The Patriarchy Is Like Nazi Germany
By: Lorelei Weldon
Tags: Feminism, Culture, Patriarchy, Not All Men, Sociology

The Patriarchy Is Like Nazi Germany

Photo by Ricardo Gomez Angel on Unsplash

When you speak about World War II, do you ever make blanket statements about the Germans such as “When the Germans invaded Poland in 1939…..”? Do you hold Germany responsible for the things that took place on it’s soil and under it’s leadership even if not every single German person agreed with those policies or participated in atrocities?

You are aware that ordinary Germans also suffered during WWII, and that many of them did what they could to hide and help their Jewish neighbors, right?

Time and time again I hear grumbling, pushback, and outright rage when there is talk about the patriarchy. Even though the vast majority of women have had multiple traumatizing experiences at the hands of men, and we live in a society that often has often turned a blind eye to that, it is seen as out of line by some to mention it. #NotAllMen is a reaction to #MeToo but as that movement exposed, most women have some experience with catcalling, sexual harassment, being groped by a man, sexual assault of some kind or rape. But since not every single man does those types of things, it’s deemed unfair to talk about men in that context — even though they are overwhelmingly done to women by men — and most women have experienced them.

First of all, patriarchy is a social system. It’s not even necessarily about men. Women uphold patriarchal paradigms too and there are myriad ways that men also suffer under a patriarchal system. But men have been at the higher end of the power structures for the past 10,000 years or so. Societal dynamics that negatively impact women don’t have to be perpetrated by every single last man in America in order to correctly use the short-hand “men” when talking about them.

Just as not every single last German hated Jews or did terrible things during WWII, but we still say the Germans when talking about what took place in that country at that time, when we say the patriarchy or men in society, it doesn’t need to apply to absolutely all men in order to be apt.

Not all Germans were Nazis. “As Doris Bergen writes, “Smooth functioning of the system did not require all Germans — or even most — to share every tenet of Nazi ideology. Enough enthusiasts could always be found to stage enormous public shows of support such as the annual Nazi Party rallies. On a day to day basis, the Nazi regime only needed most people to obey the law, try to stay out of trouble, and promote their own interests as best they could under the current circumstances.”

Most men are not harassers and rapists, but all it takes is the percentage that are to be living in a society that excuses and minimizes these behaviors to make for a world where most women to have had some kind of negative experience of this type. So unless when you are speaking of WWII, you don’t say “the Germans” but instead say, “the members of the Nazi party who joined it enthusiastically and actively embraced all of its tenets,” you really ought to stop complaining about the term patriarchy. It’s being used to describe a social system that is centered around male power and that has been used to disempower and abuse women for thousands of years. Until 50 years ago there were still laws on the books and active customs that enshrined this and many of the same attitudes are still alive and well today.

Patriarchy has also been used to disadvantage and abuse men. It’s at the core of bullying and homophobia. And we should absolutely talk about that too. Talking about one facet of an issue doesn’t negate the other ones, and not every man has to be actively, consciously harming women for patriarchy to be a source of problems and pain for women. So the next time you want to react to stories of the ills of the patriarchy with #NotAllMen, think about the Germans, and think again!