What is Patriarchy: a society led by men?
A society led by fear and a feeling of scarcity, that happens to be an environment in which the masculine takes charge?
source: umirror.in
A system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it.
This, however, is just a definition. What I find more interesting than anything is where this came from.
Mid 17th century: via medieval Latin from Greek patriarkhia, from patriarkhēs ‘ruling father’.
Now, what would have been meant by ‘ruling father’? Was this truly in the simple sense of the meaning above, or even simpler: the male head of the family in that time with his partner as equal? During the Celtic times for instance, the woman was just as much the head of the family as the man. Sometimes even more so. Queen Maeve was an excellent example of a Matriarch with great powers, not subduing to her male Patriarch 'colleagues'.
So what happened?
I believe it’s no secret that the world throughout the ages has been ruled by men in general with men at the head of many government entities and systems. But this doesn’t mean automatically that these ‘men’ were and are ‘men’ in the true sense of the word. Quite the opposite. Most religious leaders, from the pope to the Dalai Lama, were and are men. In most religions with multiple gods, there are more male gods than females and a male is always the 'main' god. In the three Abrahamic religions, the male is prominent. Jesus, Mohammed, Abraham, Moses...there are no female prophets. If anything, the woman is seen as the temptress or nuisance. Eve was the one who 'tempted' Adam to eat the forbidden fruit and Mary Magdalene was a prostitute while Moses and Jesus were heroes. We can see this attitude towards women still today. Men are bros and women are hoes. Even in fairy tales we can see this. The knight in shining armour or Prince Charming are there to rescue the (poor little) damsel in distress, while the evil queen and witch are only out to cause trouble. We've all grown up with this, these books and these stories and we've all been conditioned into thinking the male is the alpha, while the female just hangs on for dear life and maybe she'll have the chance to shine when she pushes the evil witch into a burning oven.
source: http://www.pelicanweb.org
Most jobs that require muscle power and body strength (I will not mention any, you can figure that one out for yourself) will be better done by men. Jobs that need precision and require minuscule tools to handle them, will oftentimes have better results if they are done by women. I say ‘most’ and ‘often’ because I know there are always exceptions to the rule. I’ve seen a female friend of mine pick up a few crates of heavy bottles in a bar with the ease you would only expect from the Hulk himself. A woman through and through, the physique of a woman, but with muscles that would make even some men jealous.
I, and I believe most people with me, want to be able to do what I like, without restrictions if I can handle the job. If I can’t I need to move on to something else. And reasonable people will do just that, because they will realize that it just wasn’t for them. They will then go on and find their own way and happiness in what they do. Or so I hope. Isn’t that what we all want for each other? That every single one of us is happy and free to lead the life they want? It is for me.
Society led by fear and a feeling of scarcity, that happens to be an environment in which the masculine takes charge?
OK, I am probably going to say things that don’t actually answer the question in a way it was meant to be. And to be honest: I don’t care.
The argument of FEAR has struck some chords in me that have been
tingling for a long, long time.
I have thought about this for an even longer time. Ever since I was a teenager.
It was when I read a book that had me in tears. Not tears of joy, or tears because it didn’t have a happy ending. Well it didn’t. But that was not why I cried. I cried because it shook me to the core. It is the only book that I ever read where I had tears flowing down my cheeks through it all.
My mother started to get worried about me and all I could say was that I was crying because of the injustice that fear had caused.
It was a book about the Salem Witch Trials. I’ve read many books and stories about it since, but never did it have the impact on me as it had then. It is the one book that made me look into other subjects, related but different.
From that moment on, I read about the Spanish inquisition. The Catholic Church and its influence. All the different popes and their (oftentimes prominent) families, several other religious leaders and their ‘crew’ of faithfuls. And I started questioning my history teacher, my religion teacher (Catholic) and even our priest at Church. My main question was WHY? Why in history, were there people so evil that they accused others of things they didn’t even know or understood. Why were these people killed in the most horrific ways? Ways that no one here can reasonably understand nor imagine.
HOW could people have lived with themselves knowing it was them who caused these killings? Was mankind truly so evil? And there it is, the word man in mankind. No one had the answer to those questions. So I started reading more. I read about the Knights Templars. More books about the Roman and Spanish inquisitions. About witchcraft. The occult. I wanted to know it all and try to find the answer in those books. I found none. That was...until I started to see patterns.
