Dalai Lama says women are more compassionate...I disagree

(source)

At the International Freedom Award ceremony the Dalai Lama called upon women to assist in creating a more compassionate world.

“I call myself a feminist,” said the Dalai Lama. “Isn’t that what you call someone who fights for women’s rights?”

The Dalai Lama stated that women are more prone to compassion as they have the responsibility of bearing children.

To view the entire article click here.

While I appreciate the fact that the Dalai Lama values women and is not afraid to refer to himself as a feminist, there is something that I disagree with.

I do not think that women are more prone to compassion. I have heard the Dalai Lama make this statement in his speech a couple years ago when I viewed a video of his appearance at the 2006 Women's Conference in Long Beach, CA. before. I think that the notion that women are innately more compassionate is a generalization.

Dalai Lama speaks at 2006 Women's Conference in Long Beach, CA

I think many believe that compassion is a female trait or woman's work. We of course could spend much time discussing nature vs. nature. Just how much is innate and how much is socially constructed. My thought is that it is unfair to suggest that it is up to women to be compassionate.

At the 2006 Women's Conferance the Dalai Lama says that biologically women have greater potential to show compassion. To be honest I consider this a sexist idea. I do not think that the Dalai Lama means any harm. Just the opposite. I simply disagree with his view.

Professor and feminist author Bell Hooks wrote an incredible book called All About Love: New Visions (2001) that touches upon this very subject.

Here are some excerpts from the book..

"Women are not inherently more interested in or more able to love than are men. From girlhood on, we learn to be more enchanted with love. Since the business of loving came to be identified as woman's work, females have risen to the occasion and claimed love as our topic."

"Women who learn to love represent the greatest threat to the patriarchal status quo. By failing to love, women make it clear that it is more vital to their existence to have the approval and support of men than it is to love."

"As long as our culture devalues love, women will remain no more able to love than our male counterparts are."

"Positioned to be primary caregivers, women are often arrogant when it comes to matters of the heart. Believing in the mystification of our sexist social conditioning, which encourages us to assume we know how to love – as though desire and action were one and the same – we may suffer countless relational failures before we begin to think critically about the nature of love."

Yes, the Dalai Lama did not use the word love. I still think that the concept of compassion applies here.

Rather than men turning to women for more compassion, why not investigate one's own view on compassion and on its importance?

The Dalai Lama is known to be proactive in his advocacy of compassion but yet he states that women are more compassionate than he. I encourage anyone interested in this topic to ask themselves if they agree...and if so..why?