What exactly is the patriarchy?

34 comments

1. Its the imaginary bogeyman that feminists fight against.

2. The set of social, political and economic norms, trends and realities that have been created by men holding most positions of power and influence through our history.

   It’s not so much a specific thing or a unified agenda as just a general condition being contrasted with a more hypothetical version that might come about under more equally representative leadership across positions of power, be they corporate, cultural or political.

3. A social structure designed and run by men

4. Something from history that’s been gone for a while but keeps brought up as if it’s relevant.

5. An excuse people use when their ego is so over-inflated that they can’t accept their own shortcomings and need a straw man to blame.

6. It’s basically an imaginary premise about benefiting men and disadvantaging women. They can’t quantify the patriarchy, nor can they point to any laws that benefit men over women (or they have to point far outward to places in the middle east), so they keep it in a very abstract form.

7. The patriarchy nowadays is men becoming women to dominate other women in women’s sports. Congrats feminsm!

8. It’s a form of social structure and a hierarchy that favours men, as if the whole world is one giant boys club.

   Its also the imaginary enemy that feminists keep fighting but never seem to win anything or do even anything worthwhile that benefits women.

9. The old way of doing things (running households and societies) where men held most of the power and women were relegated to subservient roles.

   Today? It’s a figment of the imagination.

10. A made up concept used as an invisible but ever present enemy to rile people, typically weak men and gullible women, up to fight against, rather than looking at some hard truths. Most often used for political purposes.

11. 1. A system of society or government in which the father or eldest male is head of the family and descent is reckoned through the male line.
    2. A system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it.
    3. A society or community organized on patriarchal lines.

12. It’s the notion that women achieved their independence through sheer determination, and that men served no role in their acquisition of equal rights.

    The reality however is that at the time of the women’s suffrage movement, women were aware that voting came with extra responsibilities, such as the draft, property taxes, etc… So, many of them factually rejected the right to vote, until congress finally convened and decided to grant women the right to vote, but without the additional obligation to join the draft.

    Basically, we had to sweeten the deal before women would accept equality. But now feminists want to reject that reality and declare women strong and independent revolutionaries. More power to them, for trying to push themselves further. But rewriting history is not on the table. And it’s exactly that inability to give credit where it’s due that has lost them a lot of credibility in the past year.

    To be clear, I absolutely believe in equality. But equal rights means equal fights. You want the same outcome? Then put in the same work.

    And to anyone who feels the urge to call me a misogynist right now: I believe women are capable of it, because I believe they are our equals. They don’t need a helping hand because they can go toe to toe with any man, right? So let them earn it. Quit trying to take shortcuts through legislation and social equity.

13. It’s a boogeyman that is used to scare tactics the gullible into buying in to a really stupid political ideology. Supposedly, the world is run by men that want nothing more than to keep anyone else down and subjected (why only white men are part of this conspiracy and no one else is beyond me). This fallacy is “proven” strictly in the anecdotal and in practice would never actually work long term, with the cultures that do actually use it are well behind the ones that have more the egalitarian approaches that give people the political freedom to spout such nonsense.

    Fair warning, on r/askwomen you’re basically going to get a ton of rhetoric and hate speech bashing men. Keep us updated on if you get a good answer.

14. A make-believe enemy, the embodiment of which is so they can project everything they hate about men onto a straw-man (literal man), made up by crazy feminists so they have a target for their rage and mental illness.

    It’s awful hard to fight and tear down systems when you can’t identify the enemy. Now, we can’t identify ‘the PATRIARCHY!!’ but, we can definitely identify a Patriarch.

15. a faceless villain to blame all personal shortcomings on instead of taking responsibility for ones place in life and the consequences of actions or inactions.

16. A faceless enemy to rally women or a cause against. A system in place by the upper echelon who governs over the daily influences of the world.

17. It was a group or mentally that kept certain people (race, sex, creed) from participating in something.
    There are very few rules left in the western societies anymore. But there are still people that believe certain things.

18. Its whatever women who are miserable say it is so they can make men miserable too, out of pure spite.

19. Are you sure that there is a definition?

    Generally, when people talk about “the patriarchy” it seems to be an expression of a belief that men control society and that having men in power causes social injustice.