And I started to connect the dots. I think it was my first true wake up call. Especially when I realized that it did happen again and it is still happening. All over the world, people are accused of things they did or did not do and those people are ‘taken care of’.
What I didn’t know then, was that it was all connected and came back to one thing:
Fear. Fear to lose something, like power. Fear of the unknown. But mostly fear of loss of power.
Fear: our greatest enemy!
When the Catholic church became powerful, man, they truly became powerful.
Just to think there was ONE man, who pretty much got to decide the fate of all his followers and could have someone killed on a whim, is something that opened my eyes to a lot of other things. They had their fingers in everything. Looking back into history, we can find no less than three popes directly related to the influential De Medici family. We find Borgias. Now, our history teaches us the Borgias family were monsters. De Medici weren’t so much. But is that truly the case? Why and how did they have family members that became pope, if they didn’t play some dirty games somewhere down the line?
The Catholic church truly were involved in everything. The Medici family were bankers. The word medici is plural for medicus which means: physician. Think about it. They backed famous artists. There were politicians in their family. And the list goes on.
It connects some dots, or at least it should. I am sure they had a man taking the role of patriarch and the popes they produced definitely did.
The Spanish inquisition and the why?
I’ve always had my own theory about this subject in our very, very dark page in history.
At the time, the government, kings or queens, weren’t really the government. Just like they aren’t now. The Church was. They were the ones with the power. They scared their followers into submission with fear of hell and damnation. It was easy, because those followers had never seen a book, let alone a bible. They were also the medics, the doctors.
When someone had an illness, they drained some blood from them, or used leeches to make them better. Sometimes it worked. Oftentimes it didn’t.
But in the smaller communities, there were people, men andwomen, but mostly women, who knew how to cure some illnesses with herbs and plants. This happened all the time and was never an issue.
BUT, if those ‘regular’ people would start helping more and more people, and the Church wasn’t, the Church would lose all credibility. And they couldn’t have that. Especially if those people were women.
And the witch hunts began.
The mere nature in which this happened, shows us more than enough about the kind of people we were dealing with. It was the fear of loss of power that triggered these events. And it showed that torture and brutal murders wasn’t a step too far to keep this power. It also kept any others, who would even consider going against them, in line - possibly including royals and other government entities.
Has the world changed since then?
No. It hasn't. True, there are no public hangings of witches. At least not in the world as we know it.
But the fear for the loss of power still haunts those who so desperately need and demand a feeling of self-worth . Fear and the feeling of scarcity, for men have always been quite low in number compared to women. And the only way to capture a feeling of control and power, is to suppress.
I once had a discussion with someone about the Maltese cross he had stuck to the sleeve of his jacket. I asked him about it and the negative image it had due to its correlation with the Nazi's during WWII. He explained that he was wearing it, because it meant to be the symbol of masculinity. I found this strange since everyone could see he was a male and I didn't see the point of trying to prove this to anyone just like I didn't have to wear anything to prove I'm a woman. Later, this same person showed me and everyone that knew him, that it was insecurity really that made him wear it. He wasn't proving it to anyone else but himself. He was a patriarch in its nastiest form. Proving self-worth by trying to suppress the (stronger) female presence in his life.
The first thing that came to my mind when I read the subject here, was a video I saw a while back. I believe it was a commercial video for a jeans brand with actor Jason Momoa. You can see it below:
When I first saw the video my first thoughts were: now this is a real man! This is what a man is supposed to be like. If he has a family, be the family man as much as he can. Play with his kids, be an excellent father and husband. To me, this is the patriarch in its truest sense, no matter how differently this is defined in the dictionary and with this patriarch, we would automatically have the matriarch standing right beside him. Not above, not below, but equal. The patriarch the way he has manifested in our history, is far from what we call being truly masculine or a 'real man'.
This one is:
Great post.. you say it how it is.. we sure got a LOnng way to go, but equally we have come a long way too.. but it does depend where you look..
Power is the corrupting force of (wo)mankind, and sadly we have all been squashed by its weight. As the new decentralised way comes, i hope and believe that we will also see the equality of woman and man be established.
Personally i do not like the term FeminISM since it is an ISM, and all ISM's by their nature are out of balance. I just like the term balance, as that feels nice!
