It’s been said by some men in the “manosphere” that we live in a “gynocentric” society (perhaps to be contrasted with a patriarchal one). I just don’t get that. It seems that now particularly in the West we live in a society that is more equitable and fair to women and girls but not one in which women have more rights or power then men. In fact men still technically hold more positions of power and wealth than women do collectively speaking in Western societies. Compared to the past (or even to other parts of the world currently) when women and girls struggled for access to education, were denied the right to inheritance or the ownership of property, were forced or pressured into marriages etc… I would say men in the West currently have it sweet. If men and boys are falling behind in any way it seems a result of their own incompetence and not the result of any systematic oppression.

For instance schools haven’t changed much in terms of education style yet there is a pervasive idea that schooling favors girls over boys. But the main reason boys used to be “better” at school than girls is not because it required less attention and sitting still (if anything schools today are more lax compared to the past in that regard) but because girls were simply barred access at a much higher rate than boys. Yet the mere fact that women excel in education now is presented as evidence that schools are conspiring against boys. Why? If we accept that men and women are different why can’t it be the case that girls are better at school than boys when given the same access? We already accept that boys are more rambunctious than girls as is. Another big one is child support and alimony. But neither of those things is gendered at the legal level and single moms spend more on their children than single dads on average (and when I say single dad I mean men who are single and have children not necessarily men who are the sole or primary caretakers of their children). Average child support payment is only $430 in the US which would not cover childcare costs at any daycare nor would that support a woman and child to live off. Alimony is rarely awarded and usually not enough to fully support a household either.

There are more examples but my point is men aren’t systematically barred from access to education, loans, ownership, employment etc like women once were (and still are in parts of the world) so they actually are not experiencing what oppressed women experienced. To call our society gynocentric based on women currently excelling in very specific sectors or because they simply aren’t treated as second class citizens is hyperbolic and ridiculously entitled in my opinion. Even if one has legitimate gripes about men and boys treatment in the West now saying that the West is currently “gynocentric” while knowing of the history of patriarchal systematic oppression of the past is facetious.

TLDR: men collectively hold more wealth and powerful positions than women in the West and there is no systematic oppression directly targeted towards men/boys. So any claim that the West is gynocentric is hyperbolic nonsense, especially when compared with true patriarchy under which women are barred access from things like property ownership and education leaving them to be a permanent subclass.