The other day I came across this interesting interview with the world famous Rupaul (  Rupaul’s Drag Race)  on PBS’s  InnerViews with Ernie Manouse (Gotta love PBS).  Among the several interesting questions and topics that they touched on….this is one that made my ears perk when Ernie Manouse asked Rupaul quite candidly in his life had he experienced the most prejudice from society, being African American, being gay, or from being in drag..to which Rupaul answered….

“I have definitely found more prejudice in our culture from being gay than from being black or a drag queen. …I believe that its linked to ….the death of the goddess in our culture ….feminine goddess energy

..I think that the proliferation of patriarchal culture is the biggest reason that men  using femininity or women using femininity is looked down upon because people are afraid of it ..people are afraid of a very smart woman” 

And , well,  the evidence is clear…especially in western civilization in culture, in politics , in media, and in art. It is so difficult for the masses to embrace and accept the yang to the ying that creates the balance in our universe.  Even in the arts, that are considered female dominated or influenced, it seems that the men always somehow attain a certain level of attention and prestige within it…while the women , somehow become hidden, or swept under a rug.

And for a woman, who embraces her inner goddess, and is willing to boldly express it intelligently..she’s considered to be the most dangerous …for it is seems that it is always a flood of insecurity, greed , and power that brews. The higher the level of power or recognition she achieves, the more of a fervor the powers that be find a way to halt it .  The double standard, the degradation,  the projection of images and objectification  that are imposed and planted  into the female psyche whether consciously and subconsciously to suppress our true inner power, to reduce  us to roles as sex objects or eye candy ..has sadly become more of an ethos for survival patriarchal society of the 21st century even in the expression of art and culture.

Look around….take any field of art , dance, music , etc….and count how many of the artists that have been recognized in these fields and notice the alarming ratio of male to female who have been recognized in the forefront. Better yet, let’s further examine the number of females, who have served somehow as the power behind the “throne” and don’t receive the amount of credit they deserve.

Let’s go even further, to explore the number of male artists, who have transformed the face of art by openly adopting and embracing androgyny , and  finding that balance of expression within themselves, and while they have been misunderstood by the masses, there were also elevated …and have now , years later , been celebrated for courageously breaking the mold…

but where does that leave the woman , who is and have always been aware of the ying and yang of expression…who yet still have to comply with the patriarchal standard of a “woman”

It almost seems that we have gone in retrograde for our evolution,   where we have gone from the expansive, and revolutionary period of the 70’s where the collective conscious were intent on pushing buttons and fighting for equality..to the conservative yet rebellious Reagan years of the 80’s to now a post 9/11 society where everything has become fear based within our daily existence. Anything that is seemingly considered “different”  or against the grain, or an expression  or exploration of our authentic selves has been suppressed, to playing it safe..using the 2 colors from the crayon box and staying within the lines….

And for the female who chooses to color out of the lines …the ramifications of this behavior is quite costly…