Patriarchy: 7 keys to understanding cultural machismo

Patriarchy has been defined as a system of subordination of women to men that has been reproduced over thousands of years.

This concept, closely related to machismo and inequalities, has had a lot of weight both in psychology and in the social sciences, since it tells us about a dynamic of relationships that makes a part of the population totally or partially dominated by other.

What is patriarchy?

The discussions and debates that revolve around the idea of ​​patriarchy generate much controversy, among other things, because of how difficult it is to study its existence or its presence in certain societies, but also because of the far-reaching implications it has for us, both politically and philosophically.

But patriarchy is not just a contentious issue, it is also a relatively difficult concept to understand. These are some of the keys that can help to better understand what we understand by patriarchal society.

1. Machismo and patriarchy are not synonymous

Although they are two closely related concepts,

machismo and patriarchy do not refer to the same thing. Machismo is a set of beliefs, cognitive biases and attitudes that predispose people to act as if women have less value than men, while patriarchy is defined as a social phenomenon that historically has been the engine of machismo and certain privileges that only the man.

While machismo is expressed through individuals (regardless of whether they are men or women), patriarchy It is something that exists in large groups, a power dynamic that is only understood if we take into account many people at the same time. time.

2. It is not just a system of cultural domination

When we talk about machismo, many times we tend to think that this is just a psychological phenomenon, a way of thinking in which women are undervalued and objectified. However, from gender studies and feminism it is customary to speak of the machismo generated by patriarchy as a phenomenon that has two pillars: one psychological, based on how individuals think and act, and another material, based on objective characteristics of our environment and institutions: clothing, laws, movies, etc.

In this way, the psychological aspect and the material would feed back into each other, giving rise to individuals whose macho attitudes are reinforced by the environment in which they live and which they contribute to reproduce through their Actions.

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3. It is believed to be related to the property system

Patriarchy is understood as a phenomenon that jumps from generation to generation, and that is why a relationship between it and the idea of ​​property has been hypothesized. This idea, deeply rooted in Marxist philosophy, proposes that, just as properties are inherited and offer the possibility of exploit others to work with them, generating a part of value that the owner can keep despite not having worked up, women have been conceived as a resource, something that can be owned and with what the patriarchs of the family have dedicated themselves to trade, either to have cheap labor (normally applied to household chores) and to be able to have children (something that is also linked to the domestic sphere and, therefore, private).

As the woman could not aspire to be an owner, since she only looked after the goods necessary for the well-being of the family, she could not aspire to negotiate equal to equal with men, which would put her at a disadvantage even when female participation in jobs outside of the workplace became normal. home.

4. His relationship with capitalism is unclear

Within feminist currents, there has been a long talk about whether patriarchy is a system of domination linked to capitalism (as understood from Marxism) or if they are two separate phenomena. Both have been theorized as relationship dynamics based on repression and exploitation., but it is not clear if its historical engine would be the same.

5. Patriarchy has been universal

It is very easy to find societies in which men have clear power over women, but even At the moment, no example of a relatively broad and stable culture has been found in which contrary.

The idea of ​​matriarchy, proposed in the 19th century by the anthropologist Johann Jakob Bachofen, talks about primitive societies from thousands of years ago in which women had power, but not based on empirical evidence to support it.

6. It is not clear if it originated from genes

How patriarchy is conceptualized as a universal system spread throughout the world and that has resisted all kinds political changes, some researchers have proposed the idea that its origin has to do with propensities genetic Specifically, a possible explanation for its existence would be the alleged differentiation in the behavior of both sexes, whose direct responsibility is DNA. According to this idea, men would have a kind of natural tendency to dominate and aggressive behavior, while the woman would more easily manifest submissive behaviors.

The other proposal, much less controversial, is that patriarchy occurred because of cultural dynamics in which men and women were educated to divide labor, leading this to a situation in which men gained a bargaining power over women that they have been exploiting throughout the generations.

Of course, between the two proposals there are theories that could be considered intermediate between these two extremes.

7. It's a terribly abstract concept

Being a social phenomenon with different forms of manifestation, the existence of patriarchy in certain countries is not given as an obvious fact. This is so because this concept is not in itself an explanatory model that can be proven or refuted by empirical testing, and therefore the same fact can be interpreted as proof of the existence of patriarchy or as a sign of its absence.

For example, the abundance of famous actresses who conform well to the canons of beauty can be understood as a sign that women need to sell their body to prosper, but it can also be interpreted as an example that women can become more powerful than men without having to work much more than they.