Women and power

Aloha, and welcome to the Secret Art of Huna. Today I’m gonna be talking about women and power. And just so you know, I’ve been having a few technical problems, the video has a little trick of freezing at the moment, so we’ll see how we go with this one.

So what’s prompted this discussion is a couple of political incidents in the UK, both big P politics and a little P politics. Now, don’t worry, it’s okay, I’m not gonna spend my time talking about the ins and outs of British politics at the moment because it’s way too overwhelming and complicated. But it was the thing that triggered some of my thinking behind this.

The two events were firstly, the departure of Theresa May, and a comment that was made in the run up to that which basically, Theresa May had made herself pretty unpopular with the Conservative Party, they wanted to get rid of her. And one of the grandees of the party Ian Duncan Smith, a former leader of the party.

He never made it to Prime Minister, but he’s a former leader of the party. Made a comment on radio to the effect of she doesn’t listen, she ought to go. We should talk to her husband, because he should tell her, she’ll listen to him.

Now, there was a lot of justification around, oh, no, it’s not about the little woman indoors or anything like that. But I cannot think of a single male politician who was hanging on by his toenails or his fingernails, and somebody said, “Oh, we should talk to his wife “to get him to leave.” So that triggered my thinking. And then the other piece was a hustings’ piece for the Musicians’ Union.

My partners in the Musicians’ Union, and they’re having some elections at the moment, and he was showing me the the hustings’ pieces, the pieces, the presentation that different candidates for these posts put. And I was really struck by a key difference between the male candidate, one of the male candidates, and one of the female candidates, because the male candidate said, “Please vote for me,” straight up there, straight in there, and this is what I want. The woman said, “I’d like you to consider “voting for me.” Very different energies and really classic, something we see classically in modern society.

So I wanted to talk about that. In the Hawaiian society, because let’s face it, this is who normally we always talk a little bit about, something from Hawaii. In the Hawaiian society, the ancient Hawaiian society, they recognise the importance of both the masculine and the feminine.

So in the Kumulipo, which is the ancient Creation Chant, amazing chant that tells the story of creation or one version of the story of creation. In the Kumulipo, it talks about how you at the beginning when everything began first, the first creation was the masculine energy, was Kane. And then the second creation was Na Wahine, the feminine.

Because in the Hawaiian belief about creation, that the creation principle if you like, when you create something you must always create its opposite, because otherwise the energy doesn’t flow it’s stuck. You need both in any creation, whether it’s the creation of an idea whether it’s the creation of a thing, in order for the energy to be flowing, because they otherwise knew that energy must move.

So you’ve gotta give it somewhere to move to. So for in, in the Kumulipo the masculine was Kane, was the first creation, this was the active principle. So the energy of energy, the energy of action, and the creation to balance it was Na Wahine, the feminine principle. The masculine is active, the feminine is more reactive and passive. But and this is the key bit, the Kumulipo says, “But for the kisses “of Na Wahine, “he Kane “would be inert.” He Kane wouldn’t move, he Kane wouldn’t be doing anything if it wasn’t for the tickling, the stimulation, the prompting of the feminine energy.

So even though the masculine is the more active it is the more go for, it needs the feminine in order to function, in order to move. And in all things, the Hawaiians recognise the need for the balance, the need for both the masculine and the feminine. And it wasn’t that they saw them as the same look at some of the classic hulas, the classic male hula dancers.

They are pure action, energy and masculinity. It wasn’t that they saw them as the same, but both were required to create the balance. It’s like the, in the ancient Eastern systems systems like dowrism, where you have the yin and yang symbol, you need both, both the masculine and the feminine.

And each contains an aspect of the others, which is why you have the back, the curves and the little dot, the black and white curves, and then each has the dot of the other. So the Hawaiians knew the importance of both, and indeed, in Hawaiian society if you had a family with seven boys, the seventh boy would be brought up as a girl to bring the feminine energy back into the family because all masculine is no good, just as all feminine is no good, you need both.

So the Hawaiians understood that. And one of the things I love about the ancient Hawaiians was that the men did the cooking. I love cooking, so I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed it that much, but the men did the cooking. And Hawaiian society is matrilineal, which means that the bloodline passes and is held in the female line. In the West, it tends to be held in the male lines.

So when I was growing up, if somebody asked me what nationality I was, they were really asking me about the nationality of my father. Whereas in the Hawaiian system, if somebody asked you where you’re from, it would be the origin of your mother that was important. So the Hawaiians had a slightly different view on the masculine and the feminine than the West did.

I’ve just been reading, rereading in fact, Mary Beard’s amazing book, Women & Power. It’s actually two lectures that she did, one in 2014, one in 2017. Mary Beard, great historian, she’s a Professor of Classics at Cambridge University, and researcher, really gets into the story and the research behind what she’s doing. And her book is really about how women have been silenced in Western society through the ages. excuse me. Not just silenced, but not trusted with power.

And even when we did have power, then there was something comic about it. And if you think about the history of the witch in Western society the witch was demonised. She was persecuted. These were women healers, women who were wise and worked with herbs, were persecuted and demonised.

In the Hawaiian system, in the lineage that I teach, the Bray lineage. They had women priestesses and they had women healers. They weren’t demonised, they were honoured. So some difference in the attitudes towards the masculine and the feminine over the years.

What struck me is in the politics that’s going on at the moment, and in the represent, the way people represent themselves, this difference is still around, particularly in this election piece. Where this woman, “Please consider voting for me.” Consider it, just that you know, have a little think about it, please do.

As opposed to the guy who goes out and asks for what he wants. Because there’s a lot of evidence to suggest, and this has been done in research in Taipei. The pay differences between men and women, a lot of it’s been done in the States. Men will ask for what they want in terms of pay and in terms of opportunity, women are much less likely to do so.

Women tend to assume that if they do a good job, it’s enough, somebody will spot it and recognise it somewhere along the way. You don’t talk about what a great job you’re doing you just get on and do it. Men don’t make that assumption. Men assume that they need to talk about the great job that they’re doing in order to get recognised.

Now, yes, it’s a sweeping generalisation, it’s not 100% either way, but it’s statistically significant, that men will ask for what they want, women tend not to. They tend to expect it’s enough to be good, to do well, to work hard and perform well, and then all will be well.

One of the interesting comments that Mary Beard made back in 2014, which was when Theresa May had just been elected or, or she wasn’t elected actually, she’d just taken over the leadership of the Tory Party. She said, “I believe that Theresa May “may have been put in power in order to fail.” And as I’ve watched the unfolding of the Theresa May story, I find myself thinking, yeah, I think Mary Beard may have a point. A

nd the question that I then have is, how many men are put into positions of power in order to fail? Yes, it happens, but it is so much rarer than women being put into positions of power in order to fail. So when you’re out there and about there brag about your successes, talk about what you’ve done, speak confidently.

If you want somebody’s vote, say please vote for me, not please think about it. If you want a pay rise, go out there and say, I want this pay rise. This is what I’m worth, and this is why I’m worth it. I want this job. This is why I’m the best person for this job. I’m worth it. Have a great day, and I look forward to talking to you very soon.

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