Challenge the System

In this week's readings, all three authors share the same theme of analyzing the system, which provides societal norms, as a whole instead of on individual levels. Allan Johnson, Marilyn Frye, and Jonah Gokova strongly suggest that human needs to examine various social constructs macroscopically rather than microscopically; we need to understand how everyone, both men and women, participates, perpetuates, and feeds various systems such as patriarchy, the notion of oppression, and gender stereotypes. Once we understand our roles in the system, we can then challenge and change the system.

Johnson's "Patriarchy, the System: An It, Not a He, a Them, or an Us," brings up the argument that the model of social life does not begin and end with individuals, rather it involves many participants, both males and females. Therefore a social construct, such as patriarchy, needs to analyzing not through individuals means but as a whole. Johnson argues that any system, should be put into question not in terms of the "whats" and "hows" but the "whys." If we question: why society is the way it is, why people in society are a certain way, etc. then we can come to an understanding how participants can shape and influence a system. However Johnson points out that people are too busy focusing on the individuals and blaming the system that we miss out on the bigger picture and question. A quote that best summarizes Johnson's claim is: "The main use of any culture is to provide symbols and ideas out of which to construct a sense of what is real." He asserts that through the idea of "path of least resistance" people can actually broke the currents rules--that we so strongly abide to--and create a new system that doesn't uphold women and men in such demanding image. In conclusion, what participants feed into the system is what is generated back out and then manifested/nurtured to others.           

In "Oppression," Frye discusses the usage of the term oppression, how it is often misused, and how such misusing of the term loses its meaning. She goes on analyzing this word in terms of women through an analogy of a bird being trapped in a caged, stating, "It is the experience of being caged in: all avenues, in every direction, are blocked or booby trapped" (2). When society stops looking at the oppression of a women on a microscopic level, but through a macroscopic lens, we will then clearly see beyond the usual forms of oppression. Besides women being in a bind where their sexual life is both questioned when they are active or not, there are other more subtle forms of women's oppression that normally aren't paid attention to. Frye explains how men's chivalry is a form of oppression. She quote their actions as "false helpfulness." Society have upheld chivalry as an act of kindness and something men should have, however Frye argues that these actions are symbols of "female dependence, the invisibility or insignificance of women, and contempt for women" (4). Frye disapproves of all the ways society has "pressed" and confined women into a cage.  

"Challenging Men to Resist Gender Stereotypes" by Gokova explains men's participatory role in perpetuating gender stereotypes and the consequences it have on both women and men. Padare, an anti-sexist organization, provides men the ability to challenge gender roles and gender inequalities. Gokova goes beyond stating the harms gender stereotypes imposes on women, but he also states the damage it imposes on men. Gender stereotypes have created an image of "manhood" that "restricts male creativeness" (422). The current image of manhood boxes men to a specific set of actions and if a man acts outside of this box, his manhood is put to question. Padare prompts men to challenge and reject the current "myth of male superiority" and to openly talk about gender inequalities. Once this is done, a new image of "manhood" can emerge without compromising women in any way.