Communist dogma absorbed many of the same fraternal and patriarchal biases that characterized Christian dogma. Men are most able to identify with this central Identity. They have more to win or lose depending on who wins the battle. Women are supposed to be the cheerleader spectators, sideline sources of nurture and support for their respective all-star male teams. The clashes between archetypes makes for some good and serious story-telling.
Opposition is embedded in the very nature of narrative.
We need positive and negative poles to attract and hold our attention. In her Intergalactic Wickedary , Mary Daly points out that male dominated thematic content is these days characterized by wimpy blobs of text that are essentially neutered, devoid of vibrancy or resonance. Their aim is to desensitize and entrap, to keep energy bottled up within the patterns mapped out for it by the patriarchy. Daly calls this the Foreground and urges her readers to engage in Background networking in order to break free of this suffocating and confining male-dominated prison of superficiality and shallowness. Norman O. Brown is one male scholar who apparently comes close to understanding what Daly is urging, which is why she is at pains to make sharp distinctions between his project and hers.