Patriarchy

MelissaMiranti · 2026-06-04T17:24:22+00:00

It means whatever you need it to mean at the moment, so long as you remember men=bad. That's what feminism is.

Kuato2012 · 2026-06-04T17:46:01+00:00

The definition changes depending on whether the term is being used in the motte or the bailey.

In the end the definition hardly matters, because its whole purpose is to be a thought-terminating snarl word... conceptually somewhere in the vicinity of The Boogeyman or Satan. Feminism has always been hyper aware of gendered language, and yet they have somehow failed to notice that they've named all that is evil and wrong in the world after men. Meanwhile all that is good, right, and proper is named after women.

Exavior31 · 2026-06-04T17:34:48+00:00

Everytime I encounter the 'everything built for men' argument, I remember that I literally needed to build an extension out of an old shelving unit for my single bed. Every night, that DIY extension is the only reason my feet arnt hanging off the end (even if I sleep diagonally). I'm only 6'2 btw.

Turns out society is more 'one size fits all' than built for men. And men are victims of ill- accomodating furniture, clothes and architecture just as much as women are.

Sharo_77 · 2026-06-04T19:36:29+00:00

Someone said this the other day - "Fireman" is unacceptably gendered but "patriarchy" isn't. If language is being used a weapon then this an obvious example

Intelligent-Bird-313 · 2026-06-05T02:09:35+00:00

It’s assuming gender roles benefitted only men and harmed only women. Looking at it from a female perspective, as female, I feel like gender roles/rules/expectations have harmed more men and benefitted more women, to be honest.

HiggsFieldgoal · 2026-06-04T23:08:07+00:00

It is literally just the “bourgeoisie” from when Feminism was plagiarizing Marxism in the 70s, and they just swapped “men” for “capital” and “women” for “workers”.

That’s pretty much it. And it’s really misandrist to even use the term, because the whole premise of the book… “gender politics”, I think it was called, characterized men and women as having been… essentially, natural enemies since the dawn of time.

Which is a pretty dumb, and hateful, worldview, if you ask me.

Lanavis13 · 2026-06-04T17:31:51+00:00

That depends if you're talking about the feminist theory of patriarchy (not "theory" in the way actual science would use that word) or the definition of patriarchy that actually matches reality.

If the latter, there are two types of patriarchies:

-One is a society or culture that prioritizes and allows only males to be in the head positions of leadership that affects the laws or governance of that society/culture while preventing females from attaining those positions. This could also include not allowing women to be heads of educational positions or lesser leadership positions despite a man still being above them. However, this could also include societies where women are allowed in positions of leadership, but never is the very top of leadership, such as being allowed to be an advisor/right-hand person to a king but never the ruling monarch.

-The second is effectively the same as the above but where women are not 100% prevented but instead heavily socially and culturally pressured to not be in those positions. For this the pressure would have to be prevalent throughout the entire culture. A minority of assholes wouldn't count.

-These two definitions of the realistic patriarchy fit every example of a patriarchal society in existence from those that are horrifically, lopsidedly misogynistic to those that have female privilege built in and even to those that are misandrist. Whereas the feminist theory of patriarchy fails at aligning with several actual patriarchal societies and with societies a feminist would say is a patriarchy.

SpicyMarshmellow · 2026-06-04T19:51:35+00:00

It is basically the feminist equivalent of "The Jewish Question"

Afraid-Armadillo-619 · 2026-06-04T18:16:07+00:00

It absolutely existed, in power structures like the Catholic church (and most major world religions), pre-1920's voting, and in the economic sector, ie home ownership, job prospects, income, ect.

I fully realize there are counterpoints to those examples, but let's be intellectually honest. It was certainly advantageous to be a man (in many ways) 6+ decades ago, and for most of human history.

The issue is that now, most of those examples leave only vestigial traces in western societies, but mainstream feminism chooses to highlight the antiquated systemic injustices of last century as if they were still fully present.

Gender roles come with privileges and responsibilities - my personal criticism of the feminism of today is that most won't acknowledge the many very real privileges that women now have, while focusing nearly exclusively on the historic privileges bestowed on men, most of which are no longer relevant or present at all. Furthermore, society at large does continue to expect men to uphold their historic gender role responsibilities without much focus on reforming those. Even healthy men's collaboration is demonized, stigmatized with terms like 'manosphere' and 'MRA'.

