Feminism in News and Popular Media

[Allison W]

Originally Posted by Kobi

At the risk of sounding like I left my brain on the Vineyard, wtf is this supposed to mean?

It's one more item in a list of things I've been thinking about. Along with once having read in a history textbook that prior to Confucianism establishing influence in Japan and turning it towards patriarchy, Japan was a matriarchy; having once read that the reason--in legend, at least, I don't know if there's any evidence of it being the case in reality--that the Greeks played their great sports competitions in the nude was because once a woman had disguised herself as a man and won; having read in an anthropological study on differences between traditional tribal societies that permit female warriors and hunters and those that don't, that one severs the index fingers of its girls so that they will never be able to wield a bow.

What I'm starting to see is that patriarchy is in no way based on the idea that women are weak or unintelligent or otherwise unable. Not even remotely. It is only a symptom that appears after patriarchy has become established--after all, no society that thinks women are unable to be warriors would ever feel any need to sever their fingers to keep them from becoming warriors. Patriarchy originates from the knowledge that women absolutely are able, and the pants-shitting fear of that fact. I would not be surprised if that fear is exactly what Socrates is expressing in that statement.

It's a frightening thing to consider, though, as it means that patriarchy does not occur because of stupidity or ignorance, but very, very specifically because of evil. It is unpleasant enough to imagine that much ignorance in the world, and to be honest, I have enough trouble sleeping at night as it is.