Understand this basic perversion of patriarchy: It pretends a system of labor is a system of morality by telling girls and women our willingness to submit to biological, domestic, sexual, emotional labor—with no wage or complaint—is a measure of our goodness and divine favor.
Patriarchy also disguises its pretense that unjust division of labor is a moral code by helping men hoard power, money, public space, and free female labor that help them secure all of it, telling any woman who’d compete with them for resources that she is “bad” and “ungodly.”
Folks marveling at how women submit to cooking fresh food daily for husbands who won’t eat day-old anything. We know why this happens. Women struggle daily to live up to Good Woman™️ status, which entails serving and keeping a marriage. Especially if they found a Good Man™️.
Labor is necessary for human survival, and all types maintain us inside/outside the home. When you hear patriarchy, understand we're talking about WORK. Who does which work, how much, most importantly, who's entitled to another person's work for free. That's what we fight about.
Patriarchal rules are about work and competition. Take the rule "a woman's place is at home." This says a woman should only do unpaid domestic work and cannot compete with men outside to work for money. What can money buy? Things men bring home and freedom from unpaid work.
Patriarchy enshrines and violently enforces the rule that only men are allowed to hoard and control POWER (rule-making and labor-allocating ability), RESOURCES (money, land, goods), and PUSSY (who gives it, who gets it, who controls laborers and labor birthed from it).
I'm gonna end these musings by saying my true radicalization into feminism came when I realized ALL our arguments over tradition, sex, gender roles, etc. boils down to work. The biggest lie patriarchal men and women tell is when they pretend it's about righteousness and morality.
If you wanna test this idea of patriarchy rules fundamentally serving to uphold a labor system, do a thought experiment. Take any gender-based taboo (even big moral ones like homosexuality, abortion). You’ll find a trail back to how they challenge a gender-based system of labor.
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