Talk about privilege - men cannot even collaborate as a cohort without stigma while women doing so is openly celebrated.

Finally, what I just can't get over is the argument that "patriarchy harms men too". It is inherently not a patriarchy if it harms men. Oligarchy? Yes. But the privilege is not about being male, it's about being rich and powerful.

Therefore, I strongly believe how the word patriarchy is used today is a complete misnomer and actually regressive in the context of gender equality.

R3aperF4n · 2026-06-05T01:03:28+00:00

This is by no means the consensus on how the word is used nowadays, which as other people have argued in this thread has become a "floating signifier" to be used for anything disliked and male-coded, but to understand "patriarchy" we need to genuinely consider "the patriarch".

The fact that "patriarchy" literally means "rule by fathers" instead of "rule by men" is mostly forgotten but is actually the most significant factor to understand the history of gender relations. In the Western context it's difficult to overstate the importance of the role which fathers played, both in the middle ages but especially in pre-christian classical antiquity. Under Roman law, fathers had the power of life and death over their own wives and children. This does not mean the family is the "property" of the father (strictly only "slaves" are property) but it does mean that he is effectively their Ruler---judge, jury, and executioner.

And the legal rights entitled to fathers applies only to fathers. A man was not entirely independent until his father has died, until that time he must constantly show deference and accept his father's legal authority. It's not merely the man-woman dynamic that is important, but also the parent-child relationship. Reading ancient sources---Homer and the Bible particularly, you get the sense of the significance of what "patriarchal society" really means. For example, the Greeks' conceptualisation of their highest God, Zeus, is of essentially a cosmological rapist. His authority permits him sexual access to everyone, man and woman, below his social station, which is literally everything.

The naive view of equating patriarchy to "men" entirely leads to thinking patriarchal societies are structured primarily around "men vs women", whereas it's more accurate to say patriarchy is a game played by fathers where daughters are the ball. Sure, you do have the legal right to beat your wife---but her father, probably an older and higher-status man, might not take kindly to that, so you beat your slave (male or female) instead.

The role of the family in social life has diminished, slowly over the course of centuries from antiquity, and then quickly in response to industrialisation. The familial aspect of patriarchy has been mostly forgotten.

Illustrious_Wish_383 · 2026-06-05T03:36:13+00:00

Who cares? No war but class war.

BigfootDragon · 2026-06-05T12:59:00+00:00

I find it immensely frustrating that no one cares to consider the purpose of patriarchy and why it exists across cultures and times worldwide.

Feminism absolutely refuses to acknowledge any shortcomings women have. So I guess patriarchy has come to mean whatever men do, or have done that women don’t like.

I also think that patriarchy can mean when a man refuses to submit to women and agree that he is inferior and inherently dangerous.

WeEatBabies · 2026-06-04T22:10:33+00:00

Is this "patriarchy" in the room with us right now!?

ElegantAd2607 · 2026-06-05T13:11:16+00:00

Feminists believe that all or most men are a part of an oppressor class. That is the base belief of the patriarchy which then leads to believing that anything bad from men is a part of this grand evil system.

The over-sexualization of women and teenage girls.

Domestic violence.

Homophobia.

Rape and violence against women.

Women getting paid less.

Every problem they can think of that happens to women is patriarchy.

Edit: your life experience disproves the notion that most men are a part of this oppressor class and have a leg-up just by being men. I would love for you to have conversations with feminists and try to get them to agree that the word patriarchy and the idea of male privilege is extremely unhelpful in this day and age.

Instead we should be talking about everyday problems. Why can't we just be empathetic and look at people as individuals?

ChipmunkAmazing2105 · 2026-06-05T12:59:03+00:00

It's a conspiracy theory

Global_Estimate7021 · 2026-06-04T17:57:06+00:00

TBH it means the default point of view through history has been male, which is true. Problem is that the term has been weaponized into equating male with bad as if points of view themselves carried some kind of moral value, thus leading to the unending gender war we see today.

Dark_Prince_of_Chaos · 2026-06-04T20:25:05+00:00

They just twisted Marx words of workers vs bourgeoisie for women vs men.

