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"The patriarchy" has evolved to mean "something I don't like" so it's a pretty accurate use of the term.
by jquery 9y ago
"The patriarchy" has evolved to mean "something I don't like" so it's a pretty accurate use of the term.
- ryan_j_naughton 9y agoWords evolve and our usage changes, but there are better and worse ways for this change to happen. Changes that bring ambiguity unintentionally are generally bad. e.g. "something I don't like".
- pessimizer 9y agoIt means what it always meant, the tree of men who control things. It's just become more widely used because the fact that everything is controlled by men in authority doesn't need feminism to be true, it just needed feminism to be pointed out. It's just as true no matter what your concerns about authority are. Not using the word is just being unnecessarily vague. It's akin to something that bothers me personally; when people refer to "America" when they mean "White America." Yes, the recent rise of the alt-right has put on display an undercurrent of discontent in America, but when you say that, you're not being specific in a way that is distorting.