The glory and madness of male dominance

Titus Andronicus: "These words are razors to my wounded heart."

From Multitudinous Seas Incarnadine:  Glory and madness -- sit uneasily on our wounded hearts, even as they did five centuries ago.

In the last half-century, as women all over the world fought and died for freedom from dominant males, male dominance fell into disrepute. The disrepute is well-deserved, and men became ashamed of the past abusive behavior of our kind.

Men have lorded it over women since we become human. Unfortunately we descend from the chimp line, not the bonobo. I needn't catalogue male sins and disgrace; you know them already. Abusive male behavior is till the norm in much of the world.

There are grounds for encouragement. Women have gained near-equality in socleties governed by the Rule of Law and those still mired in autocratic thinking are moving toward equality, though much too slowly.

Franz Fanon, a Mozambique psychiatrist, rightly points out that when an abused population glimpses the opportunity for freedom, rage builds and excesses occur. In this country, as women asserted their right to equality and dignity, some went too far; and some men forgot that to be dominant can be loving and gentle.

We are in a period now of readjustment. Dominance traits in men and women assume their natural place in society. Never again, one hopes, will the institutionalized and personal brutality that dominance once foisted be allowed. Consent is the key.

This blog celebrates some aspects of the kind of male dominance I have enjoyed, and that I make no apology for.  

The images here are all of men, because of my particular interest.  Similar blogs could be written from a dominant female point of view. Indeed, Male Submission Art, one of the great works to come out of the blogosphere, is written by a proudly submissive male, and is a brave work of art.