Sexuality and Patriarchy | Clarissa's Blog
I have become very aware of how contemporary ideological rhetoric has the capacity to get people who are still uncertain that patriarchy exists to think in terms of its structures. For instance, “Oh, I must be being very violent and warlike if I claim all of my being for myself. A house divided against itself cannot stand!”
When people are still shaky and uncertain, they can fall for that kind of stuff. It takes a lot of psychological self-examination not to and even then one may still have to fight the bad habits one has developed.
I suspect, though, that my particular battle against patriarchy had this shape because I am from the third world, and because patriarchy was invested in a real war over there. One does not like to be the source of division, but to look at it more logically, the terms of the debate were already completely distorted because of the patriarchal appropriation of my emotion — my core being — for itself. The rupture is not really a rupture but a re-appropriation of what is mine. The battle is not really that bloody, either, but seems so.
All the same, the anti-feminists go on and on with their distorted language. Since I have consolidated my gains this has no power over me.
Once you have your emotions as your own, you have the internal consistency of thought that you were unable to develop before. Therefore assertions that there is no patriarchy seem insipid and absurd. I may have forgotten my battles, but I am still able to detect the lies and the distortions, which are evident in the fact that my truth claims are ignored. When people ignore what I present as fact and instead try to move the discussion onto an ideological level, I know they are interested in perpetuating distortions.
I have become very aware of how contemporary ideological rhetoric has the capacity to get people who are still uncertain that patriarchy exists to think in terms of its structures. For instance, “Oh, I must be being very violent and warlike if I claim all of my being for myself. A house divided against itself cannot stand!”
When people are still shaky and uncertain, they can fall for that kind of stuff. It takes a lot of psychological self-examination not to and even then one may still have to fight the bad habits one has developed.
I suspect, though, that my particular battle against patriarchy had this shape because I am from the third world, and because patriarchy was invested in a real war over there. One does not like to be the source of division, but to look at it more logically, the terms of the debate were already completely distorted because of the patriarchal appropriation of my emotion — my core being — for itself. The rupture is not really a rupture but a re-appropriation of what is mine. The battle is not really that bloody, either, but seems so.
All the same, the anti-feminists go on and on with their distorted language. Since I have consolidated my gains this has no power over me.
Once you have your emotions as your own, you have the internal consistency of thought that you were unable to develop before. Therefore assertions that there is no patriarchy seem insipid and absurd. I may have forgotten my battles, but I am still able to detect the lies and the distortions, which are evident in the fact that my truth claims are ignored. When people ignore what I present as fact and instead try to move the discussion onto an ideological level, I know they are interested in perpetuating distortions.
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