Pornography: Men Possessing Women, by: Andrea ... - Feminish

P o w e rFor freedom is always relative to power, and thekind of freedom which at any moment it is mosturgent to affirm depends on the nature of the powerwhich is prevalent and established.R. H . Taw ney, EqualityT he power of men is first a metaphysical assertion of self, an I amthat exists a priori, bedrock, absolute, no embellishment or apologyrequired, indifferent to denial or challenge. It expresses intrinsicauthority. It never ceases to exist no matter how or on whatgrounds it is attacked; and some assert that it survives physicaldeath. This self is not merely subjectively felt. It is protected bylaws and customs, proclaimed in art and in literature, documentedin history, upheld in the distribution of wealth. This self cannot beeradicated or reduced to nothing. It is. When the subjective sense ofself falters, institutions devoted to its maintenance buoy it up.T he first tenet of male-supremacist ideology is that men have thisself and that women must, by definition, lack it. Male self seems tobe a contradiction. O n the one hand, it hangs suspended in thin air;it is magically perpetual; it requires nothing to sustain or support it.O n the other hand, it is entitled to take what it wants to sustain orimprove itself, to have anything, to requite any need at any cost. Infact, there is no contradiction, just a simple circle: the nature of themale self is that it takes, so that, by definition, the absolute self isexpressed in the absolute right to take what it needs to sustain itself.T he immutable self of the male boils down to an utterly unselfconsciousparasitism. T he self is the conviction, beyond reason