PATERNITY VS PATRIARCHY – The
myth of male power in the 21st century.
a family gathering
PATERNITY VS PATRIARCHY – The
myth of male power in the 21st century.
Question: why do so many people
(mostly women) hate Jordan Paterson, the Canadian psychology professor?
Answer: He is the modern warrior
that is challenging the “neo-liberal and politically correct” minions.
He states:
“You know you can say, ‘Well isn’t it unfortunate that
chaos is represented by the feminine’ — well, it might be unfortunate, but it
doesn’t matter because that is how it’s represented. It’s been represented like
that forever. And there are reasons for it. You can’t change it. It’s not
possible. This is underneath everything. If you change those basic categories,
people wouldn’t be human anymore. They’d be something else. They’d be
transhuman or something. We wouldn’t be able to talk to these new creatures.”
That is a provoking statement that sure is firing the energy
of most PC devotees. However, they do not reflect on the fact that his book: 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos
(2018) it sold over a million copies so far. Regarding academia he states:
“Peterson considers that the universities should be held as
among the most responsible for the wave of political correctness which appeared
in North America and Europe.According to Peterson, he watched the rise of
political correctness on campuses since the early 1990's, and considers that
the humanities have become corrupt, less reliant on science, and instead of
"intelligent conversation, we are having an ideological
conversation". From his own experience as a university professor, he states
that the students who are coming to his classes are uneducated and unaware
about the mass exterminations and crimes by Stalinism and Maoism, which were
not given the same attention as fascism and Nazism. He also says that
"instead of being ennobled or inculcated into the proper culture, the last
vestiges of structure are stripped from [the students] by post-modernism and
neo-Marxism, which defines everything in terms of relativism and power"
(Interview)
Examining the vast literature on sexuality, gender and feminism,
we can encounter a jungle of issues & theories that not only try to explain
gender differences but also give some ideas about the origins of today’s so
called ‘political correct’ debates and accusations of men as the source of much
suffering. This persecution of male roles is developing and empty field in
understanding masculinity that more and more young men and boys are
experiencing a loss of self and the meaning of who I am.
Recently a publication indicates that testosterone counts
are dropping. It argues that recent sociocultural transformations are probably
making men less virile. And that is not all. Jordan’s exposed something that’s
been festering for a long time,” says Justin Trottier, 35, the co-founder of
the men’s rights organizations Canadian Association for Equality and Canadian
Centre for Men and Families. “Jordan’s forced people to pay attention.”
Attention is needed from all who want to develop a clear
understanding about gender equality. The new technology and social networks can
convince anybody. No time is left for face to face discussion and only the
“post truth” prevails today. Napoleonic premise to win a war was “divide and
conquer”.
Thus, reflection is the tool of thinking. I am proposing a
reflection about the origins of paternity and patriarchy:
A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal
bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and
social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and
obligations. An adoptive father is a male who has become the child's parent
through the legal process of adoption. A biological father is the male genetic
contributor to the creation of the infant, through sexual intercourse or sperm
donation. A biological father may have legal obligations to a child not raised
by him, such as an obligation of monetary support. A putative father is a man
whose biological relationship to a child is alleged but has not been
established. A stepfather is a male who is the husband of a child's mother and
they may form a family unit, but who generally does not have the legal rights
and responsibilities of a parent in relation to the child.
The adjective "paternal" refers to a father and
comparatively to "maternal" for a mother. The verb "to father"
means to procreate or to sire a child from which also derives the noun
"fathering". Biological fathers determine the sex of their child
through a sperm cell which either contains an X chromosome (female), or Y
chromosome (male). Related terms of endearment are dad (dada, daddy), papa,
pappa, papasita, (pa, pap) and pop. A male role model that children can look up
to is sometimes referred to as a father-figure. (Definition in Wikipedia)
Importance of father or father-figure
Involved fathers offer developmentally specific provisions
to their children and are impacted themselves by doing so. Active father
figures may play a role in reducing behaviour and psychological problems in
young adults. An increased amount of father–child involvement may help increase
a child's social stability, educational achievement, and their potential to
have a solid marriage as an adult. Their children may also be more curious
about the world around them and develop greater problem-solving skills.
