Could it be true that women are still the most ardent custodians of patriarchy? I am asking because some men argue that we provide the emotional impetus for patriarchy because we benefit from their masculinity more than we wish to admit. In a typical family set-up, many mothers express the word 'man up' to their sons more than the fathers do.
They do that involuntarily much as in public they advocate for men to be in touch with their emotions and openly brand stoic men as toxically masculine. When their own sons slacken, mothers threaten to buy them a 'third ball' so they can compete with the same energy as the rest of their male peers.
It is only natural that as primates who have been direct beneficiaries of dominant men they subconsciously owe it to the future woman to preserve the maleness in its purest form. Patriarchy believes that it is the absolute duty of men to take care of their women.
In truth, this is an arrangement that every woman craves privately. However, for the sake of the political correctness of our generation, we all preach about the would-be benefits of genderless children to society.
We pretend to want boys who can cry more and show their emotions in public. Women teach their sons they are not men enough if they are not dominating. Boys are supposed to be brave enough to run errands in the dark. Mothers teach at a young age that it is their duty to protect the family whenever daddy is away.
Therefore, they must man up and walk to the door if a strange knock comes after sunset. Men will tell you that as boys they heard many statements that primed them to view women as vulnerable people who need men to be superior to them and offer them a frame to lean on.
If a man told another man to 'man up', it will not have the same effect as when a woman tells a man to. As it is, many men are still healing from the pressure of their mothers, sisters and aunts from when they were little.
That that pressure only increases with exposure to women outside the family fold explains why women can only be the ones to tame patriarchy. If women truly hated patriarchy, it will snuff out overnight. Otherwise, men will continue manning up!
