Essentialism

I’ve been out of town lately and I haven’t had the time to post, but I want to share my latest thoughts on street harassment, and explain its connection to the unequal power dynamic between men and women, as well as address the unanswered comments from the previous power and control post, and ask readers to offer their own opinions on how to address this imbalance between the sexes.

If we carefully examined society, we would find that men have more power than women. What do I mean by power? Well let me offer a definition for power, given by Youth Together (YT). (Keep in mind that “Power” is a relational term. It is a relationship between human beings in a specific historical, economic and social setting. It must be exercised to be visible.) “Power is having access to resources, the ability to influence others, and access to decision makers to get what you want done.” (YT) So, if observed society in order to figure out who had more power, we would most likely conclude that men have more power than women. For example, men own 99% of the world’s property while women perform two-thirds of the world’s labor. And if we look at institutions like judicial government and corporate boardrooms, we can see that men reign freely in these settings and therefore have access to these institution’s resources, decision makers, and the ability to influence others. This power dynamic essentially reinforces patriarchy.

However, in order to allow the continuation of this unequal power dynamic, or rather patriarchy’s survival, there needs to be grounds for its justification. And to patriarchy’s rescue comes essentialism. Essentialism comes from ” The belief that people and/or phenomenon have properties that are essential to what they are.” For example, essentialism comes into play when people make assumptions like “men are strong”, “Asian people are smart”, or “black people are loud”. Essentialsim can be seen as “the root of all prejudice”, which as I said above, has led to the justification of discrimination or the dehumanization of women, people of color, queer people, etc and has left them with little social and economic power in society.

Unfortunately, in the realm of a white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, not all men have the ability to exercise their right to patriarchal power. This power is generally limited to middle and upper class white males and excludes working class white males, and men of color. This leads some of these “other” men to find other means to exert their power. In my power and control post, I quoted bell hooks’ explanation that when black men harass black women they seek to occupy ‘the position of whiteness’ occupied by white men because men of color are not able to reap the material and social rewards for their participation in patriarchy.” I think this explanation is applicable to the men who are not white and middle class and who do not have access to the resources stated above.

I wrote my power and control post the way I did as a way to empower and show women that street harassment is fucked up and that there is something that can be done about it. Jimmy Castro, I was not trying to be anti-male, but rather trying to create a space of empowerment for women who feel threatened when say they go around the block for a jog. I have heard of other empowerment events where women get up on stage at a show and attack patriarchy with men in the crowd. (Note that attacking patriarchy is not the same as male-bashing. Patriarchy is an idea that either sex can reinforce.) And thank you to Cedric, a friend, who has always and will always be an ally in struggle.

So in conclusion, I think it is the responsibility of men and women to find ways to challenge the systemic forces that reinforce this power dynamic between the sexes as well as take steps to create to a balanced power dynamic. I believe that by raising people’s consciousness about these issues is one approach to figuring put solutions, which is essentially the goal of my blog: to inspire people to become critically aware of their social conditionings and leave the rest open for dialogue.

So as a woman of color, let me ask you this: How do you think we can begin to eradicate patriarchy and racism simultaneously? Looking back at the male dominated Black Power Movement, do you think it is even possible to work on both at the same time?