In my experience, most of what goes by the name of political discourse today is very rarely about tax policy, foreign policy, or any policy. Much more often what we call “politics” seems to be a seething cauldron of projected personal and archetypal psychology, a projection screen on which we experience and defend our deepest values and hopes – and defend against our deepest fears – a story of saviors and devils, good and evil, often told as if these qualities exist on only one side of the political aisle. The good ones, of course, are our group; the bad ones are the other group(s). ~Jungian Analyst Tom Elsner
In last week’s post I said this one would be about contributions we can make to healing misogyny. But I soon realized I had more to say about the roots of the disease before I address its antidotes. So here goes.
The following story by Hans Christian Anderson was first published in Denmark 197 years ago:
The tale concerns an emperor who is obsessed with fancy new clothes, and spends lavishly on them, at the expense of state matters. One day, two con men visit the emperor’s capital. Posing as weavers, they offer to supply him with magnificent clothes that are invisible to those who are incompetent or stupid. The gullible emperor hires them, and they set up looms and pretend to go to work.
A succession of officials, starting with the emperor’s wise and competent minister, and then ending with the emperor himself, visit them to check their progress. Each sees that the looms are empty but pretends otherwise to avoid being thought a fool.
Finally, the weavers report that the emperor’s suit is finished. They mime dressing him and he sets off in a procession before the whole city. The townsfolk uncomfortably go along with the pretense, not wanting to appear inept or stupid, until a child blurts out that the emperor is wearing nothing at all. The people then realize that everyone has been fooled. Although startled, the emperor continues the procession, walking more proudly than ever. ~Wikipedia.
While this tale does not directly address misogyny, it is a strikingly accurate commentary on its source. Political leaders like the emperor aspire to rise to the top of a logically devised hierarchical structure of governance. To do so they must specialize in developing their Logos qualities. Jung associated Logos with the father world and the God-image. The emperor represents an inflated ego that identifies with Logos and lacks a firm foundation in its opposite: Eros, the feminine. For Jung Eros meant connectedness and interactions with others, and a sense of interdependence in work and the community. The emperor is so identified with his idealized God-image that he has no capacity for psychic relatedness.
When Eros is repressed, an inflated ego’s interactions with others, including loved ones, are marked by empty words and meaningless acts devoid of love, intimacy, and integrity. If the emperor has a wife, we feel sorry for her, for she is valued only for her ability to satisfy the needs of his ego. Eros repression—demeaning women and the feminine in our inner and outer worlds—wounds us. (For those interested in pursuing this topic, I highly recommend Into the Heart of the Feminine: Facing the Death Mother Archetype to Reclaim Love, Strength, and Vitality by Jungian analysts, Drs. Massimilla and Bud Harris.)
In dreams, clothes symbolize our persona: the image we present to the world. In this story, the emperor’s persona of fancy clothes covers up a shadow of pride, vanity, greed, pretentiousness, the need to be admired, the desire to impress, and utter disregard for the affairs of state or welfare of his subjects. This obsession with one’s image instead of character, this lack of humility and refusal to admit failure, this profound need for control and power, this utter disregard for the lives of others, is rampant in today’s world. We see the exact same symptoms in every dictator who ever ruled, and the exact same results: millions of disenfranchised people living in poverty or near poverty. Women and minorities being persecuted and deprived of their rights. Millions of innocent lives lost. All for the sake of one seriously wounded and inflated ego that lacks the capacity for care, kindness, connection, and love.
A second theme of our parable is collective ignorance and conformity. The officials and townspeople ignore reality and delude themselves into believing what the emperor wants them to believe because they’re afraid to lose status by being different. Two other themes are the importance of mindful living, and the value of truth, an essential element of a virtuous character. This is symbolized by the instinctively innocent child.
Our society, like the emperor’s, is sick. Our illness is caused by a collective psychological imbalance that favors the masculine principle. Misogyny is just one example of the poison this breeds. If we were imbalanced in favor of the feminine principle we would still be sick, but in other ways. Examples of our ailment are playing out today in the political arena. In the U.S.A. 2024 election, candidates are frantically demonizing the opposing party’s positions on issues like women’s rights, the economy, poverty, immigration, religious, racial, and other forms of discrimination.
We can help reduce misogyny and other social maladies by voting, donating to candidates who support women’s rights, participating in political activism, and making our voices heard in mutually respectful dialogues. But there are psychological solutions too. I hope you’ll provide your own examples next week when I’ll share some of your previous responses in my final installment of this series.
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Jean Raffa’s The Bridge to Wholeness and Dream Theatres of the Soul are at Amazon. Healing the Sacred Divide can be found at Amazon and Larson Publications, Inc. Jean’s new Nautilus Award-winning The Soul’s Twins, is at Amazon and Schiffer’s Red Feather Mind, Body, Spirit. Subscribe to her newsletter at www.jeanbenedictraffa.com.
10 Responses
Dear Jeanie,
Oh, how the ancient mirrors of fairy tales reflect more deeply as we age! You know I can still remember the day we read ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ in school and how much I didn’t like the story because the horrible King reminded me too much of my father; a vain, puffed-up, arrogant man. The truth, plain to see! Fast forward to today and while the world is anxiously holding its breath waiting to see who will become the next US president, I’m hoping and wishing that Kamala Harris will win next week and let her-story be made – because the alternative just doesn’t bear thinking about.
