Pensamiento - Literatura

I. Introduction

§1. Violence is the foundation of the hierarchical organization of patriarchal societies at least since the Neolithic (Novotny, 1999). This means that it has been used by men as a gender group to establish relationships, and operate on the perception of reality so that the system-which uses and legitimizes violence in the private and public spheres-is justified. Contemporary psychologists agree that perception is influenced by culture. We see what we-as cultural beings-believe in. We-as cultural beings-are unable to see what jeopardizes the prevailing system of social organization. Taboos are vital for not noticing whatever should be questioned. Violence cannot be questioned: men cannot question their violence against women and women cannot analyze men's violence.

§2. Times are changing and populations, not only individuals, are beginning to reject violence. Worldwide protest to the War of Iraq (2-15-2003) was listed by the 2004 Guinness Book of Records as the largest mass protest movement in history. ( Global protests ) Vi olence is exposed as a cultural choice presented in pseudo biological terms by a patriarchal social system.* Its inevitability is questioned by social activists, artists and researchers. But demolishing the gendered oppression of violence entails dissecting identity, opening new paths, and this is not easy. Thus, we find mixed positions, where people-and writers-seem to simultaneously reject and accept its inevitability, or where, while questioning violence, they fail to identify some of its forms.

§3. A most important event in increasing rejection of violence is women's inclusion in society as individuals. Women have been banned from the use of violence in patriarchy -which should question the dogma of the inevitability of physical violence. At the same time, they have been a main target of violence. Consequently, they have a rich source of information for analysis. However, machista prejudices like "women cannot be trusted" operate still in society: women's analysis cannot be listened to because the pyramid Man Over Woman would fall to pieces. Since the French Revolution, through the Industrial Revolution and the 1960s-70s, women have begun to seek freedom-of movement, of deciding upon their lifestyles and for developing their own criteria. Freedom-like knowledge before-is highly valued by women as a group, not violence. We will see this in Section B.

§4. The other important social event in relation to rejecting violence has been men's refusal to conscription. After the 1890s, men have started to write war stories to question the value of man being violent, how violence degrades Man, meaning 'human beings'! Their literary quest omits misogynous violence. In stories of the type "There Will Come Soft Rains" (#32, 456) it is understandable, for the context is total destruction. But it is hard to understand why writers criticizing violence seem to be blind to women, to avoid dealing with the gender of violence. Disturbingly enough, when women's abuse is depicted, it is not detached from the terrifying patriarchal match "torturing women is a source of pleasure." This is assessed in Section A.

§5. Violence in fiction is not only a theme. It is also a literary resource (Kowalewsky, 1993) used to create atmospheres or reinforce meanings, drawing from the collective subconscience (see §14). Reflecting from the gender perspective upon how artists' works deal with violence offers interesting information on how writers use their skills to question the categorization of reality but also on the unconscious processes involved. In this anthology (#1-#59), a good half of the stories include material on the link manhood-violence. We shall consider this and how men writers reject the model of Violent Man Rules. Also, how women writers deal with male violence. We shall see what men long for when they question their role, and what women long for when they question men's domination. We shall not find men denouncing violence to women while questioning the gender fact that Man Made War.

* Presenting women as pacifists for biological reasons is like presenting men as violent for those reasons. Women's rejection of violence is based on their broad experience as victims of a male-dominated system.

Next: Part I

Please, quote the author and the site: michelle renyé, at mujerpalabra.net.
Another quotation style: michelle. "Violence & Gender. We See What We Believe In. Tracking Taboos". Mujer Palabra. 2005. Path: Pensamiento. Date of Access <https://www.mujerpalabra.net>.