Patriarchal projections might not appear obviously what they are -- which is to say, projections -- just because they often rely upon a framing device to change the meaning of an event, depending upon whether the subject is male or female. What is projected it the idea of female inferiority, which seems to be confirmed by any unusual event in the life of any woman.
The way I have found this to work: if a woman struggles against something, the fact of a struggle one is seen as a mark of her failure. (If a man similarly struggles against incredible odds, then that is often seen as a mark of his will to overcome those odds.)
What this patriarchal logic adds up to is a general social perspective that a woman who struggles against the odds is a failure. She struggles because life appears to overwhelm her. (Actually, patriarchal hegemony can often be overwhelming, depending on one's particular circumstances.) For one who has more patriarchy to deal with than maybe others do, failing to struggle would not lead to any kind of a success, either -- and necessarily so, since those who do not struggle against powerful enemies do not end up making anything of their lives.
All the same, patriarchy is not an ideology that distinguishes between just and unjust situations. For women who suffer under a great deal of patriarchal control, the fatigue after having exerted oneself in an extraordinary manner is viewed as signifying the failure of one's whole enterprise, which is to survive as a whole human being. Patriarchal ideology assures that one loses, either way (by struggling against it or by not struggling). It thus enforces standards of mediocrity for women.
As we can see, then, a mediocre woman is the only kind of woman logically acceptable under the patriarchal system. Yet, even this ostensibly "acceptable" woman -- this patriarchal, mediocre woman -- will ultimately be rejected by the patriarchal system, for it's clear that acquiescence to a system that defines your character as mediocre makes one, if anything, superlatively mediocre. This is a fact sensed by the brighter of the patriarchal types themselves, who intuit that any woman accommodating herself to their wishes cannot have much character or substance.
From a patriarchal perspective no woman is anything but mediocre. That view is behind the self-justification of patriarchal value systems: we dominate you because you are inferior and we are superior to you.
The way I have found this to work: if a woman struggles against something, the fact of a struggle one is seen as a mark of her failure. (If a man similarly struggles against incredible odds, then that is often seen as a mark of his will to overcome those odds.)
What this patriarchal logic adds up to is a general social perspective that a woman who struggles against the odds is a failure. She struggles because life appears to overwhelm her. (Actually, patriarchal hegemony can often be overwhelming, depending on one's particular circumstances.) For one who has more patriarchy to deal with than maybe others do, failing to struggle would not lead to any kind of a success, either -- and necessarily so, since those who do not struggle against powerful enemies do not end up making anything of their lives.
All the same, patriarchy is not an ideology that distinguishes between just and unjust situations. For women who suffer under a great deal of patriarchal control, the fatigue after having exerted oneself in an extraordinary manner is viewed as signifying the failure of one's whole enterprise, which is to survive as a whole human being. Patriarchal ideology assures that one loses, either way (by struggling against it or by not struggling). It thus enforces standards of mediocrity for women.
As we can see, then, a mediocre woman is the only kind of woman logically acceptable under the patriarchal system. Yet, even this ostensibly "acceptable" woman -- this patriarchal, mediocre woman -- will ultimately be rejected by the patriarchal system, for it's clear that acquiescence to a system that defines your character as mediocre makes one, if anything, superlatively mediocre. This is a fact sensed by the brighter of the patriarchal types themselves, who intuit that any woman accommodating herself to their wishes cannot have much character or substance.
From a patriarchal perspective no woman is anything but mediocre. That view is behind the self-justification of patriarchal value systems: we dominate you because you are inferior and we are superior to you.
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