9/28/21
GWS 100-170w
Professor Waychoff
Response to Vanessa Lopez
What is patriarchy?
Patriarchy is male dominance and privilege which has empowered male to control and limit possibilities, controlling their lives and more. An example of patriarchy would be when females would stay home to take off the children, and do all the chores while the men would go to work. In addition Men would be the head of the household. Although this does not happen now but this was a regular occurrence in the 50s and 60s. Furthermore men would be very controlling by dictating how women would dress and limit women from doing things. For example they would underestimate women when women are looking for jobs. Imagine if you are a female and go for a job interview and you want a manager or the boss of the company and you get denied of this position because people don’t believe you can be a boss because of your sex. Some people would believe that because you are a female that you don’t possess a boss quality. They will think that a man will be more qualified for the position because he is more dominant. A while ago I was hearing a conversation on a train and two friends were speaking about a job. One of the friends said they wanted to be a fashion designer and the other said she wanted to be an architect and the friend was so shocked and she stated that this is only a job that men could do. Patriarchy made us have this in mind because decades ago we were taught that females cannot do everything that men can do. Therefore we still have it embedded in our minds. Lastly in the movie entitled “ Selena” Selena’s father wanted to form a band with all of the siblings. Each of them had their own rolls. However, Selena’s sister (Suzette) was forced into playing the drums. She refused to play it because she said that “ Girls don’t play drums.
In conclusion in my opinion patriarchy is almost similar to a privilege. Men would work to get money and they made the rules. While females’ needs and rights were denied. Therefore I agree with Vanessa’s post. There should be no limit to what a woman can do. We could be the head of the household, the carpenter, the architect, the doctor, the teacher. Women also have the right to live their own lives without being punished or judged for it. I have seen this in a lot of African films as well. Whenever the father dies (king) the son always inherits the throne and always gets the privilege to take care of the family and have all the money. Women would even be ridiculed for having a female child and not male child. Although this is a part of their culture it does not make it right. STOP PATRIARCHY
