Obsession of Gender Roles and the Collapse of Society
We are on the verge of collapse in our society. The indicator of this is the rise in the obsession with gender and gender roles. They say history is like a spiral. It keeps repeating itself but is never exactly the same.
The gender-obsessive culture we are currently in is nothing new. It has been seen in different cultures in the past. Most notably in Ancient Greece.
The Ancient Greece Civilization was the catalyst for many things in Western Culture. Mainly the luxury to explore the arts, which would include Science and Philosophy as well. Fewer people were constantly worried about death which gave them the luxury of turning to entertainment and science.
Not going too much into history but Ancient Greece was split into three main periods: Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic. Through these three periods, we can see a decrease in strong masculine men in their sculptures. And an increasing amount of feminine and weak postures.
Archaic
Early in the Archaic period, many sculptures were rigid, boxy, and straightforward. It showed a kind of confidence and strength. The skills of the craftsman were just being built so there isn’t a lot of detail. Therefore the detail they did put is more significant and important to them. Notice the inverted triangle shape of the chest with broad shoulders. The posture of the figure showing durability, stability, and firmness is meaningful to them. Those are the qualities of a good man in their culture at the time.
Early Classical
Over time the sculpture became more realistic and had more movement to them. The men in these sculptures take up more space and are more active. They are depicting men as robust and tough. Like seen here in Discobolus. He is about to throw his discus which represents him as a “human coil of energy ready to explode.” He is an athlete. Athletes most physically capable humans in their culture right next to warriors.
Or in The Farnese Hercules after he has defeated the Nemean lion. Although he does look weary in the sculpture it is crucial to understand why. He just killed one of the most vicious monsters in Greek mythology. Although tired he shows vigor. He’s like a boxer who won after a brutal fight. Yes, he is tired and beat up but weak he is not. The lion’s skin draped over his club signals everyone around him his strength.
These next two examples are important because of their posture. Once again like in the Archaic period these men show stability and strength. They take up space and show no cowardness.
Late Classical
Here is when we start to see a decrease in masculinity. The posture is what really changes, they stand in a feminine pose. The people depicted look fragile and non-confrontational. As a culture, your art loosely represents who the people are going to be, it is what and who they look up to. So if you sculpt a great warrior, that is who people would look up to. Same thing if you depict a delicate being.
Hellenistic
This trend continues through the collapse of the Greek city-states. Here we see men hurt or dying in these sculptures. This directly shows weakness. As a man, your ability to protect and provide determines your value. These men in the sculptures show they have very little value. This is the art that is being displayed to Greek men before their collapse. Curious about why they lost. Your mind is powerful. And if the art of your culture is saying that death is beautiful, what do you think is going to happen when these men have to fight against the Romans?
These next sculptures have very flamboyant and feminine postures. They do not show strength or courage. They show vulnerability and weakness. Look at the noodle-like arms compared to the strength and sturdiness of the early Classical period. Wildly different.
This is an interesting sculpture as it is about a boy removing a thorn from his foot. But again the posture speaks volumes. He is in a fetal-like position, showing vulnerability and immaturity. Hunched over and lack of broadening of shoulders shows cowardness and lack of confidence.
Maybe I’m too harsh and nitpicking, but the quality of sculptures has increased dramatically since the Archaic. They could have made anything. Yet they chose these specifically. It is the gender role obsessive culture that has taken over in Greece that partly leads to their downfall. Where they want to show that weakness is okay and “express your feminine side.”
Women in Sculptures
Even in the sculptures of women, we can see a decrease in innocence and an increase in what we would today call “empowerment”. Most women in early Greek art would be fully clothed. But over time the naked depictions were increasingly more common.
Now you may be wondering, but all the sculptures of the men are naked, what’s the big deal? Well in every culture ever including today, women’s virginity and innocence are what is valued. It is a biological mechanism for reproduction.
Men naked in art shows what the ideal man should look like. Strong, confident, and stable. While women naked represents a loss of virginity and innocence, and thus a decrease in value. This is why early in Greek art strong men were naked and pure women were covered up. A culture shift occurred where men were depicted as weak and women were naked. Granted this is not for every piece of artwork, you can find weak-looking men in the Archaic period and strong-looking men in the Hellenistic period. My argument is that it was a shift of increasing depictions of weak men in their art and culture.
Now, this cultural shift contributed to the collapse of Ancient Greece but how much? I can’t answer that as there were many contributing factors one of which is turmoil between city-states. This constant fighting between city-states weakened Greece over time. The fall of Ancient Greece was not because of one thing, it was a cumulation of multiple things, one of which happened to be a shift from masculine to feminine culture.
Culture Shift Today
Now how does this relate to today? We are currently going through that same shift in culture. We can also look at our art and see how men are feminized. Two examples would be Harry Styles and Lil Nas X. They are feminine and flamboyant. Specifically in how they dress and act.
This has nothing to do with their music, the same way this has nothing to do with the quality of the sculptures created. It has to do with the feminization of the art we are creating. It shows weakness and instability. Men in American culture never used to wear skirts and dresses. They would wear jeans and a shirt or a suit and tie. They would wake up early and build skyscrapers all day to provide for their family. Now we idolize men who wear dresses and frolic through a field.
Women in Todays Culture
Same thing with the “empowerment” of women today. You have women writing, signing, and performing songs like WAP where being a whore is encouraged. But it is being portrayed as virtuous and empowering for women to act like this. Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion have directly contributed to this cultural shift that greatly devalues women. This image is from the Grammys, this is what we are teaching young women to look up to become.
This isn’t the end all be all. Since we are having a similar cultural shift as Ancient Greece we will also collapse. But like them, we also have rising tension within our own country, in fact, between states. With recent claims about a possible world war or nuclear war. We are not in a very stable place right now and this culture shift is not helping. A big part of the cultural shift is gender culturalism (not sure if this is the correct term). The idea is that the only reason there are differences between men and women is because of culture. This is simply untrue. Trying to remove the biological differences between men and women because of the claim it is a cultural stereotype is what will lead to the collapse of our society.