THE CONCEPT OF MAN IN MODERNITY
The fall of the Western Roman Empire put an end to what is known as the Ancient Age. Little more than 1.500 years separate us from that time, but the large amount of available information allows for an extensive historic analysis that will be only briefly outlined, highlighting some points that have been relevant for the construction of current masculinity.
The downfall of the empire ended the domination centralised in Rome, initiating a process during which new elites intended to fill the power vacuum. The system of feudal kings expanded into the post-Roman world, with the increasing power of the Christian church as a consolidator, a key element to fight the fragmentation of the Christian imaginary and identity. The different philosophical currents that came together against the ecclesiastic domination would be brutally exterminated under the accusation of heresy went down in history as were described by the victors: as evil and abominable. That would place them as deserving of the genocides that eradicated them.
However, the Christian hegemony would soon be disputed. Only 622 years after the alleged birth of the prophet who revolutionised Judaism, the teachings of Mohammed started the fast expansion of Islam in the Middle East. The call to what would be known as the first crusade happened on 1095 in the Christian calendar, 488 in the Islamic calendar. It intended to contain the expansion of the Turkish Seljuks who threatened the Byzantine Empire. This call for “holy war” perpetuated the binarist narrative of the men-warriors, with the dualism Christian-Muslims. The submission of man to his masculine and exclusive supreme god was an element skillfully used by ruling elites to handle the society, and this would lead to the ill-will towards the socialist ideas that would appear further on (“religion is the opium of the people”).
Another key element of the modern construction of masculinity was the sexual redefinition carried out by the religious institutions of the central civilisation. This was imposed through repression and stigmatisation, associating sexual desire to sin. In the face of the ritual sexuality of ancient polytheistic religions, usually linked to feminine deities, the servers of god in monotheism were constructed as ascetic subjects. They generated an imaginary of purity that included chastity and abstinence, desowning the desires they considered unclean and thus generating a cultural substrate that would allow them to accusing people with different ways of living sexuality of heretic and unclean. That would lead to establishing a generalisation and sacralisation of marriage, taking it away from the commercial materialism to give it a new spiritual dimension, and thus settling a reproductive model acceptable in the eyes of God. In time, double standard would appear in society, which abided by the conservative values in public but allowed for the satisfaction of the masculine sexual desire in private.
Homosexual pratices, which was a common sexual practice accepted in diverse ancient civilisations became subjected to a violent persecution. On the one hand, it defied the Jewish-Christian conception of sexuality (which was inherited by Islam), which restricted it to marriage and for reproductive purposes. On the other hand, it was an affront to the supremacist idea of masculinity, in which the act of sexual penetration is linked to an imaginary of domination over the woman. For a man to be penetrated by another man defied the gender roles of the time, placing the homosexual man in a position of lack of definition in terms of the dicotomy man-woman. An increasing social renunciation took place intending to eradicate homosexuality both at a physical and ideological level, constructing an imaginary that would redefine it as something evil and abhorrent, and generating a framework of humiliation and shame that lasted up to our time.
With the expansion of the ideas of the Renaissance in Western Europe from the 15th century started what we know as scientific knowledge, which would perpetuate the rationalism of ancient Greek thinkers. These doctrines would be followed and discussed by the Enlightened Western men, excluding a large part of the population from the process of construction of science. This scientific knowledge led to a universe of fragmented disciplines in which only that which could be seen, experienced and proven was given a value, thus highlighting the material values and making metaphysic values such as emotionality and spirituality invisible. These ideas were used at first to justify the religious doctrines, but they would open the door for agnosticism, defying the ecclesiastic power that was the basis of the theocratic monarchies, thus allowing for the development of socialist ideas.
Colonialism and Industrial Revolution, the Unfold of the Capitalist Modernity
The “descovery” of America is considered as the beginning of the Modern Age, with the expedition led by Christopher Columbus on 1492. the western man faced there human societies that were identified as primitive and backward due to the lesser technological development of the civilisations that populated the continent.
