According to
an article, “Contemporary Patriarchy in America: Examining the Gender Knot,”
patriarchy is a system of dominance and control that has the primary characteristics
of being male dominated, male identified, male centered, and obsessed with
control. In contemporary society, such patriarchy is not so obvious, especially
in America. Yet, the society is male dominated in the sense that the majority
in power is occupied by male leaders particularly in the governmental positions.
Just as the article explains, the first image comes to your mind when you
imagine any professional jobs such as doctors, lawyers, judges, pastors, or
CEOs is male. Moreover, the head of the family is considered as father or
husband for most of the time. Although many people argue that patriarchy is
disappeared in contemporary society, it still exists almost everywhere.
However, the article articulates that it is not like males have more
qualifications to dominate the society, rather the problem lies in the traditional
characteristics of patriarchy.
The idea of
maleness as a prerequisite for positions of power leads into the characteristic
of patriarchy being a male identified system. In this matter, male is used as a
basis of comparison so that anything that is not male is considered abnormal or
of a lesser quality. For example, some people regard female professional
workers as less qualified or capable of compared to male professionals. Yet, at
the same time, I think this argument is a little extreme in some ways as the
contemporary society sees the increasing number of females as able, intelligent
women. In addition, the author argues that patriarchy is mostly represented
with male’s obsession with control. “Men are assumed and expected to be in
control at all times, to be unemotional, to present themselves as invulnerable,
autonomous, independent, strong, rational, logical, dispassionate, knowledgeable,
and always right.” Males, therefore, always want to have authority over females
regardless of any situations. Obviously, patriarchy still exists in present
societies.
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