<3
Thank you @eco-alex! I agree, I never really liked the term feminism. When I first heard of it as a child I thought it didn't sound right. The bad thing is that feminism started out for all the right reasons, but now I can't even take the feminist movement serious anymore as they seem to have more hate in them than anyone they oppose. Yes, balance is a nice word :)
Thanks for posting this thoughtful piece, it is obviously from the heart. I wanted to recommend a good book on the Inquisition by Henry Kamen. Much of what I learned in school about the Inquisition was exaggerated or fabricated. I don't mean to whitewash it, but many serious historians refer to this period of history as "The Black Legend". Here is a link. https://www.amazon.com/Spanish-Inquisition-Historical-Revision-Fourth/dp/0300180519/ref=pd_cp_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0300180519&pd_rd_r=BXD5T7DW55XQ0F8SPVMZ&pd_rd_w=AvZlT&pd_rd_wg=y7Q0O&psc=1&refRID=BXD5T7DW55XQ0F8SPVMZ
Did you know that some criminals intentionally blasphemed, so they would be tried by the inquisition instead of the secular court? They thought they would have better treatment by the inquisition. The Albigensian heresy was a full assault on society itself, not just a theological disagreement. They rejected all state authority and punishment of crime, they saw sex/marriage as a sin, and would give their dying or sick relatives their "sacrament" then suffocate them to death with a pillow to ensure their salvation. I am only trying to add texture to the common "Monty Python" understanding of the Inquisition. It is a much more nuanced period of history than you might expect.
I also would say that male leadership does not equal domination. Jesus is the King of Heaven, but he also died for his bride, the Church. If anyone is willing to die for me, I am more than willing to let them lead me. Also do not forget the importance of the Virgin Mary. Catholics believe she is the Queen of Heaven, the Mother of God, and the Queen of Angels. She is the most important Saint in the Catholic Church. True servant leadership is what Jesus taught. It is true many have abused power over the centuries, but many succeeded in imitating Jesus as well.
Thank you for reading and your feedback, it is very much appreciated. Oh I know the Inquisition was more than what the history books tell us. I will be the last person to believe exactly what history tells us, since it is the victor who writes the history. To be honest, I have always questioned everything that they told us...needless to say that teachers hated me lol. I just hope that you didn't think that what I wrote above comes from 'history lessons' taken from Monty Python, because if that's the case, I absolutely failed. Yes, I know the importance Mary has in the Catholic church. She is even quite revered in the Islamic faith. My name is Miriam, which is Mary in Islam. And the number of times Muslim women told me they wanted me to marry their son because of that...I can't even count them lol.
Thanks for your response, no I didn't mean to imply Monty Python was your main source! Not at all, There is rampant misinformation about the Inquisition out there, and when it comes up I try to provide some balance, Take care Miriam, you have a beautiful name. I am sorry that the Catholic teachers in your life didn't answer your questions. I would be happy to help if you still have any. God bless.
along with knowledge society, thought and produced ideas gained importance. women are equally in control of their production resources with men and in many other areas of life,
they have begun to struggle. but the transition over the last 10000 years to the inheritance of society and information society
the slowness of the process, the patriarchal society has limited the possibility of the cult to leave in a short time.You wrote a great article. I congratulate you on this. I read fondly!
thank you! I appreciate your words and support @artizm. Yes, it is a very slow process, stopped by those who want to hold on to their power with all their might. However, I am sure that the majority of people will eventually grow to a different mindset. I believe in us as humans and I think that change will come, especially with the help of all people here and off steemit who are all in the same boat and want the same thing. Freedom. Isn't that what we all truly want? Freedom to do anything we like (as long as it's ethical of course) without restrictions.
Wow, Miss Las Vegas, Your search for truth in matters of suppression of the feminine started early! Thanks for sharing your findings along the way. We've learned many of those things in History class like you said, but many half truths. Like most people don't realise how extensive the which hunt has been. In German records it has been said that for a period of time villages were never without smoke from the burning of all the people. It's good to have awareness around what happened. I feel all ugly truths are coming out. Nothing can hide from our growing light of awareness anymore and we are inevitably moving in a positive direction. If you feel like reading my take on this question, here it is: 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
Thanks @clara-andriessen for reading and the feedback. Yes, my search for truth started quite early, not just for this subject. I just happened to discover that a lot of things didn't add up. It was also around the same time when I noticed that the stories my parents and grandmother told me about WWII (they lived through it in the Netherlands) and what they told us in books and class didn't always add up. And as for the witch hunts, this Italian woman once told me that there was a town near where she was from where they killed ALL women and children (and men were taken) because they said that the children were witches too, since their mothers were. It was a horrible, horrible time and all in the name of religion. Most of my teachers used to hate me for questioning them, however funny enough, my first history teacher applauded me for it. He was actually the one that told us not just to believe anything just because it's in a book or because a teacher tells us, but to find our own truths. I bet most of his colleagues would disagree on that! I am definitely going to read your piece, I just managed to get the time to go through all of them :)
That first teacher must have made a big imprint on you.
