Ox and Cow

 

It never surprises me when the male control of government leads to a male view of politics and foreign policy. I just keep collecting the examples as they come my way. One of the best from the Trump Administration was the handshake war between Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron. We all laughed, but it underscored how male priorities--status and honor defined in purely masculine terms--does strange and stupid things to government.

So I now have another one for my files. Today it was reported that:

"A senior Chinese diplomat has blamed Australia for 'hurting' the relationship between the two countries in a bizarre speech in Canberra. Deputy head of mission Wang Xining, rattled off a diatribe of Communist Party propaganda at the National Press Club on Wednesday, warning Australia that China is 'like an ox, not a cow'. The 'Wolf Warrior' diplomat told the confused crowd that in Chinese tradition the ox represents 'strength, resilience and perseverance' and is a sign of good fortune.

"'We, Chinese, love to present and describe ourselves, as hardworking cattle – like ox,' Mr Wang said. 'We like to share our yoke with all partners to plough through the difficulties caused by Covid-19... but at the same time China is not a cow. And I don't think anybody should fancy the idea to milk China when she's in her prime and plot to slaughter it in the end.'"

Ooooookaaaay. China is an ox and not a cow. You exploit and slaughter cows, coded female. You respect the ox, which is coded male.

This type of thinking about the relative value of male and female does not bode well for China's relationships with other nations. Research has shown that xenophobia and also willingness to use political violence is highly correlated with misogynist attitudes. Why? Because other nations are coded as FEMALE. So exploiting and harming other nations just seems natural, just like it would seem natural to a misogynist to treat a woman in that way.

China is already reaping what it has sowed with these types of attitudes--China's birth rates are now so low--the lowest recorded in 70 years!--that government experts are talking about incentivizing births. Perhaps if women were treated better in patriarchal China, the nation would not be facing this problem, which has clear and negative implications for the rise of China.

The deep misogyny we see in China will have negative repercussions for both China and the rest of the world. Such misogyny breeds conflict, while at the same time failing to produce a future. It breeds civilizational war and demise. But it's always been this way in the fallen world ruled over by the "natural" man.