Patriarchy?

As humans, we often turn a blind eye to the root cause of our problems. It seems often enough that ignorance is bliss, and in the revolutionary field of philosophy this is no less the case as we laud Plato, Aristotle and Hippocrates without recognition for the bias behind their scriptures. Indeed within each infamous text are references to the inferiority of the female race, emphasising the need for subjugation and total submission to the construct of masculinity. Hence I propose, are the lauded edifices of thought, erected by the most revered minds throughout history, complicit in perpetuating a system that has continued to oppress women for centuries? 

Aristotle’s political philosophy, as relayed in his work "Politics," posited a hierarchical society in which women were confined  to subordinate, domestic roles. He argued that women were inherently inferior to men, both physically and intellectually, and therefore unsuited for participation in governance and public life ; he preached that the natural order of society necessitated the rule of men over women. This was accentuated in his biological treatises such as "Generation of Animals" and "History of Animals," wherein he perpetuated the idea of women's inferiority based purely on their reproductive biology. He characterised women as incomplete or rather, defective versions of men, attributing their perceived deficiencies to their reproductive organs and ability for childbirth. Aristotle’s writing seems to reflect similar patriarchal assumptions about female biology as the Greek philosopher Galen, who believed in a "one-sex model," which posited that women were essentially imperfect males, (seen to possess the same fundamental reproductive structure as men, the only difference being that female genitalia was inside the body, not outside of it). Thus Galen concluded that "women have exactly the same organs as men, but in exactly the wrong places" reinforcing the notion of female inferiority based on corporeality which continues to oppress women in the modern day, bearing weight to more contemporary  issues such as women in sport, maternity discrimination and abortion. 

Hippocrates notoriously propagated the concept of “hysteria”, derived from the Greek word for uterus : a word that continues to categorise and stereotype irrationality and instability that he suggests can only be intrinsic within women. He believed that the various emotional responses exhibited by women were caused by a wandering uterus seeking to fulfil its reproductive function; such was the inherent telos of women. Indeed this narrative is increasingly prevalent in the modern day : a man can react but a woman only overreact. Hippocrates even writes on biological determinism in his work “On the Nature of Child” suggesting that male superiority begins in the womb : he suggested that male embryos developed more efficiently than female embryos accentuating the preexisting belief of the inherent physical and intellectual superiority of men. 

Indeed these ideas pervaded civil society so much so that they were internalised by many of our beloved female philosophers. We see this in Hypatia rebuffing a student who developed amorous affections for her by flinging her bloody menstrual rags at him, chastising him for loving the unclean body over transcendent beauty. Hypatia detests her feminine body and believes it to be a vessel that plays into patriarchal desire, satisfying their need to turn women into objects of sexual gratification and child bearing and she mourns women’s inability to transcend the body on Earth. We see that Hypatia, despite her philosophical prodigy, despite her intellect and reverence as a philosopher within the city, is still reduced to and pursued as a sexual object, who is still subject to menstruation, a feminine condition she will never escape. Indeed this sentiment is shared by thousands of women worldwide : the idea that as long as we exist in society, we are not perceived as people but as inferior beings in the minds of the men that dominate social and governmental leadership, with a stereotype, a narrative imposed upon us from which we may never escape.  

However, times are changing and the tides are shifting, and we find ourselves in an era where women are more powerful than they have ever been. It is clear that centuries of philosophy have introduced and ingrained misogynistic ideas within civilisation and it is clear that these form the foundation of societies today. Yet there is one fundamental difference : women are refusing to allow the patriarchy to continue to subjugate them. Though attitudes towards women are inherently difficult to alter within this generation and relies on the shaping of ideology for centuries to come, we find ourselves in a society that actively condemns the narrative of the patriarchy, works to reverse its damage and devotes itself to diminish its influence.

Women truly can have it all, they just need to believe it.