seen your blog before.
To paraphrase somebody famous, "None of us are liberated until we're ALL liberated".
I wonder if you're familiar with the King Warrior Magician Lover books by Moore and Gillette? On the plus side it is a fantastic model for fully-rounded maleness. Not the best of reads and taking an archetype approach to something that needs to then be integrated is a little dissatisfying, but I found it useful.
Nick Robinson
What a great post. I really like your approach to things. Been following you on Twitter for a while but hadn't seen your blog before.
To paraphrase somebody famous, "None of us are liberated until we're ALL liberated".
I wonder if you're familiar with the King Warrior Magician Lover books by Moore and Gillette? On the plus side it is a fantastic model for fully-rounded maleness. Not the best of reads and taking an archetype approach to something that needs to then be integrated is a little dissatisfying, but I found it useful.
Anonymous
Farrell's thinking is very aligned to what we are looking to achieve through The Men's Network for Brighton & Hove – our vision: a world where every man and boy can reach his greatest potential (and every woman and girl hers) – want to find out more….. glen@glenpoole.com
Anonymous
Farrell's thinking is very aligned to what we are looking to achieve through The Men's Network for Brighton & Hove – our vision: a world where every man and boy can reach his greatest potential (and every woman and girl hers) – want to find out more….. glen@glenpoole.com