The Greatest Trick The Patriarchy Ever Pulled Was Convincing The World God Is A Man
Who started this idea and sold it to the world? Men.
Pemaphoto / Shutterstock Charles Baudelaire said, “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist." This implies that he who gets to be evil, nasty, wrong and awful cannot carry the same kind of weight as the one called "God" simply because he was able to convince the world that he didn't exist, so therefore he, the Devil, is just a figment of our imagination, while His Way Way Upness (AKA God) is as real as ... the guy next door.
So, we have All-Powerful God and the non-existent Devil, right? Yet the only one who gets all the positive attention is "The Man Upstairs," while the "The Horned Red Guy" gets to be known as a lesser force, something "not real," someone we can always combat as long as we work with and believe in the Bearded White Guy on the Heavenly Throne.
That means if the Devil pulled this trick, he succeeded in subverting himself from the continuous spotlight, where he could then wreak havoc on earth, freely, easily and without the consideration of having to actually exist. Nice work, Devil.
Interesting to see these guys in action. A real boy's club. All those Divine dudes making sure we know our place in life. And the first rule of the Abrahamic Boy's Club is "God is a man."
Well, I'll go you one better: The greatest trick that men ever pulled was convincing the world that God is a man.
If there is a God, a 'one true' God, worthy of worship, praise and deference — and the idea that this concept is not a product of our mind, but a separate entity altogether, then why is it automatically assumed by just about everyone that this God is male?
Automatically assuming God is a man seems a bit pushy, don't you think?
Considering no one's ever seen or met this God in person. There are a lot of ideas that have never been questioned; that is called dogma, and dogma is strict and unforgiving. And the dogma we're all used to in the Western world is the one where God is a man, and that's the end of that.
Who started this idea and sold it to the world? Men. Men wrote all the gospels. Men wrote all the Abrahamic scriptures — it's all men, men, men doing all the talk, talk, talk. Men making the rules, men writing the laws, men scribing history, and men creating religion and all that comes with it.
Men got in at the top and we've all been listening to them since the beginning.
No questions asked, just: take it away, men, we all trust that you are the authority on everything. Men like it that way.
And how do men get away with it, century after century? Braun. Braun and brute strength is the only thing men have over women, and should a woman voice an opinion that doesn't venerate men as superior beings, they will be beaten into submission.
It's interesting how fast a fist in the face can convince a woman to stand back and eat what she's given. So, thanks to men, all females get to be born into this understanding that this grand deity — this granter of wishes, this setter of rules, this decider of fates — is a male figure called God.
Meanwhile, women get to be a part of religions whose main scriptures boldly demand the gratitude of men, by having them humbly recite, "Thank God I'm not a woman."
Women get to learn all about their place in the world through a special section in their Bibles devoted just to them called, "Women and Animals."
And what a thrill it is for women to feel that wonderful inclusivity when their religious manuscripts reveal to them that, "Menstruating females are not allowed to touch the Holy Book."
Let's toss science aside and make room for the immaculate conception — the act of impregnating an ordinary human woman by means of an announcement made by a genderless Angel named Gabriel, working on behalf of God the Father. This child will be known as the Son of God ... so ... why would God have to be male to impregnate Mary?
Certainly Divine powers can't be that limited. Or does this imply that God has a penis that he doesn't use for the reason penises were created? Could not there be a female deity who might just as easily impregnate a human female?
So men really did pull this trick — and it was a rousing success.
Everyone bought into it: God simply had to be a man. And that meant that men would always be in the number one position for everything. After all, men were made in God's image, and God is a man, so if you're not a man, take a number.
How does this kind of "men are always more important" structure play out today? Well, if there's an issue that isn't directly related to men's feelings, it doesn't get the attention it needs, nor does it get the staying power it needs to gain any kind of momentum.
Look at the #MeToo movement. That looked promising for a while, I'm sure even a few men noticed how upset women were about the unending sexual harassment and rape that was going on. Unless they were being thrown in jail for rape, I'm sure most men were just biding their time, waiting for the movement to pass.
How boring women can be — always ruining all the fun with their accusations and their occasional rebellion against men. It was just too hard to beat them all, and so men let them have their silly little moment in the sun. #Metoo died out after men got bored of having their fun spoiled.
Thankfully there were the earthbound male demigods to declare, "It's such a hard time to be a young man."
And the same self-appointed male gods got to once again stomp on the necks of women and appoint top-of-the-line misogynists to the Supreme Court, where the lifelong works of female saints like Ruth Bader Ginsburg could be ground into dust beneath the feet of sex-obsessed, control freak, God-fearing individuals.
If there is a God, it's not a man.
It's a universal expanse of unlimited energy, way too infinite and intelligent to be encapsulated by human thought.
To decide that this eternal pulse of cosmic creativity, sustenance and destruction is MALE in nature, something that can be used by human men as a power tool, well, that's what we call misogyny and chauvinism.
Dori Hartley is primarily a portrait artist. As an artisan, she is a silversmith, a sculptor, a doll maker, a muralist, a faux painter and a costume designer.