Wednesday 18 January 2017

Moving on, shape shifting

In theatre and dance training the non-holding, going with the flow 'softer' qualities of movement and the listening and responding through the senses, were seen as 'feminine' qualities rather than attributes that belonged exclusively to women. 
Sense of self in both men & women was seen as a combination of both masculine and feminine energies. Back then, it felt like this sensibility would spread, it was just a slightly more intelligent take on male female roles. 
That kind of listening and responding certainly enabled Barnaby and I to look more objectively at politicians behaviour and our own patterns and gameswhen we were making our performance piece the Summit. It seemed to speak to people wherever it went -25 countries  and survived for over 20 years (1985-2006). In 1989 the Berlin Wall  and many barriers came tumbling down and it felt like the world was changing. 
That attitude of listening and being receptive and adapting to the situation is something that women have traditionally been much better at than men and something they have had to learn to do, to just survive in a world where men carried on unquestioningly just being men. Maybe fed up with this ignorance and intransigence,  women have had to be more confrontational but now it's seems more polarised and cruder than ever- women own the feminine and men the masculine. Both are entrenched and rarely do they meet. 
Maybe its inevitable with the passing of the optimism  and idealism of the late 20th century  and the current disillusion  at how little has changed, but recently I  heard someone say ' feminism had won' ???? Won what?  In this gender war, often it is the more empathetic men who are the acceptable collateral damage that any war involves. Whilst not denying the re emergence of redundant species like Nigelopods, Vladiraptors  and Donosaurs, it is not a conflict between men and women-  it is a conflict against old ways of doing things, and the newer, more fluid energy, will  erode the old.

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