What Is The Patriarchy?
For thousands of years now, the voices of men have dominated every public conversation from religion to psychology to politics to healthcare and education. Although it is inarguable women that bear the largest burden of childcare, it is men that write all the books about it. Although women are generally tasked with the largest work of relationship building, it is once again men that write most of the books about it and present themselves as the experts - and women are generally their largest audiences.
Even if we have more pastors, priests, rabbis, doctors, therapists and lawyers who are female, it is men who established all of the policies, procedures, practices and institutions that we are educated by and forced to work in.
That is patriarchy.
While Einstein (a man) is often credited with the saying “insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results”, the quote is probably more accurately attributed to Rita Mae Brown, which isn’t even remotely the first time a man has been given credit for what is most likely the work of a woman.
The point is, we can’t just keep doing things the same way men have been doing them for centuries and expect different results. We can’t just climb the ladders in the institutions men built and expect to see or create any change. We also need to stop letting men do our talking - and even our thinking - for us.
Our systems are broken, we know this, and we can’t fix them from the inside. Instead, we need to do like Bille Jean King did and step out and start our own new systems.
Robin Thinks is about rethinking everything we have been taught by the Patriarchy. As women, we need to find our own voices and learn to listen to our own thoughts - which means first we need to have our own thoughts. To that end, I talk about everything from sex and sexuality, to church and religion to healthcare, self-care and wellness. Hoping you will join the conversation with me!
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