Is gender oppression the primary force of patriarchy?

Question

Is gender oppression the primary force of patriarchy?

Answer 1

They were'nt very successfull.

Answer 2

Patriarchy is a term that feminists love to throw around.  However, it's never really clearly defined or even proven to exist.  The fact remains that women in the west are one the most privileged classes of people in the world.

I would venture to say that plenty of men feel their gender is oppressed by radical feminism.  Take for instance public schools where being male is treated as some sort of pathology.  Christina Hoff Sommers did an excellent job of explaining this in her book "The War Against Boys."  

Additionally, men are oppressed in other ways.  British Airlines has banned men from sitting next to kids.  One incident provoked world attention when a man was almost banned from sitting next to his own son.  It is true that men account for the majority of sexual assaults against children.  However, this is a very small minority of men.  

Just because a handful of men are sexual deviants that doesn't mean the lot of us are.  If that were the case we'd have to apply the same rules to women since they account for the majority of child murders.  Most rational people realize that it's only a handful of women that do this however.

It doesn't stop with public schools and airline flights either.  Men have been taking it up the ring-piece in family court for the last 50 years.  Men rarely get full custody of children and are most often the ones required to pay child-support.  

Men are even demonized by women like Christina Rowe with their faces on pizza boxes when they are unable to pay child-support.  The hard cold facts however show that women are allowed to miss their child support payments by the courts, and even default on their payments at nearly twice the rate of men.  As it turns out, Ms. Rowe is MIA with women's faces on pizza boxes.

Based on the small sampling above, I would venture to say it's not the ever-elusive, mythical, and imaginary "patriarchy" that has anything to do with gender oppression.  No, I'd be more inclined to say that it is radical feminism that is the primary force of gender oppression.

Answer 3

Yeah, but he's napping right now since he's tired from all the oppression, so I don't wanna wake him for a bit.

He'll reschedule when he's up to it.

Answer 4

No, you are confusing it with militant feminists, like Harriet Harman. The greatest gender oppression, as you put it, is being carried out by lefty feminists in our schools. That is where you will find the greatest oppression of the male s*x.

Answer 5

Yes. Gender oppression is the primary force in patriarchy. In order for a patriarch to exist a mother must, by definition, be oppressed. The word patriarchy comes from the Greek words "patēr" (father) and "archē" (rule), which means that the rule of fathers supercedes that of mothers, the father is placed above the mother in importance.

Since all fathers are men and all mothers women, patriarchy places men above women in importance and power. Ironically, this situation is really anti-intuitive. The FACT is that women are more powerful when it comes to the family. All children are born of mothers. A father can invest as much energy in procreation as he does in masturbation, while a mother must invest the majority of her energies and focus. It is also a FACT that mothers provide more DNA than do fathers. ALL of the mitochondrial DNA comes from the mother. When a child is born, it is entirely made of atoms that have been transferred to it by the mother's body. She risks her life to bring that child into the world....

If there was ever any legitimate right to power over a family, it belongs to the mother. This is the original source of all misogyny. Men feel inherently less powerful than women because they lack the connection to their offspring that women so clearly poses. Patriarchy is an attempt to elevate men within the family structure and to create an arena that is entirely male dominated [the public(male) vs. private (female) spheres]. Men want what women have, that is a direct link to life and to power but they simply can't find it within themselves so they try to create it outside. This is why religions are male dominated even though females are inherently more spiritual.

Women are tied, viscerally, to the creation of life, to the future, to the Mystery of life. Men lack that spiritual center which is why they feel the need to destroy life. Murder and war (clearly male-dominated activities which bring men great pride, and "power") are acts of inherent and intense jealousy. It is how men smash down what they cannot themselves create. If they cannot directly experience the creation of life, at least they can destroy it. Likewise with the creation of technology and art. As a male artist friend of mine once stated, "You can create something that lives and breathes, thinks and feels. My art might outlive your child, but it will always be hollow, empty and lifeless... nothing more. I make only caricatures of life." Maleness is a pitiful existence which leads to extreme hatred, jealousy and rage.

Since men feel that they cannot stand as equals to women they believe their only option is to place themselves above women. To do this they must use the only thing in their favor, superior physical strength. Through violence they can attain some degree of power (however illegitimate) but this power is fleeting and ultimately unfulfilling. This leads men to the search for societal, legal, and religious methods of reinforcing the illusion of male superiority. By purposefully denigrating everything that is "feminine" (emotions, reproduction, s*x, community, love, sharing, etc.) men can pretend that they are superior.

Bottom line: Females are the original design. Males are adjuncts with lesser natural use or value - to fertilize the female and assist with the more dangerous aspects of child rearing. Males are biologically more expendable than females. These sad facts lead men to look for a purpose, to try to make themselves necessary, by unnaturally limiting what women are allowed to do. If they can force women to be helpless and needy, then they can pretend that women need men more than men need women.