Happily, the world is evolving and the influence of the Divine Feminine is growing. Benefiting not only women but the entire world. We need this feminine wisdom to guide us towards the equilibrium we are seeking in the world and ourselves. Wisdom that promises a future where all beings (human and animal) flourish. So let’s read more fairy tales with open hearts and receptive minds, for I believe they hold keys to understanding the very essence of our being and the unfolding of our collective destiny. In their simplicity lies the complexity of life and in their age-old verses, the seeds of tomorrow’s wisdom.
Thank you so much Jeanie for sharing these seeds with us and helping to reduce the poison of misogyny. Bravo!
Love and hope, Deborah
Thank you, Deborah. I agree with your perspective on fairy tales. Like myths and dreams, they speak to the archetypal elements and themes of the lives of everyone everywhere. I take hope in the fact that almost always, despite the conflicts and perils of the journey, goodness and wisdom ultimately prevail and equilibrium is restored in folk literature. This must apply to the big picture and the long run, because it’s pretty obvious it doesn’t happen for every soul or culture during its time on earth. Hopefully we’ll all have chances next time around. As the cycles of birth, death, and rebirth repeat over and over in nature and every generation, so do the individual battles between the good and evil within ourselves. For me, the point and purpose of it all is for every soul to take on its own battle instead of projecting its shadow onto others. And a big YES to your point that feminine wisdom can help us do that! With much love, Jeanie
That is an insightful and valuable analysis of policy history in our world, dear Jeane. It resonates with Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale and our current situation. I agree with Deborah that the old tales are proving to be more relevant, reflecting today’s reality!
As you know, I can’t vote, but yet, I did write my opinion about the upcoming election and its importance. I am excited, especially about your next and final part. Stay well and safe.🤗💖
Thank you, Aladin. I do hope you’ll get to vote one day. It’s such a privilege. I look forward to reading your opinion about the importance of our election. As you can imagine, I’m feeling very excited and anxious about it. Be well and stay safe, Jeanie
Dear Jeanie,
You got to the heart of the matter in this post–repression of feminine, lack of relatedness, conformity, self-delusion of those in power, and fear of loss of status or loss of support for those who already have no power. I may have left a few things out, but those are the things that grabbed me. I don’t think I read this fairytale as a child or, if I did, no one helped me understand its meaning. It’s so clear now and you’ve done a wonderful job bringing out the main issues of the political times in the United States.
I live in a fairly liberal and tolerant area, but my son says I’m not paying attention except to my small community of meditators and people who love philosophy and teachers like the Dalai Lama and Marion Woodman. I have to admit I live in an isolated world so that leaves me naive and shocked when some political candidates say what they really think and feel. Where are their clothes now that they let us see through them? Who gave them permission to be cruel to the feminine no matter what her age or whether the feminine is a woman or nature?
Thank you, Jeanie, for rocking my boat. I live in a protected world but darkness is closing in. A few days ago I canceled my subscription to the Washington Post and gave another large (for me) donation to Harris-Walz. It’s the least I can do. Sending love and gratitude for this honest and courageous piece.
Thank you very much, Elaine. I really put my heart into this one, and it feels like you did too in your comment. I’m very disappointed in the Washington Post. They’ll get no subscription from me. How interesting that you never heard this story before. I heard it and didn’t particularly like it. Nor did I get the full message as a child. I did think, however: How could that emperor be so stupid and gullible? What a silly man. I get it now. I see it on the news every day! May the gathering darkness soon be relit with the results of this election!
This is what my 57 year old son wrote to me today
“p.s.s. Dem’s, pundits, and talking heads are questioning, “what went wrong”?
Why did the Dems do so badly in the election?
No need to scratch your heads and wonder why.
The answer is So Fucking obvious!
Misogyny is Alive & Well in America!
I believe as a result, We, as in “We the People” deserve what we get.”
Oh my, Lynnea. If he’s right, I wonder why the U.S. is that way? So many European countries don’t seem to be nearly as misogynistic as ours. Perhaps it’s because as a country we’re so young compared to European cultures that have been evolving for so much longer. Can it be true that the majority of men here are still so fearful of the Feminine that they’re rather have a bigoted bully for a leader than a strong, intelligent, experienced and eminently qualified female? I do believe, and have read in Jungian literature, that misogyny is based on a deep, underlying fear of the magical, magnetic allure of women, and therefore, the Feminine principle in themselves and the world. It makes some men feel weak and vulnerable. I believe the worst misogynists are the most afraid. Of course they don’t realize this. This is why I emphasize Feminine values in this blog. This fear is rooted so deep in the unconscious that it will probably always be with us to some degree. All the more reason for us to admire and be grateful for those wonderful, caring, open-minded and generous-spirited men of character we know who have the strength and courage to see it in themselves and overcome it. With their help, we will rise. Thank you for writing. Jeanie
Thank you for your response Jeanie. I am unsettled by the fact that many women don’t see the value in the Feminine principle. We can only hope that their are enough female roll models to change this perception. Lynnea
I agree, Lynnea. Social learning exerts a powerful influence on the way children think and behave. Children learn their worth from observing the way the adults in their lives behave toward each other and them. Some children who have no role models of strong, healthy, femininity at home learn to think of the Feminine in themselves as weak and passive in general. In patriarchal cultures like ours, schools, churches, businesses, and governments reinforce unhealthy stereotypes about the Masculine and Feminine principles. It’s extremely difficult for young people to break through the prisons of their early conditioning and allow their whole, authentic potential to blossom. My position is that if each of us does the inner work necessary to break out of our own prisons, we can become the role models our young people need. Thank you for bringing this point into the discussion here. Jeanie