As I posted in my description for tomorrow’s Anastasia The Storyteller Radio show broadcast titled “No Not Me!” The #Metoo Movement And The Issue Of Male Resistance,” we, at New Horizons, think the issue of male resistance to the basic principles of the #Metoo movement is of critical importance to explore, understand and work with, productively.
So we are believing that we must begin to seriously and systematically explore present tensions between men and women as they are, currently, in the #Metoo era.
And begin figuring out how we are going to move through these in order to reach that happy place for which we all yearn, hopefully sometime in the not too distant future.
However, right now it looks as if it might take an earthquake to bring that about!
Nonetheless, I know that my relationships with the men in my life are far too important to want to foster a lot of debating about the right-wrong sides of gender issues, as they are now being viewed in today’s world. I know that when I sit down for a conversation with the important men in my life, I want something of a far greater substance than debate, if we are going to discuss, at all, what’s happening now in this era of #Metoo.
Certainly you can’t escape the subject if you are a conscious individual.
I also know, as I wrote in my recent blog titled "A Personal Message From Anastasia: On How We Are Going To Move Ourselves Through The #MeToo Era," I don’t want to be considered an enemy of men because I am a woman. And, I don’t want them to act as if I am the enemy because of that.
(I also discussed this deeply held perspective of mine, at length, in my last radio show titled "How We Are Going To Move Ourselves Through The #MeToo Era." You will find the strongest part of my message toward the end of the show.)
So what next? Where do we go from here with all the gender-related controversy stirred up and in our faces, day-in and day-out presently?
Beyond Gender Tyranny, as a movement, designed by the New Horizons Small “Zones Of Peace” Project, is about there being a two-way street of give and take; compassion and understanding back and forth between men and women. So we need to watch out for heatedness and stay conscious of our objectives in our conversations.
Not an easy thing to do these days.
As with most women, for starters, I have a lot I need to get off my chest, formerly unspoken. No longer can I hold back, nor am I willing to, even if I could contain what I have to say, any longer. Which I cannot do, without further harm to myself, added to what I have already been accumulating over years.
That’s the warrior side of me. I also want to be understood and for there to be a show of compassion for the harm and pain I have experienced over the years from male disrespect.
Liberation is that intense!!
I have not had any significant sexual abuse or harassment victimization in the workplace; very little in my personal life. But there has been some. And for these I, now, need the warrior woman part of me to help keep me on track to get my stories out, when and where appropriate, and heal myself, along with the tens of thousands, maybe millions, of other women doing similarly.
Where there have been episodes of this, I am presently writing about them on my Anastasia The Storyteller blog site, as I push my way through long held fears, regarding disclosure and the personal limitations I have developed in the process, especially when I, also, come up against the resistance, now, of people who do not seem eager to hear me, based on their own agendas.
You can read a collection of my articles on this issue here.
While the warrior side of women has been suppressed for eons and women oppressed along with it, we women need that warrior side of ourselves, up and out!
We need it for many things; the creative side of ourselves, the passionate, the empowered, sometimes the angry (but not as a lifestyle), the assertive, sometimes aggressive, the leadership etc. etc. – whatever other warrior parts of a person there are that I may have forgotten.
Most men have the warrior side of themselves in a more ready abundance than do females.
This is about male biology more than anything. The warrior side is a significant part of a man’s inherent nature. And, we women need to consider, carefully, if we truly want them to "give themselves up to be loved by us."
Too often, unfortunately, this male warrior side has come out in ways, direct and indirect, that have harmed women. That needs to change! And as quickly as possible!
What we don’t need, however, is for the female warrior and the male warrior to be at war!
War is not the answer! So we need to find peaceful ways to make room for the warrior in both men and women.
Not suppress it!
Not judge it as bad, dirty, wrong or dangerous (unless when it is).
I've said enough on this subject for now.
Your next step -- be sure to tune into my upcoming shows where I will be taking up the subject of the warrior woman and warrior man, meeting head to head, with an eye for that to be heart to heart!
Saturday, March 31 -- 11:30 a.m