How Patriarchy affects men, a self perpetuating cycle of denial and excuses.

[Humanist_Activist]

33. As I said above, its cultural more than anything else, its also self-perpetuating...

There isn't a group of men out there who meet behind closed doors, in cigar smoke filled air conspiring to make sure men stay as men and women stay in the kitchen. It doesn't work like that, much of it is conditioning, cultural conditioning. Even those who are victimized by the patriarchy, both men and women, don't recognize it because the conditioning is ingrained at this point, its second nature.

That makes it so much harder to fight against, and so much harder for people to recognize.

I think what people forget is that the conditioning itself, the contents of it, actually changes over time, due to cultural changes, for example, perceptions of how people should act or dress change with fashions, boys used to wear dresses up to a certain age back 100 years ago or so. All patriarchy does, really, is emphasize gender differences, and make sure that which is currently considered masculine is reinforced as dominant, and that which is considered feminine is portrayed as submissive and inferior.