I cross-posted this on our political sub- go check it out too!

I've been listening to Andrea Dworkin's 'Last Days at Hot Slit' and she makes some compelling points early on that I wanted to share and discuss here: women express all the coping mechanisms of an oppressed class, yet few acknowledge that they are oppressed.

All systems under a patriarchy are patriarchal. All patriarchal systems operate under a strict heirarchy- that you are above someone else. Economic, political, and social systems in place are all to enhance male power at the expense of women. This is seen economically by women's labor being systematically devalued, reproductive energy expected and yet unsupported by the community at large, and unending beauty standards that inextricably indoctrinate women to tolerate pain- that no price to pay is too high to be beautiful.

In a larger sense, conditioning women to accept pain has allowed men to use women as surrogates to circumvent their coming of age. Historically when a boy becomes a man, he must go into isolation, face trials and tribulations, and come back with a scar or mark that proves he successfully navigated the world and has joined the ranks of men. However NVM and LVM push the coming of age journey onto the women they encounter. They never spend time in isolation, forming their ideals and morals of adulthood. They bring a woman along, and force her to undergo the trials, and often torture they wish to avoid. They brand women, beat women, and use and abuse women to avoid their own reckoning. By forcing a woman to surrogate his journey to manhood- he does one of two things: he avoids ever becoming a man and will perpetuate the cycle indefinitely, and he sets himself on top of the heirarchy (unearned) where he enforces the pain and subjugation of the women. I say the women, because these men will continue to use a woman until she is spent (dead or limping away). This cycle of perpetual sadomasochism men inflict on women is as old as the patriarchy itself- and can be tied back to the historical meaning of rape.

Rape in its original meaning is to take by force and run off with the goods. This ties back to how women have been seen as chattel, and only capable of being stolen from the man who has current ownership of her. And it's how marital rape has been legal for so long- you cannot steal what you already own. You can liken rape to the theft of a cow- except the punishment for rape can include the woman, whereas a cow isn't killed by the owner for being stolen once/if it's returned. This to me shows that men have always known women to be capable of throught- whether they view it as infantile, or as a loyal dog obeys- they know that women have functioning brains. Why else would they punish them for not having cried out, or fought off their rapist?

Men have stolen from women since patriarchy gave them the pass to do so. Patriarchy in its basest form, is men stealing from women. How do our current systems continue to steal from women?

Economically this manifests in the pink tax, the wage gap, and 'women centric' fields, lack of child support

Socially this manifests as disdain for single moms, conflict between mother's and daughters from mother's enforcing patriarchal standards on their daughters (acknowledged or not, we have all internalized patriarchal principles), and boys being perceived as easier to raise or preferred children. And women being bullied and harrassed if they speak out in anything other than support for patriarchal (read: supported by men) ideals.

Politically this manifests as women's body's -not as a political battleground, but as a political statement. To have a woman's body is to be an object of negotiation- an item to barter over policy.

What other ways does this manifest? How can we watch for political figures to decide how they see women? I've noticed that most liberal men push for high level social programs that will also benefit them, not for social programs to benefit the most vulnerable in society - women, children, the homeless etc. This argument for free tuition is a band aid to distract the privileged from trying to raise up those disenfranchised in their communities. And it also destabilizes and deflates the currency to make other social programs that rely on $$ to be worth less either in the pool of funding, or in the met supply of currency available to pay for the goods/services (inflation). Inflation is an economic policy in itself. And economics are one tool of the patriarchy.