Patriarchy Quotes

• The enemy is not men. The enemy is the concept of patriarchy, the concept of patriarchy as the way to run the world or do things.

  Toni Morrison

  Running, Men, Enemy

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• Patriarchy is like the elephant in the room that we don't talk about, but how could it not affect the planet radically when it's the superstructure of human society?

  Ani DiFranco

  Elephants, Rooms, Planets

  "'I'm considering a revolution'". Interview with Kira Cochrane, www.theguardian.com. October 9, 2007.

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• Patriarchy, like any system of domination (for example, racism), relies on socializing everyone to believe that in all human relations there is an inferior and a superior party, one person is strong, the other weak, and that it is therefore natural for the powerful to rule over the powerless. To those who support patriarchal thinking, maintaining power and control is acceptable by whatever means.

  Bell Hooks

  Strong, Powerful, Party

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• Patriarchy requires violence or the subliminal threat of violence in order to maintain itself... The most dangerous situation for a woman is not an unknown man in the street, or even the enemy in wartime, but a husband or lover in the isolation of their home.

  Gloria Steinem

  Husband, Home, Men

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• Benevolent patriarchy is still patriarchy.

  Elizabeth A. Johnson

  Benevolent, Stills

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• The enemy of feminism isn’t men. It’s patriarchy, and patriarchy is not men. It is a system, and women can support the system of patriarchy just as men can support the fight for gender equality.

  Justine Musk

  Fighting, Men, Support

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• The feminists who are aware of the effects of patriarchy realize that we are all in the same boat from the dangers of patriarchy, and that the oppression of women is universal.

  Nawal El Saadawi

  Feminist, Realizing, Boat

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• Under patriarchy, no woman is safe to live her life, or to love, or to mother children. Under patriarchy, every woman is a victim, past, present, and future. Under patriarchy, every woman's daughter is a victim, past, present, and future. Under patriarchy, every woman's son is her potential betrayer and also the inevitable rapist or exploiter of another woman.

  Andrea Dworkin

  Daughter, Mother, Children

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• Patriarchy is a bully notion, which if you will notice NEVER attacks a nation that can defend itself. Zionism is patriarchal and sets Judaism on its head.

  Roseanne Barr

  Bully, Judaism, Patriarchal Society

  "Roseanne Barr Says Israel Must End Their Blockade and Occupation of Gaza". Interview with Kathleen Wells, www.huffingtonpost.com.

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• The crisis facing men is not the crisis of masculinity, it is the crisis of patriarchal masculinity. Until we make this distinction clear, men will continue to fear that any critique of patriarchy represents a threat.

  Bell Hooks

  Men, Distinction, Threat

  bell hooks (2004). “The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love”, p.32, Simon and Schuster

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• Recognition of the harm that patriarchy has caused to people and the planet does not mean that men are wrong and women are right; rather it is a call for new organizational forms and for relishing gender differences within a context of equality.

  Elizabeth Lesser

  Mean, Men, Differences

  Elizabeth Lesser (2008). “The Seeker's Guide: Making Your Life a Spiritual Adventure”, p.102, Ballantine Books

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• What had begun as a movement to free all black people from racist oppression became a movement with its primary goal the establishment of black male patriarchy.

  Bell Hooks

  People, Goal, Black

  bell hooks (2014). “Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism”, p.5, Routledge

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• Patriarchy is bestowed on men at birth. Whether you want it or not, you have a privilege as a man, and you either fight against it and reject it by becoming a feminist man, or you enjoy the privileges that come with it.

  Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka

  Inspiring, Fighting, Men

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• How else to make a dent in an object as immovable as patriarchy itself...?

  Dalma Heyn

  Objects

  Dalma Heyn (2011). “Drama Kings: The Men Who Drive Strong Women Crazy”, p.42, Open Road Media

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• Perhaps patriarchy's greatest psychological weapon is simply its universality and longevity. ... Patriarchy has a still more tenacious or powerful hold through its successful habit of passing itself off as nature.

  Kate Millett

  Powerful, Successful, Weapons

  Sexual Politics ch. 2 (1970)

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• Creation myths are not about the origins of the world at all, but about the origins of patriarchy which has claimed itself as the world

  Jane Caputi

  World, Creation, Myth

  Jane Caputi (1987). “The Age of Sex Crime”, p.9, Popular Press

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• Patriarchy values the hard over the soft; the tough over the tender; punishment, vengeance, and vindictiveness over compassion, negotiation, and reconciliation. The 'hard' qualities are linked to power, success, and masculinity - and exalted. The 'soft' qualities are identified with weakness, powerlessness, and femininity - and denigrated.

  Starhawk

  Compassion, Punishment, Quality

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• I sincerely believe patriarchy to be at the root of all of our social diseases and feminism, it's antidote, to be a prerequisite to peace on earth. feminism provides an alternative way of thinking and structuring things that focuses on and prioritizes relationships and de-emphasizes hierarchy, separation and domination.

  Ani DiFranco

  Believe, Thinking, Roots

  Interview with Mary Ann Rossoni, get-ri.com. September 1, 2015.

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• Our very strength as lesbians lies in the fact that we are outside of patriarchy; our existence challenges its life.

  Charlotte Bunch

  Lying, Challenges, Facts

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• The fundamental imbalance that is behind all of the other social diseases is patriarchy.

  Ani DiFranco

  Fundamentals, Disease, Imbalance

  Interview with Maranda Pleasant, www.marandapleasantmedia.com.

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• Under patriarchy, every woman's son is her potential betrayer and also the inevitable rapist or exploiter of another woman.

  Andrea Dworkin

  Son, Radical Feminism, Feminist

  "Our Blood". Book by Andrea Dworkin, 1976.

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• Madonna Kolbenschlag suggest that if an awakened woman forgoes innocence and denial, if she refuses to make compromises with herself and defect to patriarchy, then her only option becomes deviance. I chose deviance. I chose to be a loving dissident. To dance the dance of dissidence. This stance can be assumed from the inside or the outside. Whichever place we choose, the important thing is having the sustained will to be, act, and speak from the ground of our feminine souls.

  Sue Monk Kidd

  Soul, Important, Denial

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• A sexual revolution begins with the emancipation of women, who are the chief victims of patriarchy, and also with the ending of homosexual oppression.

  Kate Millett

  Revolution, Oppression, Victim

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• Shaming is one of the deepest tools of imperialist, white supremacist, capitalist patriarchy because shame produces trauma and trauma often produces paralysis.

  Bell Hooks

  White, Tools, Shame

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• Why is it that many contemporary male thinkers, especially men of color, repudiate the imperialist legacy of Columbus but affirm dimensions of that legacy by their refusal to repudiate patriarchy?

  Bell Hooks

  Men, Color, Males

  bell hooks (2012). “Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representations”, p.239, Routledge

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