Quote:
Originally Posted by KagatobLuvsAnimu
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the patriarchy doesn't exist and I'd eat my words if you can give one example of a right that men have in the west that women don't.
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There are certainly varying definitions of patriarchy, so it's not surprising yours doesn't line up with that of feminist theory - that's fine. Forget the word patriarchy, what I mean is a society that unquestionably favors men over women. I'd certainly say this is still true of ours, as socially progressive as we've become and aspire to be. We do live in a fair democracy now - it took us until 1920 before women got the vote, but here we are, and nonetheless the disparity between men and women still persists.
The reason for this, as Fran Lebowitz often points out, has more to do with our biology than our societal constraints. Men produce testosterone; a huge biological advantage. Women produce children and innately care for them, and can only put off doing so at the suppression of their own nature; a huge biological disadvantage. Not to mention all the aspects of bearing and giving birth to children that all but dispel everything that makes it such a beautiful thing; the hardships of pregnancy, the countless hospital bills, maternity leave, pharmaceutical costs, various complications, death.
And as any woman would know, that paragraph alone is a pathetic attempt to account for all the things that women have to put up with that men simply do not, whether societal or biological. What I mean to say is that it's not necessarily our fault that it's this way, but as a member of the male species I'd argue that we're not helping the situation enough, and the few of us that are doing anything to help are too few and too timid in confronting and educating our own kind.
So even though I deny the premise under which you assume western society is not patriarchal, I think you can see where I'm going when we're talking about certain rights that men might have that women do not.