This week’s reading was finally when my brain was kind of bombarded with way too much information at once. I am still very intrigued with the material but getting through Allan Johnson’s Patriarchy, the system: An It, Not a He, A Them, Or an Us, was so much for me to digest at once because of how intertwined our existences are within the system. Ultimately, I understood Johnson’s point regarding how Patriarchy and oppression aren’t things we can control our participation in but rather how we decide to react to the daily routine of experiencing and witnessing them now especially after learning the ways in which we do take part. The way Johnson brought up the meaning of the word participation in regards to the system really struck me. He mentions how we all take “part in what goes on” as opposed to something that is “voluntary/ freely chosen” and I felt it was so important to have done that for my personal understanding of even trying to dissect the intersectionality within and how I am part of it. I found this reading so enlightening but at the same time completely overwhelming. I tend to get stuck on why we got here in the first place and it’s too frustrating thinking about how I partake in this because this is what’s been here since before I arrived to the planet so of course, it is the norm that was ingrained and at a subconscious level. I also want to share that what immediately struck me from Audre Lorde’s “There is No Hierarchy of Oppressions” was the publication date after reading, 1983. I’m having trouble verbalizing why but while reading, I envisioned it was written more recently.

This week the discussion about oppression continues & Patriarchy Is talked about. I read Allan Johnson, “Patriarchy, the System: An It, not a He, a Them, or an Us”. He discusses what patriarchy is, the idea behind it. He goes on to talk about how it impacts every individual in negative ways & how individuals participate in the system with or without knowing. Patriarchy is taught to us from a young age. Some of us kind of just went along with it. The definition of Patriarchy is a system of society or government that is male-dominated, male identified, and male-centered basically oppressing women.  In general, the whole idea of patriarchy is messed up. I can see myself how over time we grew into this. We see examples of this in the news, books, television and real life. Over time understanding the problem comes with thinking about a solution Allen thinks that fingers shouldn’t be pointed. We have to gain awareness and spread it to men or women. We have to stop our future generations from following the same paths. Leaving the idea of Patriarchy completely as it is to create a different system of socialization is the way to go. 

Audre Lorde, “There Is No Hierarchy of Oppressions” was a short reading but had a lot of meaning and emotions in it. She is basically speaking about Oppression in the world, the oppression that She goes through, and that there are people like her going through the same thing. From how it sounds Audre states that she is Black, Lesbian, And A Feminist, A mother and more. She is looked at as deviant, difficult, inferior or just plain “wrong” to some people. She is basically speaking out against the things that cause people to oppress her and some of the things other people like her are oppressed about.  Being Black does come with some kind of oppression, but why because of a person’s skin, Being Lesbian causes Oppression because they choose to like the same Sex. There is nothing wrong with that. People shouldn’t go through Feeling oppressed for what they believe in. One form of oppression is not better than the other.  Audre Lorde is trying to raise awareness to fight and find a solution for this oppression. 

Reading the articles for this week, I was able to learn that Oppression is composed of four different levels that influence one another and are not at all unrelated. I never understood that the layers of Oppression are an example of how deeply rooted the system of patriarchy is. It made me realize that the patriarchy is so embedded in society that oftentimes we fail to realize that we can break away from the system, we just first need to understand that the system exists. It seems to me that it is a lot easier to just blame a group of people, because as Allan G. Johnson states in his article Patriarchy, the System, “we are stuck in a model of social life that views everything as beginning and ending with individuals.” Instead of looking at society as a whole, we choose to address specific individuals.  This means that we will never truly find the root of the issue because we will always assume that the reason for a bad situation is a set of individuals who did a bad thing. I had not thought about it from this angle, and I feel that it has helped me grasp the importance of this week’s readings. This tells me the importance of proper education, which should be made available for everyone, for everyone must learn that the patriarchy has never been and never will be a person. This is the first step in breaking away from the cycle that has been regurgitating itself over and over, and it makes us that much closer to regaining the freedom that is so rightfully ours!

From Johnson’s essay about patriarchy, I learn how patriarchy built and how it impacts every individual and how individuals participate in the system.

There’s oppressions everywhere, not just to women even to men themselves. Patriarchy divide human beings to women and men also in patriarchy, heterosexuality love is the only romantic love form being encourage and main stream. Other love forms would be considered as ugly. It also apply double standards to women and men: if a woman take good care of her kids, that would receives multiple compliments also it would be considered the woman plays the mother role she should play and also she acts it well. But if a man stays at home and take good care of his kids, patriarchy would considers the husband is not muscline enough. A man should go out to work and protect his family instead of doing caring work to his own kids. Women should be vulnerable and it is allowed but men should control their emotions and not allowed to show their vulnerable sides. Because men should be strong and powerful, being emotional is not allowed and it is only allowed for women.

Patriarchy is a binary system and no one can be their true selves in this system. Everyone is othering and plays the role that patriarchy allows them to play.

Similar to our other readings, Johnson shows us how humans become defensive in terms of patriarchal standpoints – blaming men because they are men. There are major differences between patriarchy as a society and the people who choose to participate in it. We tend to think that patriarchy only involves the individuals participating in it, but not society as a whole. I came to realize during this reading that it is almost inevitable to not participate in patriarchy, simply because society guides us into thinking it’s what’s right. I also thought it was interesting how people think women are incapable of participating in patriarchy- when really there are so many women who do it unknowingly- even myself. In Lorde’s essay, she states twice that “There is no hierarchy in oppression”. I think this relates to Johnson’s discussion in that everyone and everything participates, not just the rich white people, our policing systems, or the system as a whole. Oppression in patriarchy is run by everyone because it surrounds us every day in magazines, on social media, and on TV. I think it’s also important to note that Lorde is a black lesbian woman but still believes that she cannot afford to fight one form of oppression, as a luxury. She believes that it is her duty to fight from all aspects including her race, sex, and sexual orientation. This stood out to me because her opinion negates the system that guides oppression and patriarchy to be seen as normal and unavoidable.

When I was reading, I learned a lot about patriarchy and the oppression system. I think that most people who follow the patriarchal system seem like they have no choice, but in reality, they are afraid to break away from those societal structures. When women specifically say they hate the patriarchy, most men get offended because they think we are talking about hating all men when in reality, it’s not that. We hate the system they are following, which makes it hard for women to do anything in this country. They are being oppressed while also being the oppressors. Like Audre Lorde said, “And when they appear to destroy me, it will not be long before they appear to destroy you.” Whatever you do, whether you follow someone or not, do something terrible, and it will come back to bite you. Today we have all these hierarchies in society, with them not realizing that the oppressed don’t stay oppressed forever. To break away from these chains, we must separate our future generations from following the same path. “And those children need to learn that they do not have to become like each other to work together for a future they will all share” (Lorde). We need to teach these new generations about love and acceptance to break out of this constant cycle society has us going through. Things could change at any time because we are always in control of our actions. If someone decides to do otherwise, that’s on them.