23. On The Trap of Patriarchy. 

Dearly Beloved,

My philosopher daughter has given me two books by celebrated feminist authors. The first was Kate Mann's Down Girl and the recent The Right to Sex, beautifully written by Amia Srinivasan. There are several ideas in these books with which I would disagree.

The first is that both writers define men and their attitudes by those who have committed atrocities, notably school and university shootings in the US. Part of the reason for that is that, now, those who commit those atrocities have been able to present their malevolent ramblings on social media and some feminists have honoured these writings by calling them “manifestos”. In earlier times before social media came into existence, such misogyny, the product of disturbed minds, would never have seen the light of day. To define males in such a way is absurd. Many, indeed most, men (and women) manage life times replete with loving relationships. Those lives are surely the norm?

Second, both volumes are shot through with a conviction of the existence of a monolithic male “Patriarchy”. There is no acknowledgement of the existence of an evolutionary biological trap, a product of biological evolution during early, unpredictable and unstable times, which necessitated that females confine themselves to child care, foraging and family support. To do so they needed a capable male partner who would protect his family from physical attack whilst having enough status in male society (we are after all, a social species) to promote the welfare of his family and himself. However unwittingly, men and women still seem to choose their partners on that biologically determined basis. Men and women are dependent one upon the other. Unless feminist writers acknowledge that mutual dependence they will never be able to overcome the monolithic ideological obstacle of “patriarchy”. It is surely a false, hypothetical, construct?

Third, paradoxically these books set out a justified condemnation of Donald Trump's misogyny and surely Trump's dominance is the very best argument for the existence of a Patriarchy? Yet feminist writers fail to acknowledge that if women in the US had not voted for Trump en masse he would not have got anywhere near the US presidency. This suggests, much to my chagrin, that many women in the USA have no very great expectation of the behaviour of men, but, they feel quite up to coping with it. As one confident Trump female supporter remarked when confronted with his perfidy, “good women make good decisions”.

Fourth, the modern reality which feminist thinkers might usefully recognise, is that their monolithic idea of patriarchy is being eroded by able women who operate successfully in many fields. An example is Kate Bingham who managed the British vaccine project during the first part of the Covid epidemic. Her learning, her commercial and other experience, her social skills, innate and learnt, and an ability to manage a team, were essential to her success. Commeth the hour, commeth the woman.

Feminists thinkers need to celebrate such women and surely they will find that the concept of “Patriarchy” in today's world will collapse under the weight of its own inconsistencies and perhaps American women, will come to have greater expectations of their menfolk too.

Peace,

Paul

Completed 6 December 2021.



"The Eternal Tension between men and women expressed in Titian's Death of Actaeon.  He has come across the goddess Diana bathing and she has turned him into a stag so that her hounds attack him."  National Gallery NG6420, London






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