transcription: the "(character) is homophobic?" trend cracks me up because when i was 15 i tried to tell my mom i was lesbian by saying "mom.... i dont like guys...." and she just said "AMEN" assuming i was just being misandrist and did and illegal u-turn to get to a tamale shop before i could reply

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[–] 2 points 6 days ago* (2 children)

This is very true, no amount of suffering is worth committing yourself to injustice, even if the suffering they experience could even be as bad as they seem to think it is. I think it is also important to specify that they enjoy the power patriarchy affords them while still understanding that they aren't satisfied with this system. Many men resort to anti-feminist, conservative talking points merely out of recognition that their only vectors to a (potentially) more fulfilling way of life is to either implement substantial and fundamental changes to society, or capitalize on preexisting inequities and wrestle away what little is afforded to those beneath them in the hierarchy. They're not lying when they say that this is miserable, trans women certainly know that the way we raise men is brutal and dehumanizing, even if they access privilege through the process.

The existence of transness also tells us that privilege is indeed not an insurmountable barrier to self-reflection and change, which means the men who choose to be disatisfied and take it out on those whom they know are more vulnerable really are just pieces of shit who could simply not do what they do. God knows they'd suffer less for defying patriarchy than trans women do, and even that is too much of a cost for many of them.

I don't know if we need to reconstruct it from scratch, even if just because I don't think we should have a cultural understanding of masculinity that doesn't remember the harm that came from the social and material relations that the current hegemonic masculinity emerged from. Whatever comes next will always exist with a relationality to this patriarchal system which has caused monumental degrees of harm to human life, and all life on this planet. I also don't know if I'd call this form of patriarchy a continuity from what preexisted capitalism and European settler-colonialism, since so much of hegemonic masculinity is defined by white supremacy, commodification of nature, property, and so on.

It really is a uniquely -- pathologically -- violent way of life. I think that is reflected in how obvious it is that men would rather have something different, and simply call misandry because they resent the fact that they don't have the power to do that while still getting to be disgustingly fixated on dominating others.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 days ago (1 child)

    Has it patriarchy ever been abolished successfully? I don't even think I know what that looks like.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 hours ago

    Patriarchy in this specific context no, since we are still living in it and it is quite literally cancerous. As far as whether societies moved away from patriarchy generally once subscribing to it, that's tougher to say. Certainly, there are many instances of patriarchal systems oriented around property (a defining feature of what we currently have) also experiencing massive challenges to that way of life before being reinforced by some external patriarchal power. There are also many instances where matrilineal property inheritance coincided with more equally shared power in how society is conducted, such as with the Haudenosaunee and Ansihinaabe in "North America." The Mississippian civilization that built starkly hierarchal ways of life like what is seen in Cahokia also collapsed very much due to the inequities created by that hierarchy, and historians like Kathleen Duval have argued that the lesson of that collapse is reflected in more egalitarian oral histories and cultural practices in surviving nations.

    It's important to remember that, even though these are certainly not usual cricumstances, the exceptionalism of this particular form of patriarchy is truly limited to its context, not its durability. The fact that these systems can't exist without challenge tells us that they really can't survive no matter how much violence they inflict, even if simply because there is no world without women or queerness, or the consequences of refusing that reality.

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