Theory of Patriarchy – Chapter 1

I’ll delve into the history books later on for a thorough look at why the world is so male dominant – this post is concerning itself with why some men are so anti-women, or, for want of a better word, misogynist.

It’s all to do with desire and need. Boys mature seeing these lovely creatures growing up alongside them, they desire them. They instinctively desire them, especially the most attractive ones, but they are taught by their mothers to respect them all. Therefore they are chivalrous, courteous, helpful and polite. All guys start out like this, sweet and naive. They hold girls their equals.

But then those girls, the ones that are being chased, recognise their own attractiveness. And the trouble begins...

Automatically the man is at a disadvantage. He is the chaser, ergo she has the power. She knows she is the commodity, and therefore the chaser automatically becomes devalued – as they say ‘you want what you can’t have’, when it’s yours it loses some appeal.

They realise the potency of their looks/ charm, and they begin to exploit it. Not consciously at first, they just enjoy the attention. They beautify themselves, they expose more and more skin, they do everything in their power to increase their erotic capital. They enjoy the attention, even more so than they realise, to the extent that they will lead guys on who they aren’t attracted to in the slightest, just to keep up a steady flow. As Samuel Coleridge said, ‘A man’s desire is for the woman, but a woman’s desire is rarely other than for the desire of the man’. And to be perfectly honest, I don’t blame them. The feeling of being valued and chased is a hell of a lot better than the savagery of fruitless desire.

And so the girl enjoys leading the guy on.

Until he realises she’s not actually interested in him, just dicking him about.

And this goes on with successive girls.

And he becomes more and more bitter and disillusioned.

And no longer the sweet, chivalrous, naïve guy he was.

Until one day, he ends up formulating a theory of misogyny and writing something like this.

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Hmmm, that was a bit intense. And I suppose an entirely personal experience. As Remy De Gourmont pointed out, ‘Most men who rail at women are railing at one woman only’. He may be correct but in my case it’s a good seven or eight…

EDIT - found this link the other day, very well-written, mostly accurate and entirely hilarious. Number's one and two are particularly poignant, I believe.

5 ways modern men are trained to hate women.