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| Patriarchy |  | Patriarchy - Feminist view - Encyclopedia II | | | Many feminist writers have considered patriarchy to be the basis on which most modern societies have been formed. They argue that it is necessary and desirable to get away from this model in order to achieve gender equality.
Feminist writer Marilyn French, in her seminal work Beyond Power, defines patriarchy as a system that values power over life, control over pleasure, and dominance over happiness. She argues that:
It is therefore extremely ironic that patriarchy has upheld power as a good that is permanent and d ...
| | | Patriarchy, Patriarchy - Feminist view, Patriarchy - In anthropology, Patriarchy - In gender studies, Patriarchy - In psychology, Patriarchy - Literature, Patriarchy - Pro-feminism and patriarchy, Patriarch, Matriarchy, Paideia, Traditional authority, Patriarchs (Bible), Matriarchs (Bible), Father, | | |
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Many feminist writers have considered patriarchy to be the basis on which most modern societies have been formed. They argue that it is necessary and desirable to get away from this model in order to achieve gender equality.
Feminist writer Marilyn French, in her seminal work Beyond Power, defines patriarchy as a system that values power over life, control over pleasure, and dominance over happiness. She argues that:
It is therefore extremely ironic that patriarchy has upheld power as a good that is permanent and dependable, opposing it to the fluid, transitory goods of matricentry. Power has been exalted as the bulwark against pain, against the ephemerality of pleasure, but it is no bulwark, and is as ephemeral as any other part of life. Coercion seems a simpler, less time-consuming method of creating order than any other; yet it is just as time-consuming and tedious and far more expensive than personal encounter, persuasion, listening, and participating in bringing a group into harmony. None of this is unknown, unfamiliar, unperceived. Yet so strong is the mythology of power that we continue to believe, in the face of all evidence to the contrary, that it is substantial, that if we possessed enough of it we could be happy, that if some "great man" possessed enough of it, he could make the world come right.
According to French:
It is not enough either to devise a morality that will allow the human race simply to survive. Survival is an evil when it entails existing in a state of wretchedness. Intrinsic to survival and continuation is felicity, pleasure. Pleasure has been much maligned, diminished by philosophers and conquerors as a value for the timid, the small-minded, the self-indulgent. "Virtue" involves the renunciation of pleasure in the name of some higher purpose, a purpose that involves power (for men) or sacrifice (for women). Pleasure is described as shallow and frivolous in a world of high-minded, serious purpose. But pleasure does not exclude serious pursuits or intentions, indeed, it is found in them, and it is the only real reason for staying alive" —Beyond Power: On Women, Men and Morals
This philosophy is what French offers as a replacement to the current structure where power has the highest value.
Other related archivesChinese patriarchy, Cultural anthropology, European, Father, Feminism, Greek, Greek Orthodox, Jewish, Judaism, Margaret Mead, Maria Mies, Marilyn French, Marxist, Matriarchs (Bible),
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Feminist view", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page |
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