This is where people can talk about gender issues.
@ana I'm sorry if this touched on a sore spot for emotions. I can totally agree with what you have written with regards to some boys and young men. I am the mom to 3 grown men and 3 young grandsons. I have not heard such comments from my sons when we talk about how things are in this world. I will refrain from posting such things in the future. My apologies to you, and others who may have been affected by my post.
@pat-czap I never interpreted "The future is female" to be exclusive of men/boys.
Rather, I think the intent of the slogan is to visualize a world where women have an equal place at the table...where viable female candidates on the ballot are no longer a rarity, but a mainstay. Where male candidates aren't automatically given deference just because they're male.
Of course, there are some who'd want to take the slogan literally and turn it into a misandrist society where women run everything in the name of "turning the tables on" men. But I don't believe that's what a majority of people (of any gender) actually want.
I wanted to clarify that when I see the rise of feminine energy, it's not at the expense of male energy. If women had run the world so unilaterally across human history as men have done, we'd have equally as many problems as we do now. Maybe different ones, but problems nonetheless. (Think of Kari Lake, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Lauren Broebert, to name a few.)
It's the balance of feminine and masculine energies that holds the key to positive change, in my opinion. And just because women have more opportunities, doesn't mean that men are automatically sidelined. But men shouldn't expect default opportunities in future, based solely on their gender. There has to be room for everyone–male, female, non-binary, etc. to advance and grow.
@ana @pat-czap. Both of you have beautiful heart-felt reasons for your thoughts, and all of us are evolving right now. A natural reaction to improving a world dominated by male energies, is to hail the rise of women. The scales have been so heavily weighted towards the masculine, we need a lot of feminine energy to bring us back to balance. Please don't feel you need to apologize, @pat-czap, for hailing the rise of women, although it is so kind of you to do so.
@Ana, thank you for reminding us. I too have a son and he has oodles of empathic caring energy, as does my husband, his father. We are so blessed that way. Years ago, I read and loved the book Real Boys, by William Pollack that asserted that the toxic conceptions of masculinity in boy culture leads to boys doing poorly in education and health and having higher involvement in violent crimes and suicide than girls, as well as gearing our business and political leadership towards toxic power and winning at all costs. Our culture conditioned boys to be unfeeling, tough, in a way that is not what a naturally healthy masculine psyche is meant to be.
So when I speak of the rise of the feminine, I think of it as the divine feminine, or the rise of empathic caring qualities in a person, not that they have to be a man or a woman to make that happen in our world.
But as @ana has pointed out, we need to find more gender inclusive vernacular for the return of caring values in our culture than just calling it the rise of women.
We humans seem to want to distill ideas, spirituality, divine truths and everything else into short catch phrases. "The future is female" strikes me that way. I understand it the way Jeanne explains it. Others may see it as a slam against men and be offended. That's the problem with catchy slogans!
But as @ana has pointed out, we need to find more gender inclusive vernacular for the return of caring values in our culture than just calling it the rise of women.
Yes, yes yes.
To me and my son, the phrase "The future is female" carries the implication that there is no place for men in the future.
We need balance. We need the best of female energy and the best of male energy working in concord.
Men and boys-- particularly impressionable young men and boys-- should not (even inadvertently) be made to feel they are "bad" or "toxic" because of their gender.