Patriarchy

Social Implications

Gender socialization begins even before birth, and patriarchy plays a role in the way this socialization takes place. Fetuses that are identified with a penis are immediately described with masculine terms. Many parents begin conceptualizing the life of this child including being active, engaging in sports, and being high achieving and successful. Masculine children are described using adjectives related to their physicality such as strong or tough. Parents often report being less patient with a masculine baby’s crying, reflecting social norms of men being perceived as less emotional.

Conversely, fetuses lacking an identifiable penis are described with feminine terms. Conceptualization of girl children typically includes a focus on emotions rather than physicality. These children are described with adjectives such as sweet or precious (precious also being a term connected with jewels or rare metals). And parents are quicker to comfort an infant identified as a girl than they are a boy, reinforcing early the social norm of women being passive or associated with being possessed.

Early polarization of social cues in children lays a foundation for lifelong behavior and worldviews. Under patriarchy, children receive clear messages about appropriate behavior in alignment with their genitals and therefore gender assignment. Furthermore, boys begin to reject “softer” emotions and redirect many emotions into acceptable masculine expressions of anger or isolation. Girls, on the other hand, learn to nurture and care for others, suppressing feelings of anger. Gender nonconforming children have a particularly confusing experience. For some children, their gender socialization regarding communication or play styles aligns with their developing self-concept of gender identity. For gender nonconforming children, social pressure to conform to a particular way of being conflicts with the way they are most comfortable being.

Gender socialization and patriarchal valuing of the masculine over the feminine also play a role in social acceptance of nonheterosexual sexual orientations. Because heterosexuality is assumed to be the norm, women are expected to be sexually attracted to men and men to women. Men sexually attracted to men or both men and women are perceived to be less masculine, often feminized, and therefore less valuable in social constructs. Women attracted to women or both men and women are either masculinized and therefore criticized for not aligning with their appropriate role or sexualized for masculine consumption. Within the broader LGBTQPIA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, poly/pansexual, intersexual, asexual) community, the masculine gay male who is also White, able-bodied, and middle class is most represented and considered to be the norm for the gay experience. This tendency aligns with patriarchal values preferring masculinity and reinforcing masculine dominance over femininity.

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