great post @misslavegas. i'm glad you wrote in on this! so much truth in your words. what intrigued me most is the fact that the witch trials touched you so deeply when you were young and spurred on so much of your seeking. the why!
as i grew i started to look at this too and anyone who's willing to look can see the amount of fear that is left over from these events.
this is chilling to the bone and as we look back at history, we see that this is so. the christian missions were just other ways to take over and conquer the earth through something called a religion. it's a vestige of any true form of spirituality.
back to the witch trials and the suppression of women as healers and resulting medical paradigms. this is something so close to me because i am a woman healer. i grew up in the church. and i had to walk that path through the church and the suppression of the true female power, the embracing of the earth and paganism, and the way the feminine is vilified and shut down in the church... most of the world is blind and brainwashed and their emotional and historical/family ties keep them believing in things like the church and modern medicine, which is a carefully crafted system to take control and power out of the hands of the people...
anyway, i could go on. i enjoyed your article and can see that it would be fun to have further conversation more in depth with you about this!
Thank you @mountainjewel! That means a lot coming from you. I have always been a very sensitive person, even at a young age. I once cried when someone stepped on a snail that my mother refused to let me put to the side of the road! And I absolutely agree, about the christian missions being other ways to take over. Absolutely. It was and is, another way to suppress people. I've always seen the stories in the bible like fairy tales were meant to put fear into children...If you don't know any better, the promise of hell and damnation would keep anyone on the right side of the church. And yes, the fear is still deeply rooted within and even though, we don't see women being burned at the stake anymore, witch hunts have never truly gone away. It is still happening every day. I've had discussions with people on fakebook before I came here, where their views were so strong about certain opinions, I oftentimes said that if they'd have lived in the witch hunt times, they would have put people on the stake because of their opinions. A lot of people don't know that it was Martin Luther for instance, who told his followers to let a woman die in childbirth and not feel sorry for her, because it was a woman (Eve) who brought us here in the first place! A lot of religious leaders have felt that way. And it is still very much visible in today's births in medical settings (but that's another discussion). I'm glad to hear you found your way, and that you managed to step out of the church trap. I was lucky that my mother was a non-practicing Catholic and my father an Atheist, so church was never a must in our family. I've always felt very close to the pagan way of life and studied their world. I love you telling me you're a healer, the first thing my ex sister in law (and she's a barrister...but also very close to nature) told me was that she could see I am a healer...as well as her brother (my ex). I guess to a certain extend this might be true, because some women I have worked with, only told me their stories, I didn't really do much but listen, would later tell me that when I left, it was like I took all their problems with me. Which was oftentimes the case literally, because I always felt exhausted after those visits. In my search for and while walking my own path, paganism has been there a lot (hey, I live in Ireland!), but I guess if someone would have to put me into a box it would be shamanism. But then, I believe shamanism is very closely related to paganism. I could go on forever too. Maybe one day we'll be able to have a further conversation about these subjects in person! That would be awesome.
a matriarchy could be just as scary and evil as a patriarchy.
science and real experience with the modern world simply teach that rigid gender roles are stupid, anti-intellectual and authoritarian.
fear comes from authority, the need for authority comes from the need for centralization and certain individuals' lust for power.
the fear that drives the lust for power comes from scarcity, scarcity comes from overpopulation and tribalism/nationalism.
as long as there are two tribes, the people will be driven to this, only in a unified planetary culture could there be any chance to live without this.
can't have a unified planetary culture without common values, and since no one outside of china wants to be in the totalitarian system that is the people' liberation army, we are kindof stuck.
i guess all I can add to this right now, because I dont have all day, is that in my mind I live differently than how it appears i live on the outside. on the outside it appears that I am part of a nation, that i follow authority. on the inside, i am on a team with people i like, who i can't see or know, and i operate with them on a team, where I do things like write this post because I want to and feel like it, not because I am coerced or afraid.
hope this helps.