PsychologicalOwl808 · 2026-06-04T19:33:19+00:00

When the term Patriarchy is used on any forums about or tangential to feminism it's almost always referring to a nebulous concept of a concerted design that subjugates/harms woman and girls and promotes/benefits men and boys. It is hard to be at all more specific as there are a plethora of different feminist branches and each one views this idea differently.

Aside but Relevant

Often confounded/or purposely confused with a patriarchal society:

...a social structure where men hold primary power and predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege, and control of property. (Google)

One can have a society that predominately benefits a limited group of people without there being any concerted design behind it through circumstance, emergent self reinforcing systems, individual design and other non concerted societal/environmental factors.

So a patriarchal society existence does not necessitate nor prove the existence of the Patriarchy

The Patriarchy as it is often labeled, has the following defining characteristics:

Nebulousness: it has no distinct edges or easy way to define it, this makes it exceedingly hard to prove or disprove.
Unfalsifiable: It is defined in such a way that there is no way to disprove it. Every evidence even that which seems to trend towards being negative evidence somehow is explained as further proving it. "Patriarchy hurts men too"
Concerted Malignant Design: However it is described it is always overarching, organized, collaborative, and negative for women. Or to put succinctly a conspiracy against women.

stehmer3 · 2026-06-04T21:11:52+00:00

From what I've seen it's a way to gender issues caused by capitalism. Generally anytime the patriarchy is blamed it's really just capitalism.

sunyata150 · 2026-06-04T21:47:32+00:00

Depends who you ask. Different people and groups can have different definitions.

examples that I have seen include:
- A society controlled by men for the benefit of men at the expense of woman.
- A society controlled by men for the benefit of male oligarchs at the expense of everyone else.
- A society controlled by men specifically excluding women from power.
- A society controlled by men that oppresses woman.
- A society controlled by men where rigid gender roles are enforced which harms everyone.
- A family or community controlled by men.

The one consistent trend I find especially in feminist circles is to blame men for both men and woman's problems.

In modern day western countries I don't think patriarchy really exists or is mixed at best. A better description would be that its andro-centric at the top because males tend to be the oligarchs of society. However society is gyno-centric the rest of the way down because woman and girls issues or opportunities are the focus of societies institutions and organizations while boys and men's issues or opportunities are ignored, undermined or demeaned.

It pains me to hear that you are a victim of abuse. I hope you are able to heal and get support from good people in your life.

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Burned_Out_Paradise · 2026-06-05T23:12:54+00:00

How is it racist exactly..? Is he French, yet black..? I say something about the country and that’s racist..? If he were Chinese, I’d understand your response.. but c’mon.. I’m

Asleep-Difficulty-42 · 2026-06-06T14:39:04+00:00

There is no consensus on how patriarchy should be defined. Not in feminist academia, and certainly not in general society.

Nevertheless, usage of the term can range from narrow and specific to broad and vague. What the definitions have in common is that it means, in some sense, a society in which men have the power.

On one end of the spectrum, people define patriarchy as a society in which the the majority of people holding the top positions of economic and political power are men.

On the other end of the spectrum, people define patriarchy as a society in which men are privileged and in which claimed masculine values of control and domination are at the centre of society.

It is fair to say we live in a patriarchy in the first sense, but not the second sense. Most feminists use the term patriarchy in the second sense, but they'll resort to the first definition when really pushed.

The main problem with the first definition is that the representation of men at the top of the hierarchy does not mean that men, in general, at lower levels of the hierarchy, are in a position of power relative to women.

DrKingbear · 2026-06-07T15:43:14+00:00

Feminism originally meant to be a movement to achieve equal rights regardless of gender. It achieve its goals fairly quickly.

Once a movement reaches its objectives, people go home or switch their attention to the next movement.

However, feminism took a live of its own. All those people whose identity was attached to it didn't wanted to let it die, so they just redefined its goals.

Today, if you ask 10 feminists to define patriarchy, you'll get 11 definitions.

Patriarchy doesn't mean anything per se. It is a straw-man concept, a boogeyman that is used to justify the continued existence of the feminist movement.

Title	Patriarchy
Author	hikereyes2
Upvotes	94
Comments	63
Date	June 4, 2026 4:34 PM UTC (1 month ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates/comments/1twswhq/patriarchy/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates/patriarchy.1582069 https://theredarchive.com/post/1582069

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