Recently, the topic of patriarchy has come up in many of my classes. It got me thinking: is patriarchy a good or bad structure? Or is it just something that does not really need to be changed one way or another? Also, what does it mean that this system has been around for so long?
I think a lot of feminists would say that patriarchy is innately a bad system because it puts men on top and that it needs to be changed without question. I have a lot of these feelings as well but I have been starting to wonder whether or not it is actually a bad thing for society. It clearly has been a system that has been around for an extremely long time, so there has to be something about it that works at least a little bit. But it does seem to be an incredibly outdated system for the twenty-first century.
So what is the current problem with patriarchy? Well, I think when we constantly have men as the dominant figures who have been given a preference over women, then there is a problem. It is completely outrageous that men are still considered the “man of the house” and the woman the “ball and chain” – these are systems that are super outdated and don’t seem to really fulfill a real purpose anymore.
The patriarchal system has greatly affected how society views the office of the president – we as a country have never had a woman president and many citizens are unable to envision that, though hopefully a woman will be elected in the near future. St. Olaf, for example, is very patriarchal – we have a male president with a largely male executive board. We may not think any of these things matter but they do, especially when we can’t imagine there being a female president at the head of St. Olaf.
Another place where patriarchy seems to be incredibly prevalent is in our marriage system. Strong, feminist women continue to want the fantasy of wearing the white dress and being given away by their fathers. This comes from an incredibly ancient society when women were essentially owned by men, so why do we keep this around when women are no longer considered property? Patriarchy is so ingrained in us and we have a hard time getting past it. Women continue to take their husband’s last name, another incredibly patriarchal thing.
So one big question is what do we do with all this information? Is it helpful to acknowledge these injustices, or should we just accept that this is the way it is and there is nothing that we can do about it?
I think that what is most important is to acknowledge that these things are going on and that we as citizens are playing into them. I would like my dad to walk me down the aisle but I might have to reconsider this realizing what I know now.
I do think that this information is helpful to know because we can see that things don’t always go the way we believe. Patriarchy is very much still around and going strong. The only way of changing this, if it does indeed need to be changed, can only happen by us looking at and acknowledging that it is around us every day and in almost everything that we do.
Photo Creidt: Man on Top