“In many patriarchies, language, as well as cultural tradition, reserve the human condition for the male. With the Indo-European languages this is a nearly inescapable habit of mind, for despite all the customary pretense that 'man' and 'humanity' are terms which apply equally to both sexes, the fact is hardly obscured that in practice, general application favors the male far more often than the female as referent, or even sole referent, for such designations.” MenMindHumansWellsFactsHumanityLanguageSexTermPracticeConditionsHabitFemaleTraditionMalesFavorsDespiteApplicationHuman ConditionSoleReservesPatriarchyPretenseHabits Of MindDesignation Author:Kate Millett
“From a biological viewpoint, patriarchal religion denied women the natural rights of every other mammalian female: the right to choose her stud, to control the circumstances of her mating, to occupy and govern her own nest, or to refuse all males when preoccupied with the important business of raising her young.” ImportantYoungReligionWomenNaturalRightsCircumstancesFemaleMalesRefuseDeniedPatriarchyNestsViewpointsNatural RightsMatingStuds Author:Barbara G. Walker
“I feel like male patriarchy generally has been about repressing female sexuality because it's "scary."” FeelsHas BeensFemaleMalesScarySexualityPatriarchyFemale Sexuality Author:Ruth Wilson
“I think that what we need is a balance between men and women. I don't believe in the value of the matriarchy as a model for human organizations any more than I believe in the value of patriarchy as a successful model. I think that what we need is a balance of male and female, the yin and the yang, the tantric union of god and goddess, enlightenment of the individual.” ThinkingMenBelieveValuesIndividualI BelieveSuccessfulBalanceEnlightenmentMen And WomenFemaleGoddessPatriarchy Author:James Wasserman
“In the beginning no power differential existed between male and female. God empowered both with full rights and responsibility to rule outward over all creation, not over each other. As we know all too well, the fall changed everything, precipitating male rule over women and also the rule of some men over other men, a.k.a., patriarchy. Within patriarchy, women no longer derive their value from their Creator, but from men - father, husband, and sons. Within patriarchy, a woman's value is gauged by counting her sons.” MenValuesFallFatherResponsibilityCreationChangedSonHusbandFemalePatriarchyEmpowered Author:Carolyn Custis James
“Not to be too doctrinaire, but we live in the patriarchy! And therefore anything explicitly associated with the female gender, including motherhood, needs to be defensively claimed, because it's either devalued or sentimentally idealized, but not supported. I so thoroughly believe that female human beings have worth that I don't feel the need to argue it, but I think that there's a part of me that very specifically wants to make space for those ideas to be centralized, if only for the moment.” ThinkingBelieveMomentsFemaleGenderMotherhoodArguingPatriarchy Author:Maggie Nelson
“Elizabeth A. Johnson explains that including divine female symbols and images not only challenges the dominance of male images but also calls into question the structure of patriarchy itself.” ChallengesDivineFemaleStructureMalesIncludingSymbolsPatriarchyJohnsonDominance Author:Sue Monk Kidd
“Reviewing the literature on love I noticed how few writers, male or female, talk about the impact of patriarchy, the way in which male domination of women and children stands in the ways of love.” WayChildrenLiteratureFemaleImpactMalesPatriarchyDominationWay Of Love Book:All About Love: New Visions Source: All About Love: New Visions
“I soon began to sense a fundamental perceptual difficulty among male scholars (and some female ones) for which 'sexism' is too facile a term. It is really an intellectual defect, which might be termed 'patrivincialism' or patrochialism': the assumption that women are a subgroup, that men's culture is the 'real' world, that patriarchy is equivalent to culture and culture to patriarchy, that the 'great' or 'liberalizing' periods of history have been the same for women as for men.” MenWorldHas BeensRealMightCultureTermPeriodsIntellectualFemaleDifficultyFundamentalsMalesAssumptionSexismReal WorldScholarPatriarchyDefects Author:Adrienne Rich
“This fear of maleness that they inspire estranges men from every female in their lives to greater or lesser degrees, and men feel the loss. Ultimately, one of the emotional costs of allegiance to patriarchy is to be seen as unworthy of trust. If women and girls in patriarchal culture are taught to see every male, including the males with whom we are intimate, as potential rapists and murderers, then we cannot offer them our trust, and without trust there is no love.” IfsMenFeelsCultureGirlLossGreaterEmotionalInspireTaughtCostOffersDegreesFemaleMalesIncludingIntimatePatriarchyMurdererAllegianceUnworthyNo LoveWithout TrustMaleness Book:The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love Source: The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love
“No wonder male religious leaders so often say that humans were born in sin—because we were born to female creatures. Only by obeying the rules of the patriarchy can we be reborn through men. No wonder priests and ministers in skirts sprinkle imitation birth fluid over our heads, give us new names, and promise rebirth into everlasting life.” MenGivingHumansNamesBornReligiousSinLeaderWonderBirthPromiseCreaturesFemaleMalesMinistersPriestsImitationPatriarchyEverlastingRebirthFluidSkirtsRebornObeyingReligious LeadersSprinklesEverlasting Life Author:Gloria Steinem