Patriarchy- A Bane.

Patriarchy- now that’s a term everyone has heard. Now, you might want to ask me what that even means. Why is it bad? Patriarchy is a social system where primarily men hold all the power or all the decision making and roles with power is given to men and hence women are largely excluded from it.

But then still this doesn’t make it clear why it’s bad. Because of this societal norm women in the earlier days were never given the equal rights that they deserved and were hence always in a tight spot. For example, something as normal as passing of property from one generation to another women were excluded from and hence the property was always passed down from father to son and if the man didn’t have any son, the property went to the closest male relative.

Today even though women have fought for a lot of their rights and have achieved in getting them, they are still on purpose excluded from a lot of things just because of their gender. Because people believe her being emotional (read emotional instability}, would lead her to take irrational decisions and create problems. Even if a man and a woman have been doing the same work for a long time the man would almost always get paid more.

Well now that doesn’t only affect women in general but it affects men as well. As we all know, weakness and being emotional is largely only associated with women and if any man ever shows any sign of weakness or becomes emotional people start calling him names.

Recently there was an amazing advertisement by Gillette, and it showed how patriarchy also includes toxic masculinity and how that is bad for both men and women. And even though it was received by a lot of people in a good way. But every coin has two sides, a lot of people didn’t like it and a lot of them complained that it showed men in the bad light and had just completely evaded the fact that all those things were true.

Patriarchy may be something that is bad for our society but it does exist. And even if you aren’t a “feminist” you should fight against what is primarily just wrong and help other people and try to make their lives better. Because as it’s said, charity begins at home. So, it doesn’t matter if you are a man or a woman, if you want to see some change, you start with yourself.

P.S: People who haven’t seen the Gillette advertisement please go on to YouTube and watch it once.