Of Women, Of Freedom

The freedom to exist is one that men enjoy from birth, it is simply given to them upon arrival. For women, freedom is a hand-me-down, something that has perpetually been passed down with limited change. Their freedoms are common amongst men, whose freedom is always bought fresh off the market. This market of patriarchy is one that seeks to hand victories to women that become too troublesome to withhold further, but allows men to remain in control of female identity and intellectual expression. Men should hold no greater privilege or acceptance than that of women, as the validity of male rights are acquired through the abuse of women. Women are held to the strict moral gaze of men and when the time comes for women to obtain the “freedoms” of men, it is done so with the utmost prejudice. This perpetuates the male identity of women as subservient or “second”, allowing them to decide what they wish women to have access to, and further barring them from their true self. Patriarchy is embedded within supremacy and oppression, and understanding the intersection of these concepts is important to the progression of women in a society that has long been built to hold them down.

Patriarchy is a sludge upon femininity, it is a parasite that seeks to weigh down the minds of women with its sickness and subjugate it. Feminine identity and survival can only prevail with an advanced sense of self awareness, sexual liberation, and social independence from the patriarchy. If women were offered the same liberties they would find within themselves the same resources that all authentic beings contain, and would relinquish their shackles of masculine oppression. Toxic masculine culture perpetuates the subjugation of women through sexual oppression by shaming women for indulging in their sexual desires, denying truly liberating freedoms without strings attached or the interest of men taking precedent, and denying them a social position of power within a world that is full of freedoms. Patriarchy seeks to encapsulate the woes of women in an effort to create simplicity of their problems. This ensures that men may view the problems of women without a need for greater understanding and may downplay these issues with prejudice. This system of structural violence against women allows men to circumnavigate the worries of women and funnel in hollow victories and modifications in a world built to supply men.

In this turmoil of nothingness that women find when approaching men about the liberties they are denied, women often find ridicule and a sharp tone of disdain based on a sickness passed from father to heir. This sickness is the male experience, a privilege that most men will never reflect upon as their lives will never ask them to. They may find themselves often in a position of oppression without ever knowing that their simple existence of freedom is overbearing. Containing a freedom of sexual liberation, social validation, and a reassuring nod of approval as other men take stances of solidarity within the experience. The experience of men creates conflict as men never question what this experience entails, and how it often rips the freedom of choice from women violently. The tribulations of women who experience sexual violence, the horrors of domestic abuse, and the infantilization of women are all factors of an experience that men never had to learn. The conversation of sex, of liberties, and of voice were passed on without any talk of their denial, that men cannot experience someone denying them any of these things and so we see men take from women constantly. Patriarchy ensures that the system of creation and taking flourishes, as women constantly create beauties within a world that wants to rob them blind under the guise of equality and the delusion that choice is free. The illusions of a male world would see the progress of men maintained while women are bartered a quarter of what true freedom really is.

Women and allies alike should seek to cripple the patriarchy's control over female autonomy through direct action and the presentation of female intellectual freedom without male inclusion. Women expressing their frustration through direct action amplifies the message that oppression will not be tolerated, and that women will not simply stand by and allow male dominance to eradicate their voice. Allies of women should do their utmost to ensure that no voice prevails over women, and that the podium of free thought is open to their voice and to their presence. To be an ally to a woman is to uphold their position as equal in all aspects, and to recognize that their experience is not paved with gold and good intentions, but instead it was forged with blood, sweat, and tears to ensure that one day women would exist free of male hands forcing them down. This perseverance of women can be the anvil feminine steel is forged on, and with those tools at their disposal we may soon see a day where women walk free of patriarchy. The right for women to exist freely is a right that we should all seek to ensure, and one that we should find pride in fighting for.