Allan Johnson’s “Patriarchy the System” was a very detailed, lengthy informative piece discussing how patriarchy cannot be blamed or attributed to only one individual, or one man (as we most often see it), but instead should be seen as a result of systematic ideas where a society as a whole contributes to its existence. We, women, have blamed men, individually, or as a group for the patriarchy, but cannot see ourselves responsible for the fact that it is still very much alive. We choose to continue enforcing patriarchal ideas and systemic oppression rather than challenging it and questioning it. We submit to the normative behaviors that society has labeled as the “right” way to do things. We all participate in an entity much larger than all of us as individuals, as stated by Johnson, and if our participation ceased to exist, patriarchy would not exist as well. Johnson does not blame the system, but asks the people within that system to question how they may very well be contributing to these ideas that have become normative ways of living. We, after all, are the ones who make up the system and can dictate what goes on in it.

Audre Lorde’s “There Is No Hierarchy of Oppressions” details how intersectionality directly affects her as a Black, lesbian, feminist woman with two children who advocates for social rights. “Hierarchy” is defined as a “system or organization in which people or groups are ranked one above the other according to status or authority”. She details how there are no levels of oppressions and how no levels of her oppression can benefit another. One oppression cannot be greater than another. What specifically stood out to me was the sentence in where she says “Any attack against Black people is a lesbian and gay issue, because I and thousands of other Black women are part of the lesbian community. Any attack against lesbians and gays is a Black issue, because thousands of lesbians and gay men are Black”. This part really stood out from the rest because she talks about a system in which one oppression is basically oppression for all levels of oppressions. To terminate the oppression of Black people, or LBGQT, would be the termination of all oppression.