Patriarchy perpetuates itself by undermining the logic of those who are oppressed -- women. It says, "Surely you are imagining it that men are actually oppressing you? You must be insane! We care for you, deeply."
The result of this kind of brainwashing is that women underestimate the accuracy of their own perceptions and start to believe that they are incapable of logic.
It is easy to see why patriarchal societies are less developed, because the ideology of patriarchy is based on infantile projection. That is, if I am male and I do not like anything about myself, I can feel justified and encouraged by the system as it is to project these nefarious aspects onto women close by. Patriarchal societies keep their members in a state of infancy by encouraging this sort of behaviour as a way to excuse oneself. Rather than embracing patriarchy, people should be taught to observe their actions and introspect and analyse why they do the things they do. That would allow them to behave in a more mature fashion.
I perceive that infantile projection is absolutely essential for giving the impression that there are "natural" hierarchies, whereby men dominate women because men are intrinsically more noble than women happen to be. Louis Althusser recognises a difference between forms of repressive state apparatus and ideological state apparatus.In terms of sheer power, we could recognise that men dominate in various institutions of power. Why they dominate and how they manage to get into a position of domination are other questions.
We have the media, the church and to some degree various educational institutions perpetuating the idea that there is something noble, logical and "transcendent of emotional states" in the quality of being male. Men learn through social conditioning that they can easily project their unwanted emotional states onto women so as to conform to the masculine ideal.
The result of this kind of brainwashing is that women underestimate the accuracy of their own perceptions and start to believe that they are incapable of logic.
It is easy to see why patriarchal societies are less developed, because the ideology of patriarchy is based on infantile projection. That is, if I am male and I do not like anything about myself, I can feel justified and encouraged by the system as it is to project these nefarious aspects onto women close by. Patriarchal societies keep their members in a state of infancy by encouraging this sort of behaviour as a way to excuse oneself. Rather than embracing patriarchy, people should be taught to observe their actions and introspect and analyse why they do the things they do. That would allow them to behave in a more mature fashion.
I perceive that infantile projection is absolutely essential for giving the impression that there are "natural" hierarchies, whereby men dominate women because men are intrinsically more noble than women happen to be. Louis Althusser recognises a difference between forms of repressive state apparatus and ideological state apparatus.In terms of sheer power, we could recognise that men dominate in various institutions of power. Why they dominate and how they manage to get into a position of domination are other questions.
We have the media, the church and to some degree various educational institutions perpetuating the idea that there is something noble, logical and "transcendent of emotional states" in the quality of being male. Men learn through social conditioning that they can easily project their unwanted emotional states onto women so as to conform to the masculine ideal.
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