Patriarchy

Patriarchy has been around and practiced without many people noticing it too much. Bell Hooks describes in her up growing how her household was very much pro-patriarchy. Also she defines patriarchy as a "Political social system that insists that males are inherently dominating ,superior to everything, and everyone deemed weak, especially females, and endowed with the right to dominate and rule over the weak and to maintain that dominance through various forms of psychological terrorism and violence"(Hooks pg.18). In other words, patriarchy is subconscious perspective has impacted generations of men and women. Hooks claims that domestic and child abuse are a side effect or this idealism that a man must have full control over any person or situation. "Most children do not learn what to call this system of institutionalized gender roles, so rarely do we name it in everyday speech. This silence promotes denial. And how can we organize to challenge and change a system that can not be named?".( Hooks pg.25). 

Patriarchy is to blame for these inequalities and injustice ways of thinking but why did our ancestors follow these social rules? It is like what Hooks mentioned in the readings, "the power of patriarchal culture is to hold us captive,". This type of social classification has held women captive from opportunities for many generations. This is a battle that has been going on for years between men and women rights. The bases of the arguments are that women can do anything a man can and deserve the same respect and opportunities in life. However, Hooks says that this notion causes psychological damage to men as well as women. These teaching Hooks claims a majority comes from religious beliefs. Hooks states that a major key to this idealism comes from different belief systems and the church. 

The person I chose Eve Ensler to talk about. Eve Ensler was a teenager in the 60s, and has put that era of resistance under a microscope throughout her decades of art and activism. The New York Times called her groundbreaking episodic play The Vagina Monologues. Eve knows the crucial role that visual symbols and evocative words such as Rosie the Riveter, I Am a Man and Pink Pussy Hats have played in amplifying the call of liberation of women, African Americans, and the LGBT community.

Citations:

https://i-d.vice.com/en_us/article/wjdewn/artists-rise-up-against-the-patriarchy-and-rape-culture-at-revolutionarylove