From: uunet!infmx!robert@ncar.UCAR.EDU (Robert Coleman)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: Male violence and the 'Power Myth'
Date: 30 Sep 1992 04:50:03 GMT
Organization: Informix Software, Inc.
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: remarque.berkeley.edu
Originator: muffy@remarque.berkeley.edu

lord+@andrew.cmu.edu (Tom Lord) writes:

>The `power myth' is described as the belief that one's ``worth as a human
>being'' is correlated to power available.  This indirection, through
>a mysterious category `human worth' is unecessary and, i think, psychologicly
>misleading.  I don't think `power freaks' (people for whom pursuit of power
>obscures reasonable boundries) can be stereotyped as caring about an
>abstract `worth'.

>Power creates its own value by delivering material advantage to those who
>weild it.  It is not necessary to look for a socially constructed reason
>for people to pursue power -- that pusuit seems to me to be fundamental to
>the `hill climbing' character of brains.

>Analysis of social constructions is useful for discovering arbitrary
>and (hopefully mutable) features of the technology of power.  We might
>want to look at why men so often have access to power over women;  we might
>look at how womens bodies are made into tools for men.

>But again, there is no need to dwell on why men, or any
>other group, are motivated to pursue some kind of personal power;  that's life!

	That's life?  Yes and no.  You and I are both human and living, yet 
I doubt either of us feels motivated to rape.

	It is correct to say that power is it's own reward; it would be a
mistake not to analyze why that "reward" is more important to some people than
it is to others, or what effect conditions of real or perceived powerlessness
may have on the effectiveness of societal and legal constraints on behavior.

	It's fairly easy to see the recent riot in LA, an action both illegal
and immoral, as the result of the feeling in the Black community of 
powerlessness brought about by the Rodney King verdict.  It's pretty easy to
understand how someone who was born and has lived on the edge of poverty
could develop a predisposition to ignore normal societal rules, if stepping
into the antisocial realm empowers them.

	On the other hand, most men and women curb their actions wrt societal
and legal rules, regardless of the fact that power is it's own reward.  
Asking about the nature of the additional environmental variables that create 
this situation is a very reasonable course of study.

	The concept of the "success object" self-worth of men as compared to
the "sex object" self-worth of women is talked about in-depth in Warren
Farrell's "Why Men Are the Way They Are", which is recommended reading for 
those prepared to dismiss this subject out-of-hand.  The real contribution, 
I think, of the authors of this thread is the idea that the Power Myth may 
contribute to violence, since violence is an easy way for those with physical 
power to find empowerment.  I definitely think this merits discussion; 
certainly not the brush-off off presented here.

Robert C.
-- 
----------------------------------------------
Disclaimer: My company has not yet seen fit to
	    elect me as spokesperson. Hmmpf.


-- 
Post articles to soc.feminism, or send email to feminism@ncar.ucar.edu.
Questions and comments should be sent to feminism-request@ncar.ucar.edu.  This
newsgroup is moderated by several people, so please use the mail aliases. Your
article should be posted within several days.  Rejections notified by email.