"the patriarchy"

You know, I really don't mind people who disagree with me... Well, usually.

But the thing that drives me absolutely fucking nuts are people who don't even understand the concept, and disagree with me.

Guyperson: "After all, I'm supposed to be part of some evil conspiracy to keep women/minorities/homosexuals/small fluffy animals down."

Does he not understand the definition of a conspiracy? Or does he really think this is what patriarchy is?

From how many times he's used this type of example, I'm guessing it's the latter. Which only shows anyone who knows anything about the topic, that he doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about. "Conspiracy"? Conspiracy means they sit around in a back room and collaborate. While patriarchy -can be- systematic, no one thinks that men sit around in a back room some where and conspire against women/minorities/homosexuals/small fluffy animals.

Patriarchy isn't a fucking conspiracy, it's a social norm. It's social conditioning. It's a "this is how things are" that boys learn, who grow up to be men, who enforce then that standard. BECAUSE THEY THINK THAT'S THE WAY THINGS WORK. It's a way of thinking about men and women, our "place" in society. It's a world view, it's a way of BEING!

When we talk about the patriarchy "keeping us down" or engaging in "systematic racism/sexism/genderism/homophobia" we don't mean that you purposefully sat down and created a system to do this! It means THE SYSTEM DOES DO IT as it's currently constructed!

Is this really that hard to understand??

And the reason we TALK about it, is because we believe that through awareness of this, a good many of you will WAKE THE FUCK UP and STOP PARTICIPATING in that system.

The nice thing about that? It means most of us don't think most of you are in fact complete fucking assholes, and that you don't actually mean to keep women/minorities/homosexuals/small fluffy animals down.