Children who were raised with fathers perceive themselves to be more
cognitively and physically competent than their peers without a father. Mothers
raising children together with a father reported less severe disputes with
their child.
The father-figure is not always a child's biological father
and some children will have a biological father as well as a step- or nurturing
father. When a child is conceived through sperm donation, the donor will be the
"biological father" of the child.
Fatherhood as legitimate identity can be dependent on
domestic factors and behaviours. For example, a study of the relationship
between fathers, their sons, and home computers found that the construction of
fatherhood and masculinity required that fathers display computer expertise.
PATRIARCHY
Patriarchy is a social system in which men hold primary
power and predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social
privilege and control of property. Some patriarchal societies are also patrilineal,
meaning that property and title are inherited by the male lineage.
Patriarchy is associated with a set of ideas, a patriarchal
ideology that acts to explain and justify this dominance and attributes it to
inherent natural differences between men and women. Sociologists tend to see
patriarchy as a social product and not as an outcome of innate differences
between the sexes and they focus attention on the way that gender roles in a
society affect power differentials between men and women.
Historically, patriarchy has manifested itself in the
social, legal, political, religious, and economic organization of a range of
different cultures. Even if not explicitly defined to be by their own
constitutions and laws, most contemporary societies are, in practice,
patriarchal.
Anthropological, archaeological and evolutionary
psychological evidence suggests that most prehistoric societies were relatively
egalitarian, and that patriarchal social structures did not develop until many
years after the end of the Pleistocene era, following social and technological
developments such as agriculture and domestication. According to Robert M.
Strozier, historical research has not yet found a specific "initiating
event". Gerda Lerner asserts that there was no single event, and documents
that patriarchy as a social system arose in different parts of the world at
different times. Some scholars point to about six thousand years ago (4000
BCE), when the concept of fatherhood took root, as the beginning of the spread
of patriarchy. (Wikipedia)
Domination by men of women is found in the Ancient Near East
as far back as 3100 BCE, as are restrictions on a woman's reproductive capacity
and exclusion from "the process of representing or the construction of
history". According to some researchers, with the appearance of the
Hebrews, there is also "the exclusion of woman from the God-humanity
covenant".
The archaeologist Marija Gimbutas argues that waves of
kurgan-building invaders from the Ukrainian steppes into the early agricultural
cultures of Old Europe in the Aegean, the Balkans and southern Italy instituted
male hierarchies that led to the rise of patriarchy in Western society. Steven
Taylor argues that the rise of patriarchal domination was associated with the
appearance of socially stratified hierarchical polities, institutionalised
violence and the separated individuated ego associated with a period of
climatic stress.
In China's Qing dynasty, laws governing morality, sexuality,
and gender-relations continued to be based on Confucian teachings. Men and
women were both subject to strict laws regarding sexual behaviour, however men
were punished infrequently in comparison to women. Additionally, women's
punishment often carried strong social stigma, "rendering [women] unmarriageable",
a stigma which did not follow men.
Similarly, in the People's Republic of China, laws governing morality
which were written as egalitarian were selectively enforced favouring men,
permissively allowing female infanticide, while infanticide of any form was, by
the letter of the law, prohibited. It is still so in India.
An early theory in evolutionary psychology offered an
explanation for the origin of patriarchy which starts with the view that
females almost always invest more energy into producing offspring than males,
and therefore in most species females are a limiting factor over which males
will compete. This is sometimes referred to as Bateman's principle. It suggests
females place the most important preference on males who control more resources
that can help her and her offspring, which in turn causes an evolutionary
pressure on males to be competitive with each other in order to gain resources
and power.
In the modern era, the concept of Patriarchy is asserted to
manifest itself in institutionalized control, rather than simply being about an
individual's sexism.
