What patriarchy looks like.
Harvey Weinstein
A quick recap. What is patriarchy?
It's a system within communities, organisations and governments in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it. It's men removing women’s personal agency and subordinating them. Controlling their sexual, reproductive, economic and civil circumstances. Patriarchy means that men control women and decide how women can behave in every facet of their lives.
It allows a man to avail himself of a woman's sex, labour and reproductive potential.
And it revolves around a very distinct power imbalance which many men often exploit ruthlessly, specifically to the detriment of women. (And often men as well, but mainly women).
Many no longer appear to connect this with the feminist movement. We live in an era where feminism has been co-opted and made to be synonymous with consumer capitalism, and the word 'feminism' has largely become interchangeable with the word 'empowerment'.
Most would seem to assume that what passes for a contemporary feminist ethos is to buy whatever product or trinket you desire and then, when the resulting feeling of satisfaction ensues, because it's a woman doing the purchasing, she's empowered and hey presto, that's feminism.
But of course it's not. And the revelations of Harvey Weinstein's decades long rampage of predatory sexual assaults should be bringing that into stark relief for anyone who still requires to get up to speed on this. Weinstein, like countless other men, understands the power imbalance he occupies well and he has exploited it relentlessly and without conscience for years.
At the core of the feminist philosophy is being able to recognise that the fight is against the men who are forever looking to perpetuate a one-sided status quo that gives men the power and keeps it away from women - at both the personal and institutional level.
After Bill Cosby's sexual assault trial ended in a mistrial his publicist gloated “Mr Cosby’s power is back. It’s back. He has been restored.” Why wouldn't he say that? It's so depressingly true. Several dozen women have made compelling, detailed allegations against Cosby and he once admitted in a deposition that he drugged women with Quaaludes. He has still never faced justice.
Go ahead and make yourself blissfully happy with as much retail therapy as you can afford. Don't confuse it with feminism though.
That means treating these men for the criminals that they are and making sure women can speak up when they're harassed and abused, not left to shut up while he keeps doing it to other hapless victims. That's our job incidentally, not the victims, and we've all been failing miserably.