20. If you accept that all culture everywhere just means Western culture. And if you accept that all of history really means any western history we can make up or can assume your audience isnt aware of. And if you ignore almost all sociological data ever gathered. And if you accept that soft power doesnt exist at all, it is absolutely non-existent and could never exist ever. And finally if you absolutely downplay and ignore any possible contributions women may have made on almost any level (this is key) to honestly almost anything:

    Then “The Patriarchy” is a set of expectations and societal norms that have been created by men that influence not just the way everyone interacts with each other but the underlying expectations and roles within society. The assumption usually always being it has been for mens benefit and at women’s expense.

    I think its important to keep in mind that you should question any ideological model, especially ones that have trouble explaining data… or in some cases just outright ignore any and all data.

21. The patriarchy is basically the International Jewish Conspiracy for women who don’t like men.

22. The gender specific version of the Illuminati

    Old white men in their mansions, on a zoom call across the world plotting to continue the suffering of women everywhere for…. Reasons?

23. It’s used to describe the institutional side of misogyny rather then misogynistic individuals

24. A symptom of women’s mental illnesses

25. It’s a made up term to describe a mental condition wherein women (and sometimes men) use it to escape taking accountability for their actions and the impact their actions/choices has had on their life.

26. Non-existant hippy bs

27. It is a made up term that losers throw around to make themselves feel better. Can’t be accountable for your own shortcoming if “the patriarchy” are to blame.

28. Functionally, it is the concept of “original sin” applied to gender.

29. An excuse for promoting and enforcing sexist discrimination against men. I mean ….Your answer to unseen and “internalized” and “hidden” discrimination that nobody can prove exist is … actual discrimination? Like systematic and structural discrimination backed by the courts?

    Well fuck you and fuck your “allies”. Just a bunch of soft, entitled little brats unable to handle a level playing field.

30. Way to troll my man! I see your Monday was kinda boring and ya decided to pull the pin and see what happens 🤣. Best of luck!

31. “The Patriarchy” is a men hating feminist attack on men. It blames all HER problems on some mythical subjugation of women. It is anti-men hate speech every time it is said, from every person who says it.

32. It’s a conspiracy theory perpetuated by radical feminists who want people to believe that all men are evil and only want to subjugate women. They can’t really prove it exists so they just throw it around as a buzzword at anything they don’t like hoping that it will stick to something

33. It’s another boogeyman that groups have used throughout history to consolidate power and support.

    It’s always that X is in control and is the source of all problems and that if Y bands together and stops them everything will magically be fixed.

34. It’s a general concept that describes societal and cultural structures designed by men and for men which have the goal of reducing women to property for the benefit of men.

    If you looked at the news recently you probably would have seen plenty of examples.

    For instance, women in many places around the world are not the legal owners of their own bodies. Their bodily autonomy is controlled by men (in a societal legal sense). They are not allowed to control their own reproductive organs. Their skin is not allowed to be displayed, they are not allowed to have the same economic opportunities as men, so they can be at the mercy of men. They are sometimes mutilated in order to deny them their own sexuality. They are denied the opportunity to be informed and educated, out of fear that they might actually think for themselves.

    This is the more extreme side of it, there is also a more casual form. Even in western societies there are still remnants of these “women as property” ideas. Common example is men being offended when a woman isn’t trying to be sexy. Or the good old sl*t shaming. Or being expected to do all of the chores despite also having a full time job. Or being expected to love a man that does not make any effort to be attractive. Or being labeled a bitch if daring to command respect. I can go on, but it’s just depressing.

    This has mostly benefits for men but also some downsides. For one it prevents men from developing emotionally or socially. It prevents them from learning valuable life skills. It also puts them in a position where their whole identity can be defined by their ability to “provide”. It essentially reduces men to merly heartless cogs whose whole worth can be defined by the number on their paycheck. It also prevents men from dealing with their emotional and mental issues because “feeling” are so heavily codes as feminine.

    TL:DR: Women have the deck stacked against them in almost every way. It’s like that because it benefits the power structure, men get hurt by it too but not as much.There’s a pretty good book on the subject written by a woman for men called “[The Will to Change](https://www.amazon.com/Will-Change-Men-Masculinity-Love/dp/0743456084)”. I highly recommend it.

    PS: Replies trying to disprove my arguments using anecdotes will be ignored, go cry somewhere else I don’t give a shit.