Time for Men to Get Out of the Way

By Carl Gibson, Reader Supported News

10 July 13

n their 1997 book "Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence," two primate researchers, Dale Peterson and Richard Wrangham, explored species of primates closely tied to human evolution – chimpanzees and bonobos. Both the chimpanzee and the bonobo are the closest relatives to human beings, tied to humans through DNA more closely than to gorillas.

Chimpanzees are patriarchal, in that the status of a chimpanzee is related to the status of its father. When encountering other groups of chimpanzees, they were most often likely to fight and try to claim the other group's territory through violence. Bonobos on the other hand are a matriarchal species, and their primary means of engaging other groups of bonobos is through sex and other forms of affection. Through this comparison, Wrangham and Peterson ease readers to the conclusion that were humans not a patriarchal species, we would see much more peace and love than we would violence and war.

This seems obvious today when looking at contemporary American politics. In Texas, a male governor and male legislators in the GOP are pushing hard for a bill that would close most of the state's abortion clinics, outlaw abortions after 20 weeks, and force abortions to be performed in ambulatory surgical clinics. In Wisconsin, a male governor and male legislators successfully forced through a bill that would require women seeking an abortion to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound, effectively legislating penetration of a woman without consent. While transvaginal ultrasounds have been proven to have no effect on the health of a woman or her fetus, they are an effective tool for men to humiliate and degrade women who just want their medical decisions to be left between themselves and their physicians.

Both the Wisconsin and Texas measures were met with heavy resistance from women and male allies. Even though the ultrasound provision made it into the Wisconsin budget that Governor Scott Walker just signed (on a holiday weekend, away from the news media), the anti-abortion bill in Texas, which is likely to be forced through after a third attempt, has been derailed twice by a large and determined group of women and male advocates for women's rights. As a result, the political careers of both male proponents are in jeopardy. Rick Perry just announced he isn't seeking re-election, and Wendy Davis, the state senator from Forth Worth who filibustered his anti-abortion bill for 14 hours, is the favorite to replace him in the 2014 election. Likewise, a challenger to Scott Walker has emerged in Wisconsin, as Madison school board member Mary Burke has announced her intent to run in 2014. Fair criticisms have risen in regard to her support of charter schools and her endorsement of divisive "education reform" measures involving the firing of teachers. However, a woman in the Wisconsin governor's office is nonetheless a stark contrast to the vision set forth by Walker and the Wisconsin GOP.

In our country's short history, we've been marred by major wars and conflicts all over the world, and even amongst our own people. Before and after defeating the British empire and winning our independence, we justified violence with principles like "Manifest Destiny" to wage war on indigenous people and claim their territory, whether it was with smallpox-infected blankets given to natives or through direct subjugation and slavery. We've imposed violence on people in every corner of the world to take resources like oil and minerals, and use state-sponsored violence to quell nonviolent crowds of people protesting the use of such violence.

Even though we've elected a scant few female governors and members of Congress in our roughly 230 years of independence, we've never once allowed a woman to lead the nation. It's time for men to step aside and let women take charge of our political system. If we're to co-exist with our fellow human beings, we must abolish the rule of patriarchy and allow women an equal opportunity to lead. Let's be like bonobos instead of chimpanzees.