RE: What is Patriarchy: a society led by men or a society led by fear and a feeling of scarcity which happens to be an environment in which the masculine takes charge?
Ooh girl you're on Fire! lol. I feel you, we all get contaminated sometimes with toxic masculine ways like judgement to fight back. Just remember you're better then that, don't let them trick you or drag you down to their level. You teach them about what true feminism is: conquer the world with compassion and kindness and sometimes showing some teeth. Men have definitely suffered from patriarchy as it is the toxic masculinity in ALL of us, men AND women, that has been damaging life. Remember the witch hunt? Many men have also found their death in the witch trials because they were out to kill the feminine qualities in ALL of us. It's interesting though that you bring on the monkey story. That sounds awful! I don't know what their place in creation is, but I know people are meant to learn to discern and live from their creative powers connected to the heart. So I feel we are moving out of this phase that we have been stuck in for so long. I'll also write something about monkeys in my next post: what is matriarchy. Because luckily there are also examples of animals living in a matriarchy. Love Clara
I am super passionate about this topic. It may amuse you to know I toned it down. 😂 I want to distinguish judgement from debate, and I could probably tone down the judgement, but some of the comments I read in my research yesterday from men who don't believe that patriarchy still exists and that women are making it up and trying to take men's rights away is so infuriating to me. That said, I could shift from "you're a dumbass" to "I'm sure you're a lovely person, but that information is 100% inaccurate and here's why" But back to the other side, I think it's ok for women to be angry right now. Anger can be a motivating force when properly channeled, and it is certainly a step up from despair. I could never drag down to that level because women simply don't have the institutionalized structures to support oppressing men. I have two boys. I will never be a man-hater. And I want to acknowledge the way patriarchy has also hurt men, but when we focus too much on that, it starts to feel like "All lives matter." Of course that's true, but right now we need to focus on black lives, and we also need to focus on freeing women from a culture that doesn't allow us to walk down the street in the clothes of our choice or get paid an equal wage for equal work or be valued for caring for children or elders or live in a culture that values compassion and cooperation. Men are both oppressed by and benefit from patriarchy. With men who have questions or concerns, I almost always come with compassion and equanimity and answers when I have them.
The monkey bit is interesting because I don't actually harbor any emotional response toward that because they are simply doing what they are programmed to do. They are doing what their DNA tells them to do. Humans I expect more from. The only point for me in that story was that I realized that humans took that genetic drive and used it to create cultural rules and laws around women's bodies. We simply must move beyond that. I look forward to stories on matriarchal animal cultures. There have also been a number of matriarchal human cultures, mostly indigenous, that were, of course, squashed when patriarchal colonialism hit the scene. Thank you so much for putting forth this question and sparking such an important conversation and also coming on here with such a thoughtful response. Much love right back to you! Really hope to get together when we get to Europe late spring/early summer.
Ah, where in europe are you going? Yes, I do agree the female anger has to come out, it's goo dthat it does because some things are just ludicrous, but I also strongly feel that to end this unbalanced situation the balance has to be brought back by working together men and woman like Trucklife family stated at the end of his post. If your interested to hear about how our genetic situation was manipulated to work more like the genes that make the monkeys in your story behave the way they do, there is some interesting information about that in my post about this question: https://steemit.com/ecotrain/@clara-andriessen/what-is-patriarchy-is-a-patriarchy-the-same-as-a-society-led-by-men-or-is-it-more-a-society-led-by-fear-and-a-feeling-of
Well, we aren't entirely sure yet. We want to go to the UK for sure. My daughter is thinking she might want to live in London at some point, so we want to explore there, and we've been thinking of going to Spain for a short time. But we might be in other places depending on where it is cheap to fly to.
I totally agree we have to work together. I'm actually not an angry person. We will never solve the problem without acknowledgement because lack of acknowledgement is a part of the proble. Mahatma Gandhi said, "First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win." I don't necessarily care for the win/lose dichotomy, and ultimately dismantling the patriarchy is a "win" for everyone, but I think within this quote we are in the fight stage. There's a lot of anger out there toward feminists right now. I think I've gotten to the point where I simply won't tiptoe around them anymore. I'm not saying this is necessarily the best strategy. It's just where I'm at. I think I'm tired of it. I'm tired of a world so out of balance. I am tired of people raping our planet. I'm tired of seeing women abused. I'm tired of racism and the simultaneous denial that racism actually exists. I'm tired of capitalism. I'm tired of working so hard and being so poor. I'm tired of the shitty status of the education system. Sometimes I feel like my top might blow.
I am really excited to go read all the posts now. I didn't want to read any before I finished my post, but then we were gone to town all day yesterday. Thanks for the conversation, Clara.