Addressing Patriarchy Head-On

An Introduction

Patriarchy is an unequivocal, objective failure. It may be the dominant social construct, but it is marching us headfirst toward cataclysmic, species-level extinction.

The power structure that is patriarchy is the one thing that defines all our lives, almost globally, down to the millisecond, yet, here in the U.S., you’ll only find mentions of it in spheres of highly conscious women. Feminist thinkers.

Women who use terms, such as...

Freedom.  Liberation.  Equity.  Equality.  Agency.  Choice. Cooperation.  Collaboration.

If you’re reading this, you’re likely one of these women and I celebrate you.

Everyone else’s voices are hushed. Cowed. Silent as the grave as patriarchy sends us off into an early one. Unless you are a member of a wildish group of women, patriarchy is a concept you likely don’t think worth your time to spare a thought, let alone reasoned contemplation or sustained pushback.

Mention of patriarchy — the most important structure on Earth — is absent at Davos, Aspen, U.N. Conventions, G7-20’s, the U.S. executive, judicial, or legislative branches, the Academy Awards, international climate change negotiations, WTO and IMF declarations, the Grammy’s, Fortune 500 boardrooms, the NASDAQ trading floor, and especially the mouths of those marching us off a cliff: narcissistic, tech-billionaire broligarchs.

Every center of power, every minute, cultural, economic, political, and familial aspect of the way we live our lives is steeped in patriarchy and yet, it is never acknowledged, let alone addressed — certainly not in any meaningful way — by those empowered to make widespread change.

I’m going to talk about it. With The Agentic Feminine, I’m going to be exploring patriarchy, more specifically in the way it affects rewilding women, and what we can do about it.

I throw my lot in with the great women who have come before me, uncovered hard truths, laid groundwork, were bloodied in battle, and are standing now — knowing we are capable of greatness. We are capable of that thing which they fear most — cleansing our culture from patriarchy’s detritus. The never-ending shit sandwiches pummeling us at every turn, as if life was a sadistic obstacle course we are incapable of winning.

No — this is NOT a done deal, not by a long shot. We have had monumental, global revolutions again and again. We are capable of great feats and the truth, the secret undergirding the progress of humanity, is that women run this whole damn show.

So, I welcome you to my introduction of a six-part series revealing my take on how we go at patriarchy.

As a former international political analyst with a degree in government who has been studying nation/state-level power dynamics for decades, I’ve always analyzed differing government structures and the efficacy of them. What makes good policy? Who has the power? How can they be manipulated them into doing the right thing by its citizenry?

•• Now, I’m changing tactics. ••

What can we do ourselves to reclaim our power to create systemic, long-lasting change in our lives that has rippling, cascading, butterfly effects and turns the tide against patriarchal oppression?

Well, I refuse to blow smoke up anyone’s ass. I’m a cishet white woman and, for me, this means addressing the “white woman” problem.

It is easily arguable that European colonialism is the worst man-made, disastrous travesty to plague humanity. White women have served as nothing less than the gestapo for patriarchy. I’d argue the majority still do. The oppressed-turned-oppressor cycle of tyranny. (Don’t tell me that meanest women you ever met wasn’t the married lady in church leadership or wasn’t the woman at the office protecting her proximity to the manboss like a rabid raccoon.)

As we examine what patriarchy really is and how it is in effect (in the U.S.) today, we uncover not just the way it affects us women-identifying-folk, but how we perpetuate it by emulating the conditioning patriarchy demands of men.

Women have always been the turgid lynchpin of patriarchy.  White supremacist, European colonialist patriarchy relies entirely on the participation of white women. It. Does. Not. Exist. Without. Us.

So, what kind of white woman would I be not to use my skills and education not to address this in myself and help other white women get free of this crusty, antiquated tyrannical way of existing?? I’d be just another troublesome bag of bones.

We must desist and, for that, we must get real.

Patriarchy is not an inevitable, biological, natural structure and we need to stop thinking of it as such. Revolutions and new ways of thinking are coming faster than ever. With the rise of fascism in the U.S. and a global A.I. arms race underway — women are rising up by returning to ourselves and reclaiming our power en masse.

Part of our strategy must be going directly at patriarchy, NAMING IT, identifying and analyzing its facets so we can deconstruct and dismantle it. Eliminate, piece by piece, the elements that uphold it so it collapses under its own weight.

Patriarchy is the backbone of all that we face on the political, economic, and cultural battlefield. ALL — YES, ALL — our problems are downstream for patriarchy and if we con’t go head-on at this fucking problem, we will be stuck in an endless loop of exploitation, oppression, conquest and conquering, domination-through-fear, until the end of humanity — which is fast approaching.

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**DISCLAIMER I RESENT HAVING TO WRITE:

I like men. I like spending (very) limited amounts of time with them.

Are men edifying? Do they benefit those around them? Can they exist in a space with others in shared pleasure without pontificating, instructing, or being patriarchal in other myriad aggravating and irritating ways? Am I clenching my jaw and forcing my eyes not to roll in their presence?? If everyone had financial sovereignty and adequate psychological well-being, would they give their attention to these men? Are relationships with these men beneficial? Srsly?? For most men, the generous answer is: It’s debatable.

If I can answer heck yaz to these questions when picturing a man, chances are he’s a thoughtful, kind dude (bruh?) who, at some point in his journey, has done some work on healing from patriarchal conditioning.

The others can go right in the trash.

What we are talking about specifically is how the patriarchal construct manipulates men into behaving and how it’s damaging to everyone involved.

So what exactly is patriarchy and how has millennia of it resulted in the modern U.S. men we now have to witness torpedoing all communal systems in a rabid, insatiable grab of greed? What about the women swimming in unhealed patriarchy and internalized misogyny who follow and obey like good little girls? Minions of The Borg?? The red-pilled, lip-filled Eva Brauns of MAGA/MAHA Inc.??

Well, I’m about to dive in so buckle up and stay tuned, Sweet Cheeks, because I’m just getting started and my perimenopausal ladyness has never felt more alive than it does now.

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