10/26/2021
In the context of cultivating my potential, here I would like to initiate a conversation that I think will impact my world view. I am also aware that I can only approach this through conversations with everyone. So here it is:
As a man I appreciate all the accomplishments achieved in our world. Advances to the science and technology are growing so fast that it is hard for me to keep up with changes. Because of all these advances we have a better life, we live longer, we are exploring the other planets, and so on. In parallel to these, nations compete, and sometimes fight to get more and better options. In short, the successful nations, the “better” ones, get the control of more resources, live better and are proud to be better.
So far it seems like in the men dominated world, men have fulfilled what they were supposed to do, to survive and much more. Success and survival are the priorities followed by creating life experiences, nourishing families and caring for the community, that has always been in the list of secondary options … these are mostly left to women to take care. For years the world has been under the domination of men with their rules and way of life. Gradually it feels like the role of women has declined to minimum, taking care of necessities for families. Recently the role of women and their participation is growing, but, still only 2% of art markets are women, 17% of representatives in parliaments are women, 30% of all STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) related and researchers are women and so on.
We are missing women presentation in our world. Now let me redefine…. By man I mean masculine, by woman I mean feminine and we know that men and women both have feminine and masculine capacities.
It seems like as a result of long years of masculine domination, our world has become heavy on one side. The need for feminine is becoming more and more obvious. Taking care of climate, earth, preservation of environments, education, children’s health, creation and art as a priority, in short improving the quality of experiencing of life.
Let’s explore a little more…
Recently my friend Dr. Nowroozi, after seeing me struggling for information, emailed me a research paper titled “Sex/gender differences in cognition, neurophysiology, and neuroanatomy”. By Lutz Jäncke
In this paper the writer has summarized and discussed the recent findings and new insights on psychological gender differences. Here is a part of the introduction:
“ … With respect to understanding psychological gender differences, individual learning experiences, culture, gender stereotypes, gender equity, and biosocial interaction are of the utmost importance. In addition, recent brain plasticity research provides evidence that gender brain differences might also be shaped by experience, education, and culture or a combination of these. Thus, these new insights into the influences on behavior, brain anatomy, and brain function shed new light on the often-reported gender differences.”
In other word in this paper after going through many studies the writer concludes that there is no evidence that there is any difference between the brains of men and women. Additionally, with brain plasticity, any brain is capable of learning anything new.
Having said this, let’s look at this differently. The difference we experience between men and women is mostly then the difference between feminine and masculine. Both men and women have both masculine and feminine energies in them and put them in use as needed in different circumstances or in reaction to certain situations. It might be a good idea to explore this a little more through some examples. The table below I think is good start to clarify this. Here, I know I am repeating myself, but I emphasis that by feminine I do not mean woman and by masculine I do not mean man.
Masculine Energy Feminine Energy
External Internal
Doing Being
Purpose Awareness of the Present Moment
Goal Setting Connection to the Unconscious
Enacting an Agenda Embracing Paradox/Cognitive
on the World Dissonance
Personal Agency/ Autonomy Exploring the Mysterious/Non-
Rational
Rational/Logic/Intellect Nurturing/Caring
Logos Eros
Individuality Connection to Wisdom
Transformation/Change Emotional Intelligence
Stoicism Unconditional Love
Analytical Prowess Respect for Earth and its Creatures
Direction/Commitment Dark/Mysterious/Stillness
Cold Heat
Upward/outward Direction Inward/downward direction
(This is the same as Yin or Femalness / Yang or Maleness)
This brief explanation might not be enough but can give us a sense of what I am trying to say when I say the feminine energy is considered not as important or mostly being even ignored.
In the context of “Cultivating Human Potential” I would like to direct attentions to what has been occupying my mind and what I think if resolved will have a great impact in the way we perceive our world and potentially will create the space needed for human potential to show its dimensions. I am very aware that there will not be any resolution to this unless there are many conversations, dialogues, and interactions. It is my belief that the resolution will be generated inside the dialogues and will continue to change with more dialogues. For this reason, I have posted this brief comment and I am much interested in hearing from you to further this.
Shami Tolooie
