terms time, we must be learning our words so we can speak together

So today I decided I needed to do a little bit of term explanation. I can't assume that all people who read here have any backing in feminist stuff and I am working on a post that had some discussion of patriarchy and I figured "shit, I'd best be explaining what these things mean. So here goes.

Mostly I want to talk about patriarchy. It's pretty much the big important concept. While it sounds like it's only applicable to feminism, I propose that patriarchy is not only the system of oppression in place that sets up men in power over women, it's also the system that privileges white folk at the expense of people of color, privileges straight folk over queer folk, privileges cisgendered folk over transgendered folk, and so forth. I've heard a few people talk about these intersecting systems of privilege as kyriarchy. Read more in terms of definitions and such forth here.

And let's get something clear here. When I talk about men being privileged at the expense of women, I'm not blaming every man ever. I'm not blaming your father, your brother, your boyfriend, your friend, your whatever. I'm not saying they're bad people or trying to punish women or anything. I'm saying that the system we have gives men advantages over women, straight over queer, white over people of color, etc.

We can't be free from the system, it's part of how we live. We can strike at it, point it out in society, talk about it, do those kinds of things but they do not make the system not exist. We just have to work within the system, break it down over time. But it's hard to know what Patriarchy is for some people. So I'm going to list some examples now.

Patriarchy is:
rape culture
the narrative of female rape victim who was asking for it
narrative of gay male sexual predator
women being discouraged from maths and sciences
bride culture
the anti-choice movement
marriage [which does deserve some elaboration, so please, give me a wee bit of time to talk about this before people are all getting upset]
the nuclear family
objectification of women
most drug laws
sterotyping of women/people of color/queer folk/etc
tokenization
slurs [that's so gay, fag, cunt, nigger, etc]
expecting an oppressed class to educate the non-oppressed class
mommy culture [once more, needs explaining. I'm sure there's a better word for this I don't know.]
devaluing of women's work
ignoring privilege systems
de-humanizing [think the ridiculousness of "octo-mom." Talk about absolutely de-humanizing. The way people talk about her, it infuriates me]


Are we beginning to get the pictutre? Excellent. Post questions in comments, I'll try to deal with them when I have time, likely not until I am home. If you have questions and don't feel like waiting or would rather educate yourselves, check out Shakesville and also their Feminism 101 section. That place totally opened my eyes to so many things I had never seen before.

Remember people, everything happens in context.

Expect more of this feminist stuff soon, now that I'll have more time, I'll want to do more of this stuff.