The Beginning of Peace
“When we say we want equal rights, whose rights are we talking about? Equal to who? Who have the most rights? White men.”
- B. Katza, Philosopher
End the male gaze by blinding men. Of course the first wave was not entirely successful. But we were united, hidden in plain sight. Through worldwide whisper networks we got enough guns to subdue them, enough tools to take their eyes but leave them otherwise intact. Male infants from then on were circumcised and de-gazed a few hours after birth. It was the beginning of Peace.
There can be no peace without equality, without a fundamental reordering of the scales. The magnitude of the project required careful gestation and implementation, and so an international grand council of wom was formed. Wom from every country on Mother Earth, of every ethnicity, orientation, background and ability were summoned and encouraged to share their experiences and ideas. As more wom spoke, the more nuanced the plan became, the more certain we were that this was the only way forward.
To create change on a global scale, implementation must be tailored to each community. This was not a one-size-fits-all solution. After much discussion (and some vestigial pushback from the daughters of the colonizers) it was decided that reparations were due, particularly in the United States of America, to the descendants of the African diaspora and to the Indigenous populations. The former having been enslaved and brought to America as chattel, the latter having their lands invaded and systematically destroyed. While these men were still a danger, they were not the ones who put the systems in place, and were offered a choice: lifelong re-education and training, or banishment to the farthest, most desolate islands. Men of the former European colonies were given the same choice.
White men, and white wom who would not participate, were de-gazed when the time came. White wom in particular, being the descendants of colonizers and used to the comforts thereof, showed the most initial resistance to the plan. They were subject to the harshest scrutiny by the grand council; could they even be relied on when the moment was upon us? It was tragic, although not unexpected, that some wom, having internalized the imperialist male gaze, were unwilling bloody their hands for the birth of our sovereignty. White wom who were sympathetic to the patriarchy were nearly as dangerous as any un-gazed man.
A man un-gazed was not only a danger to himself, but a danger to the entire community. After the first wave happened some men were left stumbling through the streets blind and weeping pus. They had no wom; no wives or sisters or daughters to guide them. No one to depend on. So they would have slipped through the cracks like so many widows or unmarried mothers of the past, but wom are wise and benevolent. These blind, unfortunate men were escorted to holding facilities where they finished out their bleak, womless lives by creating small crafts, or jams, to be distributed by the facilities. Some were unhappy, of course, these men did not deserve 3 hot meals a day and a warm bed, yet another exploitation of our labor. Some thought it served them right, life without wom! Who did they think they were?
"And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee," so it was written, and yet it took how long to figure out? Previous interpretations of nearly all our holy books had been perverted, corrupted, mistranslated. Wom were referred to as the gatekeepers of morality, a faux title, imbued with immutable responsibility, but no authority.
Before men were de-gazed, life was unbearable. Mental illness ravaged communities- the silent killer. Silent until you woke in the night to see your brother standing over you with a knife, silent until shots rang out and bullet casings clattered to the linoleum floor of your school. PTSD, paranoid schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, anti-social disorder, you name it. Men and boys, being of a lesser emotional and mental capacity, were highly susceptible to mental diseases and addictions to alcohol, methamphetamine, and pornography. Rape and murder were daily occurrences. A wom could not walk down the street in any community without risking her life, for drunk sexual offenders leered on every corner.
It is for their own good that men are de-gazed. Much like the foreskin, the gaze is superfluous and in fact has a harmful effect if left intact. Godliness is next to cleanliness and so dogma and good hygiene did go hand in hand.
Man’s role in our society is a simple one, true, but it is an extremely important one. First and foremost is reproduction; our species and Womhood as we know it would die out without the life giving seed men produce. And while it is wom who bear the fruit, she who bears the great pain always comes first, and it is a pleasure and a privilege for a man to serve a Mother. Once the fruit has left the womb it is for the gardener to keep, and men are mostly gardeners, due to their simple dispositions. For men are soft, they do not possess the ability to bear fruit, nor the ability to nourish, nor the superior mental and emotional abilities that are inherent in wom. Men are better suited to help; to lead would be a reversal of the natural order, a slide back into darkness. This is what time has taught us.
It took many years to get to the breaking point. We had to hit rock bottom before streaking brilliantly upwards in ecstatic joy, the joy of true freedom. The solution was so simple, always available but never utilized. Wom and men are both born with sight, but wom are the only ones strong enough to harness it for good. After millennia of patriarchy, of proverbial blindness cast upon wom, we reached up and snatched out the gelatinous orbs that kept us in bondage. It was said long ago that an eye for and eye makes the whole world go blind, well, the saying was only half right.
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N. is a Seattle based writer and poet. She works in the legal field and spends the majority of her time wandering around the market smoking cigarettes and avoiding eye contact.