Maggie's Farm

Ref Maleness

The logical problem with the 'patriarchy' claim:

Where are the matriarchies?

If it were REALLY A social construct, then there would be a significant number of societies that developed in the other direction*. This situation creates logical problems.

possible explanations:

1) Matriarchies developed but failed to survive.

2) Matriarchies never developed because women were much less likely to dominate.

Both this explanations REQUIRE that there be differences between men and women that explain this. But if there are differences, then a major core argument of current feminism is undercut... men and women ARE different. (This should not be a surprise. Look at our relatives, chimpanzees, bonobos**, gorillas.... their cultures are somewhat male dominated--for that matter look at ANY social mammal***).

* PerIodically we hear about some 'matriarchal' society, always conveniently away in a jungle somewherE, which generally turn out to be nonexistent, or matrilinear (property and kinship is traced through the female line), not matriarchal (females dominating the social political structure).

**Bonobos are considered the 'new age feminists' of the ape world, but in actual fact they are basically chimpanzees... as a whole less aggressive and more mellow, but not really that different.


***Evolutionary psychology with population dynamics easily explains the difference in male/female aggressiveness. It all boils down to genetic success. No mystery here.