The irony of you mansplaining to me about what I know and don’t know was too delicious. I had to come back for one last taste.
Patriarchy is a social system based in a dominance hierarchy. It came into existence about 10K years ago with the advent of agriculture. Prior to that time men and women lived an egalitarian and cooperative existence. Once private property, such as land and cattle became a factor, it became more important to know the paternity of children (hence patriarchy), where before that it didn’t particularly matter, and women routinely mated with several men at a time.
The only way to ensure paternity is to restrict the social and sexual life of a woman, treating her like something somewhere between child and chattel. Somewhere around 50 years ago we got rid of most of the laws and customs that overtly discriminated and restricted the lives of women, although a few did last into the 80s and 90s.For example, marital rape wasn’t considered illegal in all 50 states until 1993. The residuals of the long history of this type of discrimination still resonates in our culture — in part because constant vying for dominance is such an ingrained aspect of our society, particularly for men.
Patriarchy is still a social system where men have some advantage over women, but largely it is a system where most people are trodden on and disadvantaged at the hands of those higher above them in the pyramid of power. It is only about men insofar as most of the people at the apex of the pyramid happen to be male (and White).
A more love-infused world is on the opposite end of the spectrum from patriarchy. Rather than being based in a dominance hierarchy, it is a world/social system that is based in partnership and cooperation. It simply means to look towards ways that we can have more egalitarianism, more kindness, less discrimination, better lives for all people, etc. It’s a world where people aren’t policed into binary gender roles and they can have the opportunity to be who and what they have the capability and desire to be — without artificial barriers to that. People like Brene’ Brown, Peter Block, Riane Eisler, and others have become influential in recent years talking and teaching about the ways that business, governments, and individuals can move in this direction. The United Nations, the US military, and Silicon Valley CEOs are just some of the groups that have taken active interest in their work.
If you need anything more about these concepts explained to you, I suggest you go look them up.
Have a nice day!
