Contest, Sexuality and Consciousness: Present Issues and the Life of a Culture
In the final installment of this series, we look at how the difference between men and women affect four areas of society and walk through Ong's understanding of the life cycle of a culture.
This is the fourth and final of an ongoing series which take an extensive look at Walter Ong’s “Fighting for Life: Contest, Sexuality and Consciousness.” You can find parts one, two and three here:
In the final chapters of Fighting for Life: Contest, Sexuality and Consciousness, Walter Ong looks at a number of 20th century cultural phenomena and briefly explores how changes in the relationship between men and women have affected things like sports, politics, business and the Christian life and worship before closing out with some larger meta issues, outlining a theory of cultural development based on the kinds of changes we see in society as it moves from infancy to maturity. This is the question he asks:
“As women move more and more into areas previously more or less reserved to men and marked by a distinctly male ceremonial combative style, what is the effect on this style and/or women’s and men’s behaviour?”
For example, success today often correlates more with one’s “work mastery,” …
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Seeking the Hidden Thing to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.