On the nonexistence of a justification for patriarchy

[planetc]

In a previous post, (https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=16673543) I mentioned this fact: that there has been no serious rebuttal to the feminist analysis of social structure on this planet. I can only conclude that there is none. Women exist as a caste, a social class, in all known societies, and there is no reason why this should be so. Preachers to slave holders in the American south used to justify slavery with various snippets from the Old Testament. Since we are supposed to be a secular society, Christian biblical misreadings aren’t available to prop up sexism.

So, on the premise that there is no justification for sexism, I would like to point out that women have enormous power that they have never used. Some women seem to think that the institution of marriage will fall if they vote differently from their husbands. To the contrary, the institution of marriage only stands because women assent to it. Children are born because women are willing to bear them. Infants are cared for, children schooled, and houses kept because women do this work willingly. Our current economy also cannot function without them. And I have not mentioned the political power women gained with the vote, which has existed potentially since then, but not yet in reality.

Women are the majority of the population, although they have not yet coalesced into a voting bloc. They could. Women are not yet convinced that their sheer numbers constitute decisive power in a democracy. Without their willing participation in the economy, the economy is crippled. Without their willing participation in civilization, there is no civilization.

I think it is time, and past time, for women to put the patriarchy on notice that women are aware, they are watching, and they are displeased with the progress being made on the legality of abortion, on bringing our economy to a skittering skid if not a halt, so we can save a faltering climate. Nature is like women; it’s not a voting bloc. But it definitely needs one.

I have one idea for how to get this effort under way, which I will suggest in another post.

[delisen]

1. Very Interesting. Waiting for next post. nt

[Brenda]

2. Women don't want to lose their safety

That's why so many of them don't vote as a bloc. They don't want to rock the boat and be alone or homeless or even killed.

Of course that doesn't explain it all. But fear is a huge motivating force for the millions of women who will not stand up for themselves or other women.

There haven't been that many inroads to ending women's fears in my lifetime. I think it's still about 1% of rapes in the US alone result in felony convictions.

[planetc]

4. Brenda, reply #3 was to you, but I didn't hit the right button. I'm erratic in cyberworld.

[planetc]

3. You're absolutely right that fear is a major motivation.

But I wonder if they have considered that votes are private, confidential, and nobody else's business?

Be that as it may, it's for sure women can't change the threatening conditions in society without standing up for themselves. Owning, but not advertising, your vote is what I'm recommending.

[druidity33]

5. Thank you for posting this...

looking forward to the next installment. I have in the distant past taken a college class called "In defense of Matriarchy" (I think, might have been "Why not Matriarchy?&quot ... it was in the Women's Studies curricula. The denigration of women to the benefit of men goes back a VERY long ways....

K&R