Page 162 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 5

A Portrait of a Christian Psychologist: Paul C. Vitz

logical significance of the concept of the Fa- is that now exploitation is without any “princi-
therhood of God. To set a context for this, I will pled” rationale. Men can exploit women, and
address the major interpretations or “models” occasionally women can exploit men, because
of sexuality. those who have the power to exploit do so. In
Probably the most familiar model of sexuality the “old days” - under the old regime - exploi-
is what I will call the “Exploitation Model,” in tation was justified by bad social philosophy; in
which men have traditionally dominated and the androgynous situation, exploitation exists
taken advantage of women. This model has in a philosophical vacuum in which “anything
been rightly criticized, especially by feminists. goes.” Do we really believe that the amount of
Throughout the world, men have dominated sexual exploitation in the last thirty years has
and exploited women in all the societies of been significantly less than that under the old
which we have any historical record. Sometimes “exploitive” macho system?
the treatment has been relatively benevolent, The third model, which I believe to be the tra-
but in any case the general picture is familiar ditional Christian model, will be called the
to all. “Complementary Model.” Here, maleness and
The second model is what has already been ter- femaleness are seen as important and posi¬tive
med the “Androgyny” or “Unisex Model.” This differences, and as fundamental to reality and
is an understanding of sexuality as basically ar- to the nature of each person. God created us,
bitrary, and that male and female are not only male and female, and God called it good. This
equivalents but more or less interchangeable, emphasis on the reality and importance of se-
except for minor differences in external geni- xual differences contrasts with androgyny, but
talia and associated sensory pleasure. It is so- masculinity and femininity - maleness and fe-
metimes assumed that a unisex understanding maleness - are seen as cooperating in a mutually
of sexuality is less exploitive of women. There supportive fashion. This also contrasts with the
is, however, no evidence for this, and instead exploitive model. No doubt the complementary
there is good reason to believe that the andro- model is hard to maintain and to live up to, but
gynous understanding leads to exploitation of then so is much of the rest of Christianity. We all
both men and women. After all, in the unisex know that the Christian faith is not about how
model, sex is essentially each individual’s per- to live the easy life. Instead, it is a faith that chal-
sonal search for sexual pleasure, however ex- lenges us to rise to a higher way of being. What
perienced. It is this model that provides today’s I will try to show now is how the psychological
general rationale for pornography. The andro- significance of the Fatherhood of God helps to
gynous understanding of sex means that any maintain the complementary understanding of
form of sexual pleasure is okay since there is no the sexes, for both men and women.
natural character to sexuality; it is an arbitrary
social convention defined by each person. Once Dealing with Macho Psychology
sex as recreation, rather than as procreation, is The psychology of men, influenced by the ex-
established, individual moral relativism goes ploitive model, can be seen as the problem of
with it. The result is the world of today’s por- correcting what can be called “macho” psycho-
nographic exploitation, in which sex with either logy. It is, I believe, easier to see the importance
sex is justified, as well as even especially sado of God the Father if we see male psychology in
masochistic sex, sex with children, and now sex the absence of such a concept. As noted, histori-
with animals; if you enjoy it, it is acceptable. The cally the predominant idea of male psychology
logic that makes sex to relative to each individu- has been one of male superiority, dominance,
al, however, also relativises power to the indivi- and exploitation.
4
dual. That is, power can now be utilized in the
service of pleasure with no more restraints, eit- 4 Male dominated and exploitive cultures have been
common history, and the ideas supporting these structu-
her. In short, if you have the power, you can get res are still common in many traditional cultures. Much
away with sexual exploitation. A feature of the of contemporary Islam expresses this view (e.g., the Ta-
current situation with regard to sex and power liban). The same ideas are found in the modern West,
for example throughout the writings of Nietzsche. More

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