The Idea of a System and Patriarchy and a Male-Privilege Society - Essay Example

? Patriarchy, the System Introduction There is an important point that Johnson wants to impart concerning patriarchy and the associated male privilege, male violence and women as objects of men’s domination in a male-centred and male-dominated society. The idea lies on understanding patriarchy as a system. By this, Johnson wants us to understand that there is a system going on in our society that prior to addressing personal concerns and change through personal social movements, a great picture of that entire system should be clear enough for us. In this thought, Johnson is not trying to debunk the idea of individual psychology and experience that could aid us to understand social life. However, Johnson would want to show to us that these would not be able to present us the actual working social patterns in the society. In order for us to better grasp the vital thoughts of Johnson about patriarchy, being acquainted to the idea of a system, participation and resistance are important concepts that highlight the presence of male privilege and female gender oppression. We shall be able to discuss them in concrete and great detail for us to take hold of the ultimate concept that Johnson would want to share with us. The article entitled “Patriarchy, the System: An It, Not a He, a Them, or an US” is the actual work of Johnson depicting rich information about patriarchy as a system and how systematic male gender privilege informs sexism. This work is the actual reference of all the concepts and thoughts integrated into the work at hand. This paper explains what Johnson means by Patriarchy, the System, elaborating how male gender privilege and female gender oppression consist of more than simply the actions of individuals. The work at hand also involves examples for us to understand how systematic male gender privilege informs sexism. System Let us first discuss the concept of ‘system’ from the actual point of view of Johnson in order to know what it means by Patriarchy, the System. For Johnson, we are living in a society where we are parts or special entities of a working system. Everyone has fundamental role to play in order for the entire system to work. However, on the individual basis, a single person cannot make much of the whole change of this system, but Johnson believes that the individual choices of actions could make a difference, and even could possibly initiate total system change. Johnson started to define Patriarchy as a system by elaborating some examples of other systems like capitalism and the game ‘monopoly’. For Johnson, in a capitalistic society, every worker has less power to level up with the capitalists and would never have any chance to exercise what they would want to do even if they could (p. 30). The reason is that they are strongly confined within the system that everyone is doing, and so it is hard for an individual to deviate from the entire working system. In a capitalistic society, the rule is to gain, no matter how detailed personal convictions may internally protest or showcase disapproval. For as long as the ultimate goal is achieved in the end, the whole system can be said that it conspires to create a necessary output. In addition, Johnson also provides a detailed example by explaining the working concept of a game called ‘monopoly.’ According to Johnson, this game manifests actual working system, which aids the individual player to best the opponents. The purpose of the game is to win, but prior to winning, there is an actual system that everyone should participate and show no resistance particularly with the working rules (p. 34). The important points that surface in the above two examples are the actual concepts of ‘participation’ and ‘least resistance’ that could help us elaborate the complex system surrounding patriarchy. According to Johnson, socialization is a mechanism for training people to participate (p. 37). As we therefore participate in social systems, we are shaped as individuals leading us to participate in social life via socialization (p. 31). Johnson therefore believed that socialization and paths of least resistance shaped us, but who we are makes social systems happen. Therefore, if this could be illustrated, there is a clear loop between individuals and the system. A system therefore has the individuals as primary components. Culture, values, beliefs, attitudes and so on are other important components making the system. However, what seems clear based on the idea of Johnson is that the system is created if there are prevailing paths of least resistance that until such time if an individual would independently try to change that whole system that move would never make a difference at all. In other words, the system could be more than just a way of life. If it is therefore more than just a way of life, then it is more than simply the actions of individuals, making it complex that according to Johnson should require identification of various aspects and how they are particularly arranged to form a whole (p. 38). In order to correct this system, Johnson believed that one has to have a particular position in the system, so as to become part of it (p. 42). Patriarchy Like capitalism, and a monopoly game, patriarchy is a system. This system as Johnson illustrated, is one commonly depicted as governed or dominated by men having all the privilege, which creates a special connection to the existence of female gender oppression in the society. In other words, patriarchy deals not only with the issue concerning the prevalence of a male-dominated society; it also elaborates the engagement of woman and the prevailing belief system of the entire society towards female oppression initiated by men. As women have become part of patriarchy, they therefore occupy positions in it, making them integral parts of the whole working system and as key players. For Johnson, one vital move to understand patriarchy is to identify its cultural elements to find out their relations to the structure of social life (p. 42). Concerning this point, cultural ideas have become the primary factors