They did not hesitate to class the indigenous population as “savage” and “uncivilised”, thus generating an imaginary in which the white man is placed as a superior being, with the natural right to exploit the resources that were there and the moral duty to “civilise” and “evangelise” the inhabitants of the “new world”. After the controversy between the Spanish Catholic Kings and the king of Portugal for the right to exploit the American continent, the Pope of Rome mediated to define the territories that could be taken by each empire. This is how the first wave of colonialism started, with both of the empires developing processes of genocide and colonisation against the natives, intending to impose their culture and religion and exterminating whole civilisations.
The exploitation of the resources and the plunder of precious ores conferred great wealth and power to the colonial empires, which needed for that large amounts of labour force. The cost of said labour force would have been huge, so in order to avoid paying for it they restored the system of slave-holding that had been abolished due to the Christian values after the fall of the Roman Empire. The philosophical and theological debate started by the Christian missionaries, who intended to evangelise the natives, concluded that the American “savages” did possess a soul in the eyes of God, and thus were not susceptible of being enslaved. The slave trade was then focused on the African continent, since the racism of the western elites made them assume that the black population lacked a human soul, and thus it could be enslaved without it meaning an affront to the principles of the Christian religion.
The economic prosperity generated by this first colonial wave fuelled the expansionist ambitions of other European powers. As these started their conquests in what we understand as the second wave of colonialism, the plunder and exploitation of resources was intensified, expanding throughout Africa, the south of Asia and Oceania. The scientific development led to improvements in hygiene, healthcare and nutrition, producing a demographic revolution in the “old continent”. The increase in population allowed the colonisation of the occupied lands, building harbours and cities in the new conquered territories. The western man perceived himself as the lord and master of the world, and the genocides against indigenous populations were intersperced with pacts and wars among colonial powers, signing treatises and drawing the borders that would redefine the modern world.
However, the return to the slave-holding system, which was the hegemonic productive model in ancient times, contradicted the progressive mentality promulgated by the permanent progress of civilisation. The need for low-cost labour was studied through the prism of positivistic rationalism, finding an innovative solution that fit the progressive imaginary: the machine. Technical improvements allowed the mechanical systematisation of production in a process known today as the industrial revolution. England was the cradle of said process, which opened the door for capitalist modernity together with the market economy that was triggered by colonialism.
This capitalist modernity fit perfectly the patriarchal system, slightly adjusting the imaginary of masculinity and the family model. The man was then conceived as the engine of the family gear, the one who gets the productive machinery of state turning. He becomes the strong and able worker who brings money home, the provider father who provides his family what they need to live. The bourgeois domain is shown as the paradigm of success, presenting capitalism as the system where the strong and rational man, who understands and dominates the “science” of the capitalist economy, can get rich and reach a higher social status. This is how the privileges of the dominating elites are justified: they are presented as a product of their greater effort and abilities. Together with that, the poor man is blamed for his social situation, and presented as stupid and ignorant if he does not thrive, or lazy and a parasite if he does not work, generating an imaginary of humiliation and shame on the unemployed man that does not contribute to the capitalist productive system.
The flourishing of the socialist ideas meant a deep questioning of society and its power structures. Inspired in social contracts that intended to delineate the power of absolute monarchs, they promulgated the distribution of wealth and the suppression of social classes, defending equality and common good. However, the lack of the analysis of the patriarchal oppression limited its freeing potential. The scientific socialism developed by Karl Marx and Frederich Engels defended the struggle of the working class, but also perpetuates the invisibilisation of women. Their ideas presented ‘the worker’ – usually as a men identity – as the revolutionary subject, whose destiny was to transform the capitalist society in a socialist society through class struggle. This struggle was understood as the only driving force of history. When socialist women tried to visualise their condition as subjects oppressed by men, they were frequently ignored with the argument that they were fragmenting the struggle of the workers, and arguing that when the class struggle was won, all kinds of oppressions would come to an end.
SOURCE: THE INTERNATIONALIST COMMUNE OF ROJAVA
