This is a Man's World

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I do not hate men.  I love men.  They drive me crazy, at times, and they can be quite childlike if they don’t get their way, if power or control is taken from them, or God forbid, they get a head cold.  But I love them.  I grew up a tomboy.  I chose to play in the dirt and build things with the boys over playing with dolls and admiring pretty things with the girls in my neighborhood.  There were always a few exceptions.  Always a few girls who appreciated my sense of humor and adventure.  But overall, my guy-to-girl ratio of friends always favored the men.  I’ve worked alongside some great men.  My late father has always been my hero.  I’m married to a man who has been my best friend for over a quarter of a century.  A man I love dearly.  So, please understand what I share is not coming from a place of hatred towards men.

Men are chemically and biologically different from women.  Their bodies develop differently.  They process emotions differently.  Their brains are wired differently.  And those brains have been at the forefront of appropriation, invention and authorization since the dawn of . . . well, men.  Every structure, every system, every rule and principle were designed by men for men.  Did this begin because men created the bible which says women were created by men, that we are simply a construct of a man’s ribcage?  Did this begin when a man decided that no women were pure accept the one who gave immaculate birth to the man we are to follow and pray to for the rest of our lives?  Did it begin, in our country, when a room full of men drafted and designed our constitution and every man since then has used that constitution to ensure men still hold power and authority as the dominant gender?  It stretches beyond our country’s borders so maybe it’s also a stretch to think our constitution was the catalyst for this long-held masculine regime.  Rather another notch in a man’s belt.

All of those systems, designed by men for men, are failing.  Our healthcare system.  Our education system.  Our economic system.  Our political system.  They may have worked, or worked for men, at some point in our history.  But they don’t appear to be working for anyone right now.  Including men if they were honest with themselves.  Now, I think it would be naïve of me to think that some of my own good fortune and privilege were not bestowed upon me because of these systems devised by men.  But the same ideas, the same way of thinking and doing and taking and leading for such a long period of time, without change, results in depletion and collapse of ecosystems.

I turn my observant mind over to the monoculture system in agriculture, another invention of men.  We’ll plant the same food product in the same soil in the same rows in the same way year after year to feed our people and expect the same results.  What we failed to understand or observe over time is how growing only one product not only yields just one product, but also that product’s ability to survive dwindles as it repeatedly extracts the same nutrients from the soil.  The soil can’t regenerate fast enough to keep giving away the same nutrients year after year.  It ceases to be soil.  It just becomes dirt.  There’s another opportunity here for observation and change, but instead, we create man-made products to force the soil and crop to produce.  And if there’s one living being most at peril from man’s inventions, its Mother Earth.  Man-made products designed to force nature to produce have not only transitioned more soil to dirt, but also the desecration of the pollinators who are a vital companion in crop production.  I’m sure there is a man in a lab somewhere who is creating the first man-made pollinator who will replace the bees when they are gone.  A man, who we will award prizes, write books about, name a library after all because he engineered a way to perpetuate the masculine mindset and reinforce the perception that man controls Mother Nature.

In my gardens, I rotate crops.  The carrots who occupied the front row last year will get moved to the back allowing the cucumbers to take center stage.  The corn won’t be planted this year.  They will be replaced by beans.  I don’t do this because suddenly I have a disdain towards carrots and corn.  I love them both.  I do this because I know they require different inputs and provide different outputs which makes the soil richer and the ecosystem more resilient while still providing me the nourishment I need.  There is a way to embrace change and shift power that still provides for the needs of everyone.  If I can do it in my garden every damn year, why the hell can’t we figure it out as a society?

Which brings me back to men.  We have done such a great job of praising men for the systems and inventions they have created, and not nearly enough time being honest about the resiliency of those systems and inventions.  Our monocultures are failing.  Our ecosystem is collapsing.  Can we honor the past while choosing a different way for the future?  A way designed by women.  Women who are chemically and biologically different from men.  Whose bodies develop differently.  Who process emotions differently.  Whose brains are wired differently.  What might come of a world who chooses to move the men to the back row with the carrots and move the women forward with the cucumbers?  Will the soil be replenished?  Could the ecosystem regenerate?  Would we all be nourished?