When people talk about patriarchy, it often comes from a perspective of blame and male bashing. I want to talk about this away from blatant criticism in the way that Allan G. Johnson does in “Patriarchy as a system an It, Not a He, a Them, or an Us” and “The Gender Knot: Unraveling Our Patriarchal Legacy” Johnson does a fantastic job of explaining the patriarchal system without making men the enemy.
First, we need to ask: “Where do patriarchal systems get their power? What exactly is this system that seems to be so key in keeping other dysfunctional systems, such as Fast Food Culture, alive and well?”
Rallying against all men for being born male – and thereby the problem’s creators – is as mindless, and of the same negative and unfruitful energy, as the global hate against being born female. These assumptions and perceptions are soul sucking rabbit holes. Neither serves us as a species nor does it further the difficult conversations that need to happen for mutual understanding and benefit.
Patriarchy: A Global Reality by Dolores L. Greeley, R.S.M. defines patriarchy as a social system founded upon control, rule, and authority, and describes it as a masculine power structure which understands relationships in terms of superiority and inferiority, power and powerlessness, domination and subordination. The evidence that the patriarchy is alive and well can be seen when we reflect that power is still largely in the hands of men – military forces, universities, political offices, courts of law, and business establishments.
For the author and feminist Maria Riley, patriarchy “includes those symbols, language patterns, attitudes, structures, and social and cultural mores that constantly impress upon all women their inferiority and dependency.”
It is in the patriarchal context that all men and women knowingly or unknowingly live out their lives. We are all involved male and female. Patriarchy supports sexism, racism, and classism. A patriarchal environment contributes to abuses against women, who are usually the victims, which include rape, human trafficking, physical violence and pornographic exploitation by the media. More subtle forms of abuse include demeaning groups of people by ignoring, ridiculing, or trivializing them. It can, and often does, contribute to abuses against men. It is a social system, and how we choose to participate in this system matters.
There is no manual for dissolving patriarchy and the white privilege that comes with it, just like there’s no manual for removing global capitalism and replacing it with an economy that runs in the proper order: people, planet, profit.
I want a system designed to meet the needs not only of humans, but of every other species that call this place home, and that honours the biological and moral reality that we are all in this together.
How do we dismantle the patriarchy and the other negative cultures is supports? By refusing to maintain the status quo, by demonstrating there are other possibilities, by accepting full responsibility for our choices, and by carving out new paths for all Canadians to participate in walking that respects all other life forms.