Bell Hooks: Understanding Patriarchy
Quote: The word "patriarchy" just is not part of their everyday thought or speech. Men who have heard and know the word usually associate it with women;s liberation, with feminism, and therefore dismiss it as irrelevant to their own experiences.
Reaction: This resonated with me because I did notice and experience the double standards, pressures of conforming, and the "rules" that the paradigm of this system provided. I did not speak out nor speak about them growing up because I did not see or hear anyone else doing so. As a result, I just accepted the tenets of this system to be the norm in every society worldwide. Now that I am older, I do see many people mostly men who strongly oppose feminism because they believe feminists to be misandrists. They equate feminism to be anti-male.
In the reading of "Understanding Patriarchy", the definition of patriarchy seems to be a hierarchical one that states men are superior to women and that all males should emulate the characteristics of men: hypermasculinity, absence of emotion, towering stature, and domineering power. To show traits other than these would invite ridicule and chastisement. Even worse when a man exhibits traits deemed "feminine". Within these terms, it's safe to assume that femininity is undesirable and thus being a woman is a lower being to man.
One artist that tackles not only feminism and sexism but also racism in her work is Betye Saar.
Using the caricature of black women that is Aunt Jemimah she transformed the mammy figure into a symbol of power and protest. "The Liberation of Aunt Jemima was born: an assemblage that repositions a derogatory figurine, a product of America’s deep-seated history of racism, as an armed warrior. It’s become both Saar’s most iconic piece and a symbol of black liberation and radical feminist art
—one which legendary Civil Rights activist Angela Davis would later credit with launching the black women’s movement.
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