Per una critica al maschilismo. Critica della violenza nei rapporti di genere

(For an Alternative to Male Chauvinism: A Critique of Violence in Gender Relation)

Abstract

The essay highlights how, in the system of inter-human relations, qualitative alternatives open up when one exits the logic of power and conforms instead to the dynamics of relational harmonization. Within this context, the node of men-women relations remains crucial. The multiple forms of violence upon women indicate that the causes of the problem are structural and not contingent. The author proposes that one of such causes is men’s inability to accept the createdness of the human condition according to which everyone is a gift entrusted to him or herself and must learn to love in a non-destructive manner. This inability is not the outcome of ontological or biological factors but rather depends on the kind of culture in which the identity process of male individuals takes place. To heal the orientation of such a process means to open up an alternative of mutual welcome among genders.