How the Patriarchy Exploits Toxic Masculinity and What You Can Do About It

Thank you Brian Lacy for this excellent and deeply important article. Deep bow of respect and gratitude to you and to all the awakening men who embody the truth of their masculinity, one which holds reverence for the feminine and refuses to be complicit with the toxic perverted forms of patriarchal masculinity that have long destroyed all that is feminine — including our Earth Mother. There is a path forward that embraces partnership rather than domination, reverence rather than violence, consciousness and wisdom rather than ignorance and fear, equality and compassion and inclusivity rather than separation, control, greed, and power over. We’re all related, all family, all in this together. 🙏 Molly

Why You Should Never Confuse Masculinity and Patriarchy

Patriarchy is a systemic power structure that infiltrates governments, societies, schools, industries, and families. It exploits a long existing framework of economic power, laws, social norms, and traditions that exist to ensure that men — largely white, straight, and CIS — remain in control to the exclusion of women.

When patriarchy is threatened, those in power often exploit fear, violence, and bigotry to maintain the status quo. In many cases, this includes developing and then exploiting a sense of toxic masculinity in order to garner support for patriarchal concepts and resentment towards those opposing those concepts.

Unfortunately, because the patriarchy has existed so long, and those in power have worked so hard to exploit toxic masculinity, many now equate toxic masculinity with general masculinity. The patriarchy has been largely successful at pushing the following erroneous concepts as truth:

• — Real men must dominate interactions
• — Masculinity is intertwined with a willingness or ability to be violent
• — Vulnerability or sensitivity is a sign of weakness
• — Only straight CIS men can exhibit true masculinity
• — Compassion and compromise are weak and effeminate
• — Women are weaker and lesser
• — Those who oppose toxic masculinity or the patriarchy are violating the rights of members of the patriarchy
• — The dissent must be crushed
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• How The Patriarchy Exploits Toxic Masculinity
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• For a recent look at the exploitation of toxic masculinity, one only has to look a few months back at the Neo-Nazi and white supremacist march on Charlottesville, VA. This was a march of men that can easily be placed into two categories. The first is those who wish to preserve patriarchy at its purest by preserving the power of privileged white men and the angry and easily manipulated who are eager to act as violent henchmen.
  In a sense, both groups have been impacted by toxic masculinity. The first believes they are entitled to certain privileges as men, and that they possess an inherent superiority. They are often well off and educated. The latter have been raised with unhealthy expectations and ideals of masculinity, are often underprivileged and uneducated lacking access to resources to ensure success in college, and are easily convinced that certain groups and ideals are a threat to their way of life.

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