I apologize for the harshness of this answer. I didn't make the rules. I'm just honestly stating reality. For those who have a problem with it, I suggest taking that up with God, and while you're at it, please ask "him" why "he" would make women so much more important than men. Seems like a very odd thing for a "male" god to do.

Perhaps a more effective solution lies in males recognizing and honoring the very real connection they do have to creating life and to their offspring. Perhaps is men allowed themselves to feel, authentically, rather than pretending not to feel, perhaps if men engaged in constructive acts of creation rather than destruction, well, perhaps men could find a fulfillment and meaning that is not dependent on the denigration of others.  I wholeheartedly support those men who are in search of a better, more sustainable, masculinity.

Answer 6

Patriarchy doesn't exist because it has no opposite.

The primary force of "patriarchy" is male competence.  

Answer 7

the patriarchy is a supposedly force that exists simply to oppress and denigrate women.

However, if you look away from the computer screen and look outside, you'll find no trace of this patriarchy, interesting.

Nah, the only people who whine about the "patriarchy" are people who are failling at life and need something to blame, something to explain their failure with.

Because failure isn't as bad when you can say the other side cheated.

Answer 8

Is what the whatty

Answer 9

Well considering the supposed patriarchy has bent over backwards and played a part in putting the laws in place for the like of positive discrimination ... I ponder who exactly is being oppressed by whom.

Other than that I haven't heard of any calls from men to remove rights, to have rights above others, to ignore calls that rectify a disbalance in rights.

However I have heard of feminists that have ignored or wont involve in helping others attain rights or right disbalances in them (apparently its called feminism because it focuses on women only, not equality but wait yes that is equality .... according to some), And on occasion have been noted for attempting to suppress or interrupt others gaining support or making speeches.

Which given that, which do you think is actively involved in suppression  or oppression of others?

Feminist organisations have funding that may be reduced if they fail to suppress others from proving they have a cause just as needing of funding.

The patriarch as you call it - also known as the 'ruling classes' which is more accurate - stands nothing to  gain by sexism, but has a lot to gain by ensuring those in its ranks are of a certain quality. I guess women are proving more of that quality now.

I suggest thinking long and hard about what that word quality means.

Answer 10

Yes it probably was.  Today it's the media, laws and extreme feminists in the Western world that oppress gender.  

Answer 11

Actually, the main purpose of patriarchy is to get power and to keep it.  Suppressing females is secondary, but present and important (to discourage challenges to that power).

Answer 12

No, gender oppression is the primary force of feminism.

Answer 13

No "Gender oppression" is the primary source of the myth which feminists exploit to fight patriarchy.

patriarchy needs to be fought against not because women are harmed by it, but because men are harmed by it.Patriarchy punishes men at the cost of treating women favorably.

Women were not oppressed in past, they had been merely treated like children with extra care and sensitivity.

Statistically, there were no more women oppressors in past than than number of child oppressors today.

Answer 14

There is no patriarchy. There were men in charge yes but it was never for the pupose of intentionally oppressing anyway.

Most oprression comes from ignorance of how things work. What "oppression" there was stemmed from people thinking that women were less tthan men because of strength differences and womens inability to control their emotions. They simply did not know that women could work past theses difficulties.  Feminism should know better by now and quit oppressing men.

Women were not as oppressed as feminists claim because women at the time did not feel oppressed.

Some of the biggest opponents of feminism were other women.

Feminists were and are a bunch of perpetual victims who need drama in their lives so they create it.

Answer 15

No, s*x oppression is.  Gender refers to the social and natural norms the person identifies with, s*x refers to how the person was born biologically.  Because patriarchy is based on male dominance only biological s*x is oppressed.  However gender could be a secondary trait of oppression.

Answer 16

Any form of patriarchy is a way to denigrate women and have control over someone else. What ever happened to equal rights for all under the law. No one group of people should have the right to dictate the rights of others.

Answer 17

Not necessarily the primary force, but would argue misogyny is so politically, culturally and historically endemic it underpins patriarchy.

(This is argued admirably in Jack Holland's A Brief History of Misogyny The World's Oldest Prejudice). This prejudice is exacerbated, in synthesis with racism, classism and bigotry around sexuality.  And if under an illusion that we have equality, or it is discrimination that is ever easy to challenge, eradicate, or even make inroads into 'levelling the playing field' between the genders take a look at some of the questions and answers on here.

Holland talks about sexism being like a hand waved in front of your face in the dark...you can't see it, but you know it's there!

Oh! and to argue that a white, male, heterosexual dominated hierarchy does not exist throughout societies should prompt a visit to Specsavers...have a look around!

And as for Chevalier's comment, so feminists should have left the awareness raising alone, eh? What are we like..ignorance is bliss when it applies to us.  Feminism is about widening opportunities and challenging barriers to our progress as a s*x.  It is also about allowing choice, and if women want to stay at home, having babies and washing socks, and making bread let them do so, BUT, if they ever want to choose a different path then that is equally fine!