that could help people create a construct of identifying who everyone is. This is substantially supported by Johnson’s idea that patriarchy is actually more than just how people think, feel and behave (p. 37). Understanding this point of view, we therefore have a clear understanding of patriarchy as more than just simply the actions of individuals. It comprises the majority and even to the point of creating general understanding of the whole working force in the society that tries to create the prevailing condition. In other words, to understand patriarchy according to Johnson it would require us to know deeper the social environment, one that supports a particular notion of a subject that has strong relation to prejudicial, discriminating and violent behaviour (p. 46). By this, Johnson is clear in suggesting that we need to go beyond the context of individual psychology and experience in order to grasp social patterns like prejudice, discriminations and violence (p. 47). This is simply saying that to unravel the whole thought about patriarchy, we simply need to look at it as a system and not by individual cases, which are expected to vary in great detail, and at some point, would be difficult to change the entire system if there is a need so. Now, we clearly see the exact argument of Johnson against the capability of individual psychology and experience to help us understand patriarchy as a system, particularly within the specific context of social patterns. This would now pave us the way for understanding why there is a prevailing thought concerning the idea of male gender privilege and female gender oppression associated with patriarchy. Johnson would therefore want to direct us to the thought that the society, as the network of interconnected systems within systems, each made of social positions and their relations to one another, is the ultimate way for us to understand maleness (p. 43; p. 44). To know more about this subject matter let us closely give some meaningful examples on male gender privilege and sexism based on Johnson’s idea of the subject matter. Male Gender Privilege and Sexism Now the question is how systematic male gender privilege informs sexism? So far we already discussed Johnson’s idea of system and patriarchy. We also know the importance of understanding social patterns and Johnson believed that our knowledge of it could only be unravelled if we have to rely so much on understanding the society in general and not merely on individual psychology and experience. Based on Johnson’s concept of a system and patriarchy, we could say that male gender privilege is already part of the prevailing system of patriarchy. In the specific detail of it, we could say that social patterns like prejudice, discrimination and violence also co-exist. In fact, as a mere observation, we see a lot of these in detail in the society today. Let us embrace the fact that the society is ruled by men and there is an existing systematic male gender privilege. However, it is clear that the existing social patterns would always inform us of sexism with respect to systematic male gender privilege. One example is that the society’s prejudice that men are masculine making them more powerful than women is the basic fundamental thought today of electing a male president rather than a woman president. We see this happening from the past and until at present when majority of the men have the political control and power. Even in most corporations, men are most likely to take the seat of the CEO rather than the women. In addition, our preconceived notion that white race must be superior over the black race led us to put high discriminatory position of men who are black in the society. In fact, this was happening in the past and even still existing at present on various circumstances. The prevailing number of convicted offenders in the US for instance could be one fundamental argument. When it comes to percentage of its population, more men from the black race were incarcerated compared to white men. The question whether this is just a coincidence could just be too good to be true as various arguments concerning this issue still continue to surface today. Now the point of this argument is that if discriminatory acts exist, then surely woman of black race would have to face a considerable challenge to where they should place themselves in the society. However, Oprah just proved that women, either coming from a black or white race, have the potential to be equal with men in terms of financial achievement and influence. However, this is just a special case, as majority of women today are still facing discrimination, in the workplace, at home and everywhere. Violence against women in this male-dominated society is prevalent. The prevailing business for pornographic needs for instance is moving forward in an upward spiral. Women have become object of men’s sexual consumption and fantasies. Women seem to be primarily for men’s pleasure and without question; economic activities are going around this issue. Based on the above given examples, we could say that the existence of systematic male gender privilege indeed informs sexism. Conclusion The work at hand provides important insights concerning Johnson’s idea of a system and patriarchy. This gives us the idea that a male-privilege society exists and at some point, this has become a primary depiction of what patriarchy is all about. However, Johnson would want to tell us that we need to know more than this, as patriarchy is a system that could only be understood if we look at it that way and not merely relying on individual psychology and personal experience. We therefore need to understand patriarchy as a system, and by doing so, that is the ultimate way we could understand how a male-privilege society feeds sexist trends. Johnson is therefore trying to tell us that in order to eliminate the negative impact of patriarchy particularly on the issue of sexism, one basic yet vital move we could try should be to understand how system works, how it impacts the society in general and understand the level of our path for least resistance in our social environments. Read More