the knowledge that these are the basic principles of all human beings and no one gender controls them.
Think of the difference it might make to the world if men were allowed to embrace these principles, to be shown how to, and to be respected for doing so instead of “pathologised” and judged in terms of a myth which says they’re incapable.
The first stage in this Menaissance is to restore balance. That might mean questioning our basic assumptions and finding the truths behind our myths and stereotypes – such as the all-pervading myth of the goddess which has become so popular in our culture and which says that women are gentle, caring, frail, defenceless, loving creatures and that men are there to protect them – when they’re not being violent towards them.
Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, for example, is one of the archetypes often used and whose qualities women are encouraged to embrace and men are told to accept. What is rarely taught, however, is the origin of “foam-arisen” Aphrodite, who was born when her father’s penis was cast into the sea and from whose waves Aphrodite arose. In symbolic terms, the sea is the vagina, the waters of life, and the myth of Aphrodite therefore says that men are the creators since the first action was the penis entering the sea. In more prosaic and egalitarian terms we might put it this way: that women are nothing without men (and vice versa). We are equal (or should be!) and we need each other for our species to survive.
The next stage is for men to rediscover their own gods and heroes: people they can look up to, whose qualities they can embrace, and who will not betray them for speaking and living their truths.