I agree that a matriarchy could be as scary and evil as patriarchy. Queen Maeve who I've mentioned in my post, was feared more than anything. And I believe this is true for most m/patriarchs in history. I guess a lot of us would have your example in common: that on the outside we seem to play by the rules of the authority in our nation, but we probably all work differently on the inside. 'Keeping up appearances' is something we're forced into if we want to survive in our societies in our world, unless we find a world that doesn't judge our opinions. I mean, we don't want to 'attract' too much attention from government entities if we want to live a normal life, so we play their games until we don't have to. Thank you for your comment, I appreciate it!
I have attracted attention from government entities, even on steemit they find ways to harass.
I have written extensively about government harassment and the battle for privacy, you should read my blog.
I'll definitely have a look. Thank you again!
Its very interesting the different perspectives everyone is having in this discussion. We are all different and have different associations and therefore beliefs about what it is to be a man or woman. I ,for example, feel incredibly womanly and feminine, but its very important for me to have muscles and be as strong as a man. I would hate a man to open a door for me and feel very confused and disempowered by the gesture. The question asks though, if we think a fearful society demands patriarchy or male energy to protect us. Maybe ,yes is my answer, but it is male energy that has created the fear. Great topic and very interesting, your historical knowledge.
I understand what you mean when you say that you find it important to be strong as a man. And for some women this is possible, however, for others it is not. My sister for instance, can throw a ball like no man I've ever met can. Her body strength is unreal, and without effort, she's always been that way. To such an extend that people sometimes thought she was a boy when we were growing up! Me on the other hand, I used to work a job that required body strength (it was at a distribution center for a supermarket). We had to move boxes of oranges onto a trolley and sometimes they went far above our heads. The first few days, I actually needed help to do this, but later on that week, I was able to do it. After a few weeks I was throwing them on there! This showed me that I too can develop strong muscles in my arms (my legs was never a problem, as I am Dutch and bicycle riding created that for us lol). However, I have never in my life been able to hold my own weight for more than a few seconds...nevertheless, I don't see myself as weak. When I said the 'gesture' of holding doors, I meant just that. Not that I find it attractive that a man holds the door for a woman, but I think of it as courtesy. Not just from a man, but anyone. I hold the door for anyone who comes in behind me, whether it is a man, woman or child. I remember this one incident some time ago. I was pregnant (very visibly so) and was out shopping with my then 7 year old daughter and my 1 year old in the buggy. I opened the very heavy door (everyone knew it was a heavy door, you could see it....) and held it so my 7 year old could push the buggy through. Just when she tried to push it through, this couple almost pushed her aside, and walked through with their 2 kids...At that moment I thought they were very rude and told them so! (nice thing to teach your kids...) I didn't feel like the man should have held the door instead, nor the woman, but maybe they could have at least had the courtesy to wait for my daughter to go through or even helped her and then taken over the door from me as anyone could see we were having trouble...OK, trailing off a bit, but I hope you get my point. I wouldn't feel disempowered by a man holding a door for me, simply because I would hold a door for them if they were behind me. Nothing more, nothing less. I am very well capable to open a car door for instance, I don't need a man, or anyone, to run around to open it for me. However, I always found it courteous for instance to open the door for my mom....And yes, it is male energy that created this fear. I think we can agree that it is the power hungry male who does this, but he is also very insecure....I've written posts about birth before and I feel that this is very much the case in the instance of hospital births...In those cases it is the doctor who acts as patriarch or matriarch if this doctor/midwife is a woman....They've been conditioned to do so and to believe they are above us...(I could write a book about that!) and us 'plebs' are conditioned to think that these doctors are gods who know everything and more about our bodies than we do. But I think you and I both know that this is not the case :) Thank you for you feedback! ❤️️
Fear, domination, and control are the cause of so much suffering. Like I said in my post I really think a good bit emerged from wanting to make sure the baby in the belly actually belonged to them. Once there was a taste of that control and of course like you said the fear of the power of women's bodies and the ability to birth and the knowledge of herbs, there was no going back. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Really love all the info on the witch hunts and inquisition. Excellent post.
Good post!
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