Does the Patriarchy Still Exist? A Reader Asked Me to “Prove It.”
Here goes.
I’ll admit, I’m getting sick of hearing about the patriarchy.
The term has become a buzzword, bandied about to describe the root of everything that is wrong with our society, and world. In my two-plus years of writing on Medium, I myself have used it dozens (and dozens) of times.
I worry that much like the term “gaslighting,” we’ll begin to use it in not-always-relevant contexts, thereby diminishing its potency and obscuring its true meaning.
As tired as I am of hearing about the patriarchy, I’m even more tired of living under it. So I’ll continue to use the term, but first, I want to be clear on what the patriarchy is — and isn’t. This seems to be an ongoing point of confusion, even for those who are committed to fighting it.
Those who defend and deny the patriarchy are even more bewildered. A reader recently asked me to “prove” its existence, as though it’s an obscure Newtonian law of physics that requires complex formulas to validate.
If you understand what the patriarchy means — at its root, a social system in which men hold most positions of dominance and privilege —we don’t have to look very far for “proof” that the patriarchy in the United States is alive and well.
