While in the last week we focused on racial privilege and oppression, this week’s readings discussed these two topics in terms of gender. More specifically, they both concern patriarchy, which Allan G. Johnson defines as “a kind of society organized around certain kinds of social relationships and ideas that shape paths of least resistance”(32). He claims it to be a social system rather than the result of individual actions and proceeds to explain that these two are strongly interconnected. A very good example that helped me understand the concept was how rape can be viewed from different perspectives. “We might ask why a particular man raped, harassed, or beat a particular woman. We would not ask, however, what kind of society would promote persistent patterns of such behavior in everyday life, from wife-beating jokes to the routine inclusion of sexual coercion and violence in mainstream movies”(28).
The same explanation can apply to patriarchy. Even though a particular man can promote objectifying and exploiting women, other people ofter participate in patriarchy unconsciously by the path of least resistance, or in other words, choose actions that cause them the least societal judgment. I was surprised to read about women being participants in the system of patriarchy as well. But then I realized that many of them do it because that is the only way of living they know, or because it feels safer and easier. I immediately thought of my mother as an example. Her husband comes from a very patriarchal culture and a lot of it is imposed on her only because she allows it (considering that she prefers to take a leading role everywhere). My mother, recognizing every pattern of his behavior, still lets him take an uncomfortably large amount of charge in the household only not to upset him and cause another fight. This “Let a man do his thing” can be a positive mindset, but eventually causes society to become numb towards violence and sexist behavior.

I also liked how Allan described privilege as something you cannot choose to have or not to have. It is something that society gives to us, and because often we don’t recognize it, the oppressive systems feel even more natural and normal. It somehow traces to the second reading by Audre Lorde, who analyzes the existence of oppression in every social group. She writes that “oppression and the intolerance of difference come in all shapes and sexes and colors and sexualities,” which I can connect to the existence of some type of a privilege in each of these groups, that Allan Johnson described in his article.