by culicomorpha » Sun 14 Feb 2010, 22:06:44
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Novus', 'I') feel like we have had this discussion before. Needless to say the patriarchy will be restored. The word patriot and patriarch have the same root because there is nothing without the father. There is no family, no country, no culture, nothing without the father. Everything is comes from the father. Now feminism was a failed experiment partly enabled by cheap energy and a society with excess wealth. The reality we inherit contains neither cheap energy or excess wealth among other factors which will lead to a return to patriarchy.
From the
Atlantic article I mentioned before:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '')We could be headed in a direction where, among elites, marriage and family are conventional, but for substantial portions of society, life is more matriarchal,” says Wilcox. The marginalization of working-class men in family life has far-reaching consequences. “Marriage plays an important role in civilizing men. They work harder, longer, more strategically. They spend less time in bars and more time in church, less with friends and more with kin. And they’re happier and healthier.”
Apart from the blatantly misogynistic attitude expressed by Novus, I have yet to see any cogent arguments explaining why there will be a return to patriarchy. Further, Novus seems to have no idea what the central thrust of feminism is: a refusal to submit to the whims of men, coupled with demands to share power. (At least that is my interpretation of feminism.)
By the way Novus, everything does not come from the father. That is one of the most ridiculous statements I have ever read on this board. You do know how reproduction works, don't you? And from a reproductive standpoint, we don't need very many men to keep the population going. In that sense, men are dead weight to a society unless they actually have something productive to contribute.
Instead, what I am seeing is more wishful thinking on the part of some men here who perhaps feel emasculated by a loss or potential loss of breadwinner status, which would certainly be consistent with the evidence in the Atlantic article outlining how much more men's identity and sense of worth is tied to their breadwinner status. Take that away, and the entire edifice of assumed patriarchal power falls away.
But ultimately, I still agree with SeaGypsy that going forward there will be much more focus on the particular skills that people bring to the table, regardless of gender. As traditional employment is enjoyed by fewer and fewer people, other arrangements will have to be made, and my opinion is that they will be centered around farming. In that context, there is no presumption of competence based on gender - you have to put up or shut up. Nobody will be getting a free ride. But I think this will be much harder for men to deal with, given their greatly reduced power and authority.
I saw someone make a pronouncement "patriarchy will return" and saw that assumption being challenged, as well as people defining what they mean by the word "patriarchy." So it looks like a discussion to me.
