Overcoming Patriarchy Essay, Research Paper

Overcoming patriarchy Wherever and whenever we look back in history, we see women being oppressed. Either in times of slavery, or in medieval times, or during the discovery of the Americas, women suffered the control of men in many ways. The term patriarchy in Greek refers to “the ruling of the father,” which translates directly into the ruling of the men over women. This has been a problem for centuries, and it is time for that to change. Societies throughout the world should be prepared to offer an egalitarian system which enables both women and men to have exactly the same opportunities in any kind of job, position, situation, sport, or anything that can be thought of as a “men’s thing” in these days. Historically, women never enjoyed life as men did. Depending on which span of time and place on earth it is being talked about, women suffered a world of male dominance. In some societies, women were not part of any of the social classes, enjoying no benefits nor rights at all, confined to the raising of their children or to the taking care of their husbands and houses. Somewhere else in the world and in another time, women are performed what is referred to as the female circumcision, in other words, there is a removal of the external genitals. This mutilation (I cannot think of other term) is meant to reinforce men’s power, whatever the reasons that culture may give. These two examples clearly show a minute part of all the injustices women went and still go through, and how men, by any means, try to take control over their partners. Where do we find the reason to this behavior? Some people say that most of men’s attitudes are due to the existence of an aggressive instinct that relates directly to the production of a very definite “aggression hormone,” the testosterone. Other people argue that men’s controlling behavior is not only explained through biology, but it is also culturally bound. This theory explains that hormone production levels are influenced by stress, diet, even a belief, therefore stating that violent and controlling male behavior is due to culture, not just biology.

Whatever the reasons we have at hand to account for the everyday behavior of men, women are still suffering from mistreatments and injustices not only everywhere else in the world, but here in this country. Solutions to this, so far, endless problem of patriarchy are welcome. In order to become a more egalitarian society, people’s role in that specific culture, country, etc. is to help diminish this problem. Therefore the only thing left to do, since we all are aware that his kind of situations exist, is to tackle them. It is not an easy task, but with the help of every one of us, societies will be able to deal with these problems and to find solutions. There are some ways out of this, but unfortunately none of them will totally overcome the problem patriarchy poses. And no, this is not a pessimistic point of view, it is the conclusion many people have reached. Why is that? Because humankind has memory. If all of us were to help overcome patriarchy, our memories would have to be totally erased. There should be another starting point in history, one in which it is rewritten again. Humans tend to self-destruction, whether using drugs, smoking, drinking, fighting or deteriorating women’s role. Because that is what we are doing by putting down women all the time. We are trying to take control over something uncontrollable, and that something means a person just like all of us, maybe better or worse looking, maybe more or less intelligent, but an equal in the end, and that is under no discussion.