The political and social debate sees the supporters of two world modelsa metaphysical and philosophical clash rather than a strictly political one. A controversy that as women we observe with perplexity: two opposing and apparently irreconcilable models, tradition versus modernity, ancient and sacred values versus ubiquitous fluidity, the old versus the queer family.... Champions of the patriarchal world on both sides that speak the language of the ideologies of the 'short century'.
They all claim to be on the side of women- reduced to spoils of war-, interested in their problems, speaking on their behalf, treating them as an oppressed minority when in fact they constitute more than half of humanity,
But this world has not suddenly gone 'upside down', and in any case not because of the feminist 'witchdoctors': the world has been travelling backwards for five or six millenniabased on a original distortion on which it thrived.
The original sin of the Patriarchate can be represented by thetraditional image of the Tao, symmetrical and complementary Yin and Yang intertwining and interpenetrating. To those who argue that the world is not binary, one can reply that At a certain point in history that balance between male and female broke down, men have usurped territories by taking physical and metaphysical spaces from women. The natural love that males should feel for women, from whose bodies they have come into the world, has turned into envy and resentment for their natural ability to give life, the principle of female divinity. Envy and resentment expressed in the domination of women, in theinvention of creative fathers in spirit; in building civilisations based on force and possession. This has resulted in a crooked, lopsided world, which has been built precisely on an original imbalance and the unhappiness of women. A boundless bulimia that can be depicted as a male slowly and progressively devouring and cannibalising his counterpart, to the point of erasure.
Today's patriarchs - at least in the West - have disposed of their beards and cassocks, are clean-shaven, even made-up and depilated, steal women's clothes, sports, reserved spaces, and use violence against those who resist.
The contrast between the two worldviews appears increasingly sharp, but women have no friends on either side. Right or wrong, this world has been thought out, planned, organised by men to suit themselves. A world in which women can no longer even call themselves women, because other subjects (with a male sexual body) ask to appoint themselves as such; in which the female body, denuded, pornified and overexposed in media and advertising, paradoxically must disappear and cannot be named. A body desired and feared by an increasingly restless and problematic male, son of a patriarchy that is now multifaceted and multifocal, ancient and modern, atheist and devout;
The upside-down world is one in which girls flee from the feminine 'like from a house on fire' by mutilating it and destroying its physical characteristics.
The upside-down world is one in which women hate their bodies so much that they destroy them in every way, more or less consciously.
The world in reverse is a world that still fears the blood of fertile women, blood of life and not of dying bodies.
The world to the contrary is a world that says it loves women but in reality makes them the object of a millenary hatred, it envies the sexual and generative body, wants to replace them on a physical and metaphysical level and thanks to new technologies will soon succeed.
The world in reverse is a world that imagined Self-creating males, rapists and deceivers of women, mortal and divine.
The world to the contrary is one in which the 'traditional family' has only recently freed itself from legal burdens whereby the man was the head of the household; a family that at best supported itself and thrived on the sacrifice and selflessness of women and girls towards husbands and brothers who instead were able to study, work and have careers because the women at home had given them up.
The world to the contrary is one in which this family model reinterprets archaic traditions in a post-modern key, with the support of the media and a self-styled modern and progressive civil society.
The world in reverse is a world where Eros, the most beautiful and profound form of encounter between a man and a woman, loses its etymological meaning of 'love' and turns into a battlefield and a butcher's shop.
The world in reverse is a world in which a woman must be afraid that the men she meets may hurt her because they are unable to handle the desire they feel for her.
The upside-down world is one in which different worlds meet, but the constant, regardless of differences, is always the hatred and humiliation of women.
The world in reverse is a world that claims to be modern and inclusive but reduces the woman's body to a commodity-vehicle to sell other commodities.
The world in reverse is a world in which women struggle to have control over their reproductive capacity; on their bodies pitched battles between remnants of 20th century ideologies and new fundamentalisms.
The world in reverse is a world in which maternal power is incompatible with the laws of the marketand therefore left behind and penalised in its biological functions.
The world in reverse is a world in which one is forced to adhere to unrealistic stereotypes of perfection to which one reacts by stopping taking care of oneself and waging war on one's image.
The world in reverse is a world that has made even beauty toxic and dangerous.
The world in reverse is a world that has made us difficult and painful motherhood, the true natural family.
The world to the contrary is a world in which motherhood, with all its material and symbolic bearing, is relegated to subordinate status, cancelled and put up for sale like any other product.
The world in reverse is a world in which science invests time and resources to allow males who self-identify as women to use an artificial womb.
The world to the contrary is a world in which a woman who has dedicated her life to her family, who has completely taken on the work of caring, without holidays or interruptions, is not entitled to a social pension but is in the position of being 'maintained' by her husband.
The world in reverse is a world in which children do not bear the surname of the one who bore themfed and delivered.
The world in reverse is a world in which a mother who protects her sons and daughters from an abusive father is treated as a liar and manipulator on the basis of rambling theories created by men; it is judged in court on the basis of laws created by men and designed to favour them (e.g. the monstrous Law 54/2006).
The world in reverse is a world in which maternity and paternity are equated, and if a child wants to stay with mommy because daddy is mean to him, he is taken away by the police and 'reset' by professionals paid to do so.
The world in reverse is a world in which women who report violence are not believed or are abandoned to their fate, because violence has to be 'proven' and women are on average 'not very credible'.
The world in reverse is a world that some time ago discovered itself to be 'equal but in which men are 'a little more equal' than women.
The world in reverse is a world in which even feminist battles have been invaded and usurped by men who decide their goals and strategiesalways and only to male advantage.
The world in reverse is a world in which men steal everything from us: life, the imaginary, the symbolic, money, protected spaces, even sports, devouring us.
The upside-down world is a world that thinks it is straight and is not, and that sees the faults in another world symmetrically crooked and unjust. Two worlds, two paradigms each of which does not see its own errors but projects them onto the other. But a world that goes backwards is a crooked world destined to come to an end: a world that makes war on 'its half' - primarily its own mother - is a profoundly stupid world, it should be clear to everyone by now. A beautiful world where men are always devising new strategies to keep women on the sidelines and replace them. A desert they call civilisation.
Valeria Damiani and Paola Pieri
