Blog #2

Blog #2

#1)
Patriarchy, The System by Allan G. Johnson
When I read Johnsons article “Patriarchy, the System” I was a little thrown off. I had learned in previous classes that patriarchy is a male dominated society and just over all male dominance. This guy was saying the complete opposite. He started off saying weird things like evil existing and people are evil for being racist and things like that. He is basically saying that gender and society has nothing to do with the way people act. He thinks that there are just evil people in the world who spread their evilness. That confused me a little bit but then I didn’t disagree with him when he said that men were being oppressed by the word patriarchy. Then he went straight into that women and how they oppress men into being masculine. Then he talked some about how women and their relationships with men can be classified under the term patriarchy as well. I got the picture that he wanted to not have the word patriarchy solely be associated with just men. I really didn’t understand this article what so ever just some of the stuff he was saying too I didn’t agree with. For example, on page 92 he says that “the sum of individuals failings on the part of blacks, women, and the poor, who lack the right stuff to compete successfully with whites, men, and others who know how to make something of themselves.” This kind of made me mad because that’s not how it is in today’s society. I mean we do and always will have feminine dominated jobs and male dominated jobs but for him to say that made me mad. A black person today can get just as good as job as any white male. He says frequently on page 95 that “to live in a patriarchal society is to expect that a women will stay home and cook and the male would act as the worker and provider.” I think that was the case in the olden days but now a days I feel like we are more equal.
　
The Act-Like-A-Man Box
I completely agree to this story. I never even thought of that when boys are young they experience all the same emotions girls do. I never realized that little boys are taught by whomever that they need to hide their emotions or never cry. If its not their parents that teach them not to cry then its their peers at school that make fun of them. If a little boy is crying at school and someone calls him a fag and bullies him he is not going to cry anymore. The way Kivel talked about how men fear homophobia and how they try to avoid it in public if they are. Its really sad that the things people say today make people afraid to be who they are.


Bell Hooks Chapter 1
First off I want to say that I love Bell Hooks. She is so right on about men and really opened my eyes to why they act the way they do. In the beginning of chapter 1 she talks about the love of a father to his kids and how every kid strives for the attention and love from their father. I never realized how a father’s love could have such a huge effect on a little kid. Men are taught so early in life to never show emotion and because they show no emotion all throughout life that makes little kids try extra hard to gain the love from their father. Hooks talked about how her father never gave her any attention and the only time he did was if she was getting in trouble or showing pain. I think it’s sad that men or father’s have to feel like they have to keep their emotions in. Being a girl I love talking to people about my problems and really letting it out and even crying. I feel so much better once stuff is off my chest. I only tell everything to 2 or 3 girls though, well 4 including my mom. I feel like guys should be able to do that to other guys without anyone making fun of them or calling them a fag. Then I literally almost died when she talked about on page 6 “when the slightest thing goes wrong, it seems easier to bolt, than to talk.” I completely agree in the sense of short-term relationships. Men who get annoyed with girls they have been with for a couple months would rather get out while its still new than to put up the annoyance or talk about things. I completely agreed with her with everything in chapter 1.

Bell Hooks Chapter 2
On page 18 Hooks is talking about her parents and how they learned patriarchy through religion from the church. How “god” created man to rule the world and everything in it and that it was the work of women to help me perform these tasks. This totally challenges my beliefs because I really am not religious at all. I don’t believe in one God or anything like that and I think that one person who is all special and mighty couldn’t have created such a world we live in today. So by her saying that her parents think like that and people live that way by letting a “god” run their lives really baffles me. Just by the way her parents lived their life for a male “god” just doesn’t make any sense to me what so ever. I think that patriarchy still is taught even in non-religious families.

#2)I chose to compare Bell Hooks chapter 1 to my roommate’s relationship. I feel like I am living her relationship because she tells me everything that’s going on between them. They only have been dating for 3 months and they pretty much fight everyday or every other day. In my point of view it is both of their faults they knit-pick at each other and fight over the little things. She will get mad at him for the way he says things and he will get mad at her for having “too much” emotion and freaking out over small things. Every time they fight she complains and lets out her feelings and he is like woah and wants to end and will hang up on her. Then she cries and the next day they make up and are fine. This has happened probably everyday for the past month. This is a perfect example from Bell Hooks in chapter one when she says that men get mad over the smallest things and would rather not talk about it and leave then to fix things. Then Hooks goes on to say that the reality is that men are hurting but because of societies view of men they aren’t allowed to portray how they really feel. To me I think my roommate likes the challenge and being in fights all the time. Not that she likes it but I think if her boyfriend were to be sensitive and caring she wouldn’t know what to do with herself!