Patriarchal Culture In Society

Patriarchy, like other social constructs, is an internal systematic oppression that has slowly evolved over the course of humanity and somehow managed to stick around. How the patriarchy came to be and why it is still in place are questions with indeterminate answers. However, many feminist works go on to challenge the patriarchy’s actuality by identifying certain characteristics of our society that may have contributed to the growth and dominance of the male gender. Although, so as to correct any personal convictions, it is important to recognize that a patriarchal culture can only exist given that the oppressed is accommodating. Thus, we can infer that both women and men aid in the sustenance of a male influenced world and both women and men hold the competence to disband our patriarchal society. Civilization did not start out male dictated; each …show more content…
Nevertheless, here we are in modernity with no equal pay and governments debating control over a woman’s body. Some may say it’s merely intuition that the male be more dominating than the female, taking into consideration muscle mass, agility and strength. However in Gerda Lerner’s The Creation of Patriarchy, she states that a “patriarchy is a historic creation formed by men and women in a process which took nearly 2500 years to its completion” (Lerner 212) and has more to do with a woman’s sexuality than with a man’s brawn. She accuses that “since their [women] sexuality, an aspect of their body, is controlled by others, women were not only actually disadvantaged but psychologically restrained in a very special way” (Lerner 214). However, at one point, in mainly Asian culture, the woman’s body was considered godly and magical as it represented fertility and creation. The Mother-Goddess figure was praised and worshipped in hopes it would bring prosperity to its people.