The greatest revolution
by David Atkins
Mona Eltahawy's heartrending piece in Foreign Policy on misogyny in the Middle East is just another reminder of something that has become increasingly obvious: while racial and religious tyranny are standard practice in conservative societies, the deepest core of the conservative impulse lies in misogyny.
As Corey Robin often points out, conservatism is at its core about the maintenance of private power. Government is hated by conservatives when it interferes with the free exercise of private power even at the expense of others; it is beloved by conservatives when it helps private power extend its control and influence.
There is nothing more central to the conservative concept of private power than the traditional family. In the West, "traditional" family has been redefined to "nuclear family," but make no mistake: "traditional" family in the true sense of the word means the most patriarchal form possible, including polygyny and child marriage. That's why the most conservative fundamentalist movements, wherever they may be found, always revert back to this form. When conservatives talk in such glowing terms about "traditional family," they do so because the family unit constitutes the most basic private unit. And they know exactly who, in their mind, belongs in charge of that unit: men.
Women's rights constitutes an assault on their control not only of women's bodies, but of the most basic unit of private power. To assault that is in a very real sense to assault the entire conservative enterprise. If the Enlightenment and state interference to protect women's rights can intervene in even this most sacred of units, then no piece of private power infrastructure is safe. If the man can be torn down as king of his castle--a private power arrangement that has been in place for millennia--how much less safe are investment bankers at the top of their own very recent artificial dungheap?
The right to misogyny, then, must be defended at all costs: the more conservative the society, the stronger the misogyny. And the stronger the conservative impulse, the violently will the misogynistic impulse be defended.
Whether in Santorum's America or Wahhabist Saudi Arabia, this impulse is the same. It's the last, greatest stand of conservative power. And it's here that the greatest revolution against conservatism must be undertaken. It's not an overstatement to suggest that the powerful psychological elements of conservatism will have been broken when the undertrodden and underrepresented 50% of the population finally achieves equal rights and standing throughout the world.
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