this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2025
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Witches VS Patriarchy
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Doesn't that - to some extend - match the official definition of the term?
Personally, when it comes to power and leadership, I think women are - on average - less toxic than men. But still I feel like power shouldn't be assigned based on gender or sex, but based on personal qualification. And in general, we shouldn't allow a single person to gain as much power as we see it with many state leaders or super wealthy.
Do you have any data to back up this view?
That is literally the definition of matriarchy though, yeah. We should strive to replace patriarchy with a system in which power is derived from the respect and consenting cooperation of one's peers.
from this meta-analysis of 50 years of research: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1048984324000511
I think the point is that matriarchy looks different than patriarchy, even our understanding of power is colored by the way men wield it. The claim is that matriarchy has qualitative differences with patriarchy. "Control" here is the central word: matriarchy is when women are in positions of power, but it sounds like the idea would be that power would be used in a more cooperative and communal fashion, and thinking of it as control implies a patriarchal approach.
I think matriarchy and patriarchy would only be different from each other if there were a difference between men and women.
I also think you're never gonna convince any anarchists to go along with archy just by promising it'll be better if we put the right people in charge
not just anarchists, feminists also should balk at sincere efforts at matriarchy, since gender equality is the goal of feminism, not gender supremacy
though I do think sometimes what is meant by matriarchy and what women dream of as matriarchy is more of a balancing away from patriarchy rather than recreating it with women at the helm (or even re-envisioning it if not recreating), that's just not my read of these kinds of memes
it's not really surprising lay people would have less literate and sophisticated articulations of their gender struggle - it's important to read the context carefully, women and men struggling under the conditions of patriarchy often look quite different than ideal and academic articulations of liberatory politics. The default seems to be reaction - e.g. some men unhappy with patriarchy blame women for the problems and fester into cultures like incels, pick up artists, and the rest of the diverse mannosphere. Are we really that surprised women struggling with patriarchy have imperfect articulations of that anger and victimization?
But then they should pick another term from my perspective. If you just swap the gender in the term, I'd expect that the gender is also the main thing changing in the concept.
I think they're just gay and horny and like the idea of being dominated by a woman too much to change the name
Do you actually understand what the patriarchy in the community name means? It doesn't seem like it.
I'm not sure. Is it a special meaning contrasting the general definition? There's no extended information in the community sidebar unfortunately.
It's all the systemic and cultural things that propagate gender-based hierarchies, usually with white men at the top. It's a concept used frequently in feminism. https://gender.study/gender-based-violence/understanding-patriarchy-feminist-perspectives/ has a short intro (you don't have to read the critiques part if it's not interesting) that covers some different aspects. There's a lot that can be placed under the umbrella like reproductive rights, gender norms, domestic violence, and toxic masculinity. Even though the patriarchy is theoretically advantageous to those placed at the top, it harms everybody.
I didn't read that whole article, but at first sight it looks more or less like the 'common' definition of patriarchy that I am well aware of. Why did you imply in your previous comment that 'it doesn't seem like' I understood this concept? What's wrong about my initial comment?
You're talking about only positions of power, whereas the patriarchy is a much larger concept. Personal qualification of people in positions of power doesn't have anything to do with reproductive rights, gender norms, beauty standards. If you're not interested in reading beyond the first little bit or doing some more research on your own about patriarchy and feminism, there's only so much water I can lead a horse to.
should i start in on your shitty tone or the absolute nonsense expectation of anyone knowing a word means something other than the common definition with zero prompting? if you've got some alternate, secret version of the word "patriarchy" i don't think i wanna be here since that's the one i'm against. sort of the same way zero of you here actually practice any kind of witchcraft. taking common words and redefining them for "insiders" seem like some culty shit to do.
For someone from blahaj, I wouldn't expect that it's a secret definition, but I'm glad to introduce it. It's a concept of all the institutional and social systems that support gender-based hierarchies. It's a common term among feminists.
Yeah, it's a meme tossed around everytime a permanently online 'activist' wants to screech about how it's a man's fault for whatever they disagree with.
I think most have figured out that's how Lemmy, Reddit, and X work.
Oh snap, you open with sexism? Sigh.
Pointing out definitions is sexism now?
I think they meant "women are less toxic than men"