twylyfe: martin krusche / draft #7 |
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Sex, War and Myth. Our perception of reality is like the top
of a tree, deconstructionism says. We see arms, branches, and twigs, we add new sprigs by
our thinking and acting. But we cannot find the trunk of the tree, let alone its roots.
And we shall not plant a new tree – but, maybe, if things work out well, we shall lay
a branch in a direction that makes sense. At least for the moment – when the
direction is no longer making sense, a new branch will become necessary.
On a branch of a very old tree top we
find a poster: “1 Euro Party & War of the Sexes.” Not a very
attractive branch but it is hanging into our faces. And it has a long family tree. Very
long - as long as humankind, some people say. Not a direct line, of course - here
again we find many branches, some of which are not easily understood nowadays. Or, who can
imagine that the concept of romantic love as foundation of partnerships is a rather new
one? About 300 years ago, this idea was invented – an idea that nowadays is causing
most of our hopes and wishes and pains, an idea for which people die and live, an idea
that most advertising concepts are based upon. But these are only specifics. The
attraction between the sexes, the war of the sexes and the fact that women have constantly
been defeated within this war – these have been constants, if not of the history of
humankind, then at least of a very long time. There are many assumptions on the roots of
this war – the biological inferiority of women as the physically weaker sex, or the
biological superiority of women as they are able to give birth – but they are not
more than assumptions – as mentioned before: we never get to the roots. Many narrations, myths, and stories are part of this tree top – one of these is the story of the amazons. Did they ever exist? In any case, burial places of female warriors have been found. How did they live, when did they live, what did they do? |
If they ever lived, then probably between 1200 and 300 A.D. And what
did they do? If we believe the stories about them they did nothing except fighting. But
this is highly unlikely, probably they also cooked and ate meals, slept, gave birth to
children and took care of them … If they ever existed. But it does not
really matter if they ever existed. They have their mainf function as leading actors of a
widely spread antic myth on the origins of peoples. Each people of antiquity maintained to
have conquered the amazons at some point of its history; the victory over the amazons was
the admission card to antiquity.[1] The victory of
men over fighting women is precondition for the welfare of a people. The other sex has to
be subjected; only then it is time for new heroic deeds. As it happened to other myths, also this
one was turned around and used in different ways over time. In this way, a story for
conquering men became one for combative women. The myth of the origin of peoples was
changed into an imagined past of amazon dominion that could be projected into a
visionary future. How this future can be imagined, I cannot
say. For me, personally, battles are not especially attractive. When I try to imagine the
amazons the picture quickly changes and instead of armed heroines I see Thelma
and Louise flying in their car out of a hostile world towards the sun. Who speaks of
victories? Getting through is all that matters.[2] Martin Krusche tells me that the legendary bar of conspirators, poets and Swiss is a “crossroad between unmarked routes, a resting place for exhausted amazons and navigators.” What may the amazons and navigators do, when they meet there? Maybe they drink a glass of wine together. The rest will somehow work out.[3] [2] Wer spricht von Siegen? Überstehen ist alles.
R. M. Rilke, Requiem für Wolf Graf von Kalckreuth Zu den Amazonen: http://www.gilians.de/amazonen/frame1Ama.html |
