by C
It won’t come as a surprise to anyone that I’m not a fan of patriarchy. I’m not a fan of hierarchy of any sort, but patriarchy has to be the worst. This isn’t a post about how much I hate the patriarchy though, this is a post about how I hate the use of the word patriarchy. So what is patriarchy? Well… it’s the structure of our society that puts all power into the hands of male. There aren’t any other qualifications, you got a dick? You’re in!
While I think the definition does accurately show our society, I wince every time it’s used (or I use it myself). It’s reminds me of when the hippies would go around complaining about “the man”. Who is “the man?”, well, no one really knows but the hippies sure do hate him. When people use the word patriarchy it takes a face off of those responsible. It lets those responsible to become a mysterious shadow, that we go around hating but don’t really know who we’re hating.
I’m a very simplistic person, I see the world in very simplistic terms, when I see a problem I find the cause of the problem and try to solve the problem by stopping the cause. I’m not a feminist because I want to bitch and complain about the patriarchy, I’m a feminist because I see a problem and want to solve it.
You might see me mention the patriarchy from time to time for which I apologize because it’s probably the only word I can think of that can accurately define the driving force of misogeny today. I have no problem if people even want to point it out to be. Any other time I can I’ll do my best not to let sexism hide behind that raggedy, old curtain of patriarchy.
