What Is All This Stuff About Your Feminine/masculine Side?

[rightkindofme]

My daughter wants to start classes at the Hindu temple down the street. She asked me why people follow different religions. (She turns five next month.) I told her that each religion has its own rule book for how to live. There are a lot of overlaps between religions but there are a bunch of differences. The important part is finding the path that guides you to where you want to go. She has decided that having lots of gods who help you in different parts of your life sounds like a good idea because, "that way I can have a bunch of rule books in front of me and pick which is the right one for today."

I'm kind of the Zen Buddhist attitude: if you meet Buddha on the road, kill him.

I feel very excited by the multiplicity of options that life has. :)

 

[LhasaLover]

Rightkindofme, I learned of a book called Richer Living. There is a church, United Centers of Spiritual Living that is international and has live streaming. The person who told me had gone with a family member who is in recovery. A lot of people struggle to find the right spirituality for themselves.

You know this theory was composed by a man. Nuff said!

He was born in the 1870's and it is said that he had issues with his mother, was married and had an affair with one of his patients (after his wife passed? I have not a clue). Not sure if all this is confirmed to be true but that is what I have read.

His wife Emma wrote a book/some papers on the Animus.

 

[therapybankrupt]

Ok Peeps I did some research. I have to say I am still very confused but I think I get some of the concept. The dictionary explains the Anamus, a noun in the context we are referring to as a masculine inner part of the female personality no matter how prissy she is. CJ Jung a German Psychotherapist born in 1875 came up with this idea. The man has a Anima no matter how butch he is. He has this female internal image of a woman. Man has 1 female chromosome.

To become whole it seems we need to have opposite genders of ourselves. The man's Anima lives in his soul it is an idealization of the woman of his dreams . It does not have anything to do with his mom or other woman. The woman's Anamus is a figurative character from what she has learned from father and other men. This figure is very complex and archetypical. A woman if she has a good relationship with dad may be attracted to a man just like him. The man on the other hand usually is thinking about someone like Marilyn Monroe.

The Anamus is an image in a woman's mind not part of her ego but can draw from her ego. If a woman lets her Anamus draw her from her ego and take charge she looses herself. It will stifle her creativity and imagination. So keep control on that Anamus girls! :D The man carries the woman with him non-conscious and it also is hereditary. It is part of his ego. It lives within him organically and it is sometimes oppressed. This all has relevance to couples attracting. Men are attracted to projections of their ideal women. Women to men in the expectations of what they learned. Love at first sight?

There is more to this. Some thing about the first man a woman meets is her father. If the relationship is negative she later has problems with men. If she has difficulty with the Amanus side she tends to behave towards herself as her father did to her. Possibility with tyrannical behavior turned inward on self. And this is where I am confused. Anyone?

Tb

 

[Deleted member 1860]

Sorry, but that theory sucks in my opinion. I don't think strength needs to have a gender. Strength has a face and that is all that counts. Any attempt to make it male or female discounts its importance to the person that has provided it. Good luck!

AMEN!

I've refrained on commenting up until now.

Anything that pits men against women, women against men, male against female, female against male, automatically is a turn off to me.

 

[Hashi]

I don't know about psychological theories regarding masculine and feminine, and they may well set men and women against each other.

Talking only about what I know of traditional Eastern philosophy, the distinction is more a recognition of the unique qualities of masculine and feminine. As with other aspects of Eastern thought, concepts are more complex than "this is A, and that is B". The "masculine" ability to control emotions can be seen as strength, and so can the "feminine" ability to process and express emotions. (Again, bearing in mind that this doesn't translate completely to "men" and "women", since we all have some "masculine" and some "feminine" qualities.)

As a genuine question, not intending to argue but for the sake of understanding other people's views, could I ask what people think of the idea of female and male roles with regard to parenting? I don't mean very literal things like a supposed traditional idea that the father works to provide 100%, and the mother raises the family 100% - that has never been the case, and is only a type of social propaganda. I mean ideas of more innate qualities, such as the protectiveness of a mother (the "mother bear"). I've also heard that the father's role is to be a balance to the mother's protectiveness, so it doesn't smother the children or keep them infantilised when they need to become more independent. (In a family that doesn't have a male parent + female parent structure, these roles would need to be filled by others, perhaps by one person alone.)

I'd be interested to know whether people think there's something in looking at male/female roles in a context like that, or think that gender is irrelevant to the role that a parent plays? If gender is thought to have a relevance, then that's my understanding of an example where thinking about masculine and feminine is helpful. I know that there could also be a lot of interpretations and uses of the idea that are far from helpful.

 

[rightkindofme]

In my short experience as a parent (five years) my experience is that mothers who chose to get pregnant and who are enthusiastic about breastfeeding/diaper changing etc can kind of push a father into a more distant role. It is not mandatory. I know a large number of stay at home fathers and extremely non-maternal women.

I am the one out climbing trees and teaching rough housing and running and sports and.... I'm the chick. I have to do something with my aggressive energy. :)

In our homeschooling group the fathers are often way more over protective than the moms. It is kind of hilarious to watch.