PATER FAMILIAS
Another interesting reflection is the origin of the word:
“Father”
The pater familias, also written as paterfamilias was the head of a Roman family. The pater
familias was the oldest living male in a household, and exercised autocratic
authority over his extended family. The term is Latin for "father of the
family" or the "owner of the family estate". The form is archaic
in Latin, preserving the old genitive ending in -ās (see Latin declension),
whereas in classical Latin the normal genitive ending was -ae. The pater
familias always had to be a Roman citizen.(Wikipedia).
THE MYTH OF MALE POWER
In 1993, Warren Farrell wrote The Myth of Male Power, in
which he argued that the widespread perception of men having inordinate social
and economic power is false, and that men are systematically disadvantaged in
many ways.
The Myth of Male Power was ardently challenged by some
academic feminists, whose critique is that men earn more money, and that money
is power. Farrell concurs that men earn more money, and that money is one form
of power. However, Farrell also adds that "men often feel obligated to
earn money someone else spends while they die sooner—and feeling obligated is
not power.” This perspective was to be more fully developed in Farrell's Why
Men Earn More.
In the men's rights movement, The Myth of Male Power is sometimes
referred to as "The Bible" and the "red pill", but critics
of the book accused it of promoting misogyny.
In Why Men Earn More:
The Startling Truth Behind the Pay Gap—and What Women Can Do About It, he
documents 25 differences in men and women's work-life choices which, he argues,
account for most or all of the pay gap more accurately than did claims of
widespread discrimination against women. Common to each of men's choices was
earning more money, while each of women's choices prioritized having a more-balanced
life. These 25 differences allowed Farrell to offer women 25 ways to higher
pay—and accompany each with their possible trade-offs. The trade-offs include working more hours and
for more years; taking technical or more hazardous jobs; relocating overseas or
traveling overnight. This led to considerable praise for Why Men Earn More as a
career book for women.
CONCLUSION
Well, this is not all that is debated today, but reflection
on this blog post invites you to deliberate on your own and decide what is
reality. Please make comments as you wish.
References and reading
· Bly, Robert
(1990). Iron John: A Book About Men. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. ISBN
978-0-201-51720-0.
·
Clatterbaugh, Kenneth C. (1997). Contemporary perspectives on
masculinity: men, women, and politics in modern society (2nd ed.). Boulder, CO:
Westview Press. ISBN 978-0-8133-2701-3.
· Connell,
R.W., (1995), Masculinities, Cornwall; Allen & Unwin.
· Kimmel,
Michael (2012). Manhood in America: A Cultural History (3rd ed.). New York:
Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-978155-3.
· Hooks,
Bell., (2005), The Will To Change: Men, Masculinity and Love, New York;
Washington Square Press.
· Messner,
Michael (1997). Politics of Masculinities: Men in Movements. Lanham, MA: Rowman
& Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-8039-5576-9.
· Schwalbe,
Michael (1996). Unlocking the iron cage: the men's movement, gender politics,
and American culture. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN
978-0-19-509229-5.
NOTE: Bateman's principle, in evolutionary biology, is that in
most species, variability in reproductive success (or reproductive variance) is
greater in males than in females. It was first proposed by Angus John Bateman
(1919–1996), an English geneticist. Bateman suggested that, since males can
produce millions of sperm cells with little effort, while females invest much
higher levels of energy in order to nurture a relatively small number of eggs,
the female plays a significantly larger role in their offspring's reproductive
success. Bateman’s paradigm thus views females as the limiting factor of
parental investment, over which males will compete in order to copulate
successfully.
Although Bateman's principle served as a cornerstone for the
study of sexual selection for many decades, it has recently been subject to
criticism. Attempts to reproduce Bateman's experiments in 2012 and 2013 were
unable to support his conclusions. Some scientists have criticized Bateman's
experimental and statistical methods, or pointed out conflicting evidence,
while others have defended the veracity of the principle and cited evidence in
support of it.
