Gender/Conflict/Empowerment
Gender/Conflict/Empowerment
We’re living in an era where there are major conflicts between the genders.
And over how gender is expressed.
Character arcs in SWBAG? integrate elements of contemporary gender dynamics.
And also promote a return to new forms of traditional roles.
For Adam that’s being a man who is loving and nurturing.
But also learning the value to be strong to become protecting.
And for Maggie that’s being a woman who has purpose and autonomy.
But also accepting the need to be vulnerable to become maternal.
There are also subplots that echo this.
Maggie’s mentee negotiates her hyper-individuality and careerism.
To find compassion and humanity for the subjects of her news story.
Adam’s student navigates his potential for toxicity and criminality.
To find wellness and care for his mental health.
In my own life I found that I was lacking masculine qualities.
I wasn’t providing or emotionally stable for instance.
Now I didn’t go off completely into the manosphere.
But I did read some helpful books like David Deida.
The Way Of The Superior Man was a book I don’t agree with everything.
But it taught me how to hold space or a container for women to step into their feminine energy.
This allowed for more radiance and expressiveness in a later relationship.
Similar to how Maggie’s character taps into her femininity in the end of the book.
And I now think masculinity without vulnerability becomes armor.
But vulnerability without empowerment becomes helplessness.
And yet there are also subplots that play with the non-binary framework for gender.
Which I think is equally valid.
And doesn’t have to be in conflict with the traditional.
Characters that show contemporary gender and relationships.
Such as a single elderly woman who is competent and impactful in her solo life and leadership role.
A queer married couple with a child who yet espouses religious values.
A trans student at the end seeming to take the place of David in Adam’s work.
Just like suggesting balance is necessary for healing the politics of Progressivism and Conservatism.
Into something open-minded and ever-evolving.
There’s a suggestion that balancing the polarities of gender but also the seemingly competing non-binary frameworks helps also.
Grow the possibilities of modernly open-ended and multi-dimensional expression.
This can lead to true empowerment of the best that all qualities have to offer.
Maybe the goal is not masculinity over femininity, or femininity over masculinity, or even one framework over another.
Maybe the goal is wholeness.
