I've been reading some feminist lit lately (Rebeccas Traister, bell hooks, Sonya Renee Taylor), talking to my daughter and friends and just trying to process where we are in this country post-Kavanaugh. This is the thought I had on my brief walk the other day today: the only entity that may have the power to replace the patriarchy is a matriarchy. Matriarchy sounds very hierarchical, but it doesn't have to be.
My friends and daughters and women across the US and the planet... maybe we are a part of a matriarchal movement. The curtain has been pulled back on how deep the patriarchal power runs, and women are not going to remain nor let others remain sub-human (men included). Women are running for office, speaking to neighbors, cleaning campaign bathrooms, nurturing each other, and having fun along the way. The community of the movement is changing our lives from the inside out. This organized energy can and must transform our society and our government as we know it.
Maybe we should set a clear goal to re-imagine, reform, and take over the patriarchal power structures, starting with the US Democratic party, bottom to top. Perhaps we should form a party or society of our own... I don't know. I think about all the women who are taking action right now, so many for the first time in their lives. I've met a lot of people like that in Orange County and in Nashville and I know that this is fundamental part of the story of this time.
It is a long fight that started way before today, but I am clear on this: we can and will see much better days, because women are organized af and angry af and empathetic af and we value love. Since the election of Trump as 45th president and through the ridiculous outcome of Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court, it is clear that the toxicity of the patriarchy is ingrained and the system will not just fade away. Powerful white men will do everything they can to defeat the threat to their power that comes in the form of a women’s experience of sexual assault or the assault on the equal treatment of black lives….
But I have to believe that the majority of people in this country know in their hearts that this patriarchy no longer serves our needs as a society or a species; young people know it, people of color know it, and most women know it. The matriarchy will claim our political power and turn this country tf around, in a way that is not so hierarchical, competitive, or exclusionary. It has to be just. We have to keep the faith, because what other course is there?!
If I'm the matriarchy, here's my message to the patriarchy. You had your chance and look what you did to this country, this planet. Your competitive bs and your lust for war and your disdain for those most vulnerable among us is bullshit. So we're going to jump in and figure out a new way forward. We will lead in our way, while you sit down, take a breath, and listen. Maybe if we all work and play and love together, we can fix this awful mess you made.
