Gender Inequality: A Structural Problem - Essay Example

Both articles: “Patriarchal Sex” by Robert Jensen and “Why Men Batter Their Wives” by James Ptacek argued that gender equality is unimaginable in a society dominated by the patriarchal ideology of male dominance. Since men believe that it is their inherent right to control and manipulate women’s bodies and sexuality, then anything they wanted to do about these – even raping women – is their privilege and prerogative; to deny them this privilege deserves punishment. Meaning, to satisfy men’s needs like sex, even consensual, is in itself an act of women oppression because it is done not on equal terms. Similarly, women’s failure to satisfy men’s needs is an act of aggression that has to be curtailed violently to reinforce male dominance.  I agree that the patriarchal ideology of male dominance is the single ideological construct that explains men’s violence against women (Ptacek 105) and that turns sex into an oppressive act (Jensen 99). However, I argue that the problem of gender inequality, specifically male dominance over women, is not only ideological in nature but structural. Thus, I disagree that avoiding sex or striving for impotency is achieving justice as Jensen argued. To me, this is no resolution at all, because it does not confront the problem head on; it simply denies human sexuality.

It is true that patriarchal ideology drives men to dominate women in the sense that individuals act following their consciousness. Jensen’s explanation of patriarchal sex provides strong evidence as to how this ideology distorts men’s understanding of sex into a mere act of fuck. It doesn’t matter whether sex is consensual or forced because, in any which way, sex is meant only to gratify males’ erotic needs and to impress males’ dominance over women (99). This explains why men are polygamous because sex to them is an act of dominance; it is an act of their superiority over women. In this context, it is complete idiocy to expect mutual respect in sex even in ‘normal sex’ because in patriarchal sex, women are victims (either willing or unwilling) of male oppression. Since sex is patriarchal and patriarchal sex is oppressive, Jensen is afraid of sex because to have sex in his view is harmful to both the perpetrator and the victim. Such a view is logical in the context of patriarchal sex. However, sex may not necessarily be patriarchal even in a patriarchal society. Although Jensen is not sure about this, yet hoped for this, he himself was in fact enlightened by feminist women and even men. Thus a new perspective on sex, where human sexuality is realized in an equal gender relationship is highly possible. At this point, it is useful to reiterate Jensen’s own words:      “… we can think of patriarchy as being like concrete in the city. It covers almost everything. It is heavy and seemingly immovable and it paves the world. The daily wear and tear produce cracks, and in those cracks, plants grow – weeds, grass, sometimes a flower. They resist the totality of concrete.” (102)

However, an ideology cannot become powerful in the absence of social institutions perpetrating it. In fact, this was recognized by Ptacek in his study, saying that the “failure to treat violence against women as a crime must be understood as a structural aspect of the criminal justice system” (155). The institutionalization of patriarchal ideology is also demonstrated by Ptacek as to how men’s violence against women is ignored and justified by women themselves and society as a whole. Ptacek’s use of terms such as “abusive men”, “batterers”, “wife-beating” (133) strongly denotes the view that gender inequality is more than a psychological and sociological problem; it is structural. Meaning, men’s violence against women is in reality not due to loss of control or being provoked by women. The study clearly revealed that it is intentional and goal-oriented. This repeatedly occurs because society condones it; because the church and the state, which are both strongly male-dominated, perpetuate this to maintain males’ hold on power.

Unless women are not empowered politically and economically, their struggle against patriarchal ideology can hardly be successful. As I have said earlier, if patriarchal sex is fuck, avoiding sex does not make it non-patriarchal. It simply evades the question of realizing human sexuality, because the problem is not sex per se but the enactment of power through sex.