Patriarchy

The study of patriarchy has long extended beyond simply addressing the practice of economies being organized by male inheritance and descent. Cultural studies scholars have advanced feminist, Marxist, and postcolonial theories to critique the ways in which patriarchal norms structure gender norms and other facets of society. From interrogating the ways in which capitalism privileges male wealth to the tendency for science to pathologize women and from the male bias in legal codes to the normative products of popular culture that portray ideal femininity and masculinity, scholars have linked patriarchy to virtually every facet of cultural critique. Feminist theorists analyze patriarchal norms of masculinity and femininity; the connections between patriarchy, gender, and socioeconomic class; and the ways in which postcolonial theorists examine race, ethnicity, nationality, and gender in relation to patriarchy.

Feminist scholars argue that gender has a history that can be traced, has a structure that can be analyzed, and has changed over time in ways that can be documented. The historical investigation of how societies became organized by patriarchy and became invested in protecting patriarchy is one important aspect of understanding contemporary incarnations of patriarchal ideology. Gerda Lerner (1986) argues that the rise of private property is predicated on the subordination of women to men. In addition, she points out that reclaiming women's history is an important aspect of challenging patriarchal oppression, because history has been determined and written by men in a way that marginalizes women. Lerner contends that complete control over women's sexuality was crucial to the development of patriarchal dominance in ancient Mesopotamia. In addition to rendering women sexually and economically subordinate to men, patriarchy has systematically devalued women's spirituality by symbolically dethroning goddesses, promoting gods, punishing mythical women, and excluding women from valued spiritual roles in society. The prominent symbolic demonizing of women in creation myths and other religious texts constructs deep social myths of women being weak, incomplete, incompetent, and even evil, while upholding men as powerful and perfect. The widespread promotion of such patriarchal ideology may then be traced throughout secular aspects of society as well.

The social construction of gender creates individual and social expectations over time while structuring interactions. Patriarchal ideology becomes willingly internalized because it is incorporated into major social organizations, which in turn circulate it throughout societies. Challenges to patriarchal ideology by rejecting conventional gender roles are repressed through coercion and policing of boundaries throughout state institutions as well as cultural industries. Conceiving of gender as an institution similar to economics, for example, focuses attention on relations of power and interaction while also reinstating the body as part of institutions.

Feminists define power as “power over,” most often exercised by patriarchy, as when power comes from being unmarked and therefore dominant. As Susan Bordo points out, particular hegemonic types [Page 268]of masculinity have been privileged by patriarchy, which marginalizes not only women but also feminine qualities expressed by men. Class, race, ethnicity, nationality, and religion also determine the hegemonic masculinity privileged in patriarchy. For example, heterosexual, white, Christian masculinity not only is normative in Western societies but has also been a dominant force in the shaping of colonized patriarchal societies. As colonialism circled the globe, enforcement of Western norms of sexuality, family life, and crime also resulted in the exportation of Western norms of citizenship and inclusion. Hierarchies that develop from patriarchal ideology can thus be examined throughout the world. However, the project of analyzing patriarchy in specific cultural contexts requires greater nuance than just conceiving of patriarchy as a colonial export. Uma Chakravarti builds on Lerner's examination of patriarchal control of female sexuality and reproduction to show that similar dynamics also exist in the caste systems of India, where women's purity determines caste purity.

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