Just like a star dying,the Trump Presidency is the last gasp of an expiring Patriarchy

[scaryclown]

Looking at the advusoty appointees for Trump, it occurs to me that just like the last few big companies I've worked for, with a LOT of pension-fixing, the old guard of third rate old white guys seem to be having this last gasp of blatent mutual promotion and self congratulation.. just before the world that got them there (starting education in the 1940s and 1950s) is fast disappearing.

New company leaders are not old stick-arounds, they are younger innovators, and women at mid grades is completely normal in most careers.

It just seems to me that all the angry men and bullish old fellas are just having a last gasp. Any thoughts?

[Katisha]

I do hope its the end of the old and not the start of the new...

[AcrossthePond55]

Disagree, at least as far as government goes. I proves to me that the Old Guard Patriarchy is alive and well in Government, not only in Washington DC, but in the hearts and minds of a great many Americans. It's amazing the number of women who feel that a woman shouldn't be President or who vote the way their husbands tell them to because they 'know better'.

If there are 'younger' men (i.e. men under 50) in the Cabinet or the GOP hierarchy it will be because they are the protégées of the Old Guard and lining up for the same 'benefits'. If there are women, scratch their surface and you'll find they also owe allegiance and kowtow to a member of the Old Guard or have gotten where they are due to playing the 'Grizzly Mama' role (Palin, I'm looking at you) rather than on independence, intelligence and experience. If we weren't ready to elect Hillary Clinton or Elizabeth Warren, the Patriarchy is alive and well.

[Xenophile]

Old men start wars for young men and women to die in.

[vesuvia]

I think that today's set of middle-aged and old men is, unfortunately, not patriarchy's last gasp.

Too many of the boys and young men who will be the leaders of e.g. America, in 10, 20, 30 or 40 years time are currently enjoying their apprenticeship of patriarchal male entitlement. The large number of sexual assaults and rapes on American college campuses is an appalling symptom of this.

It's probably too late to change the thinking of the current generation of these entitled young men. Many of the boys and young men who are currently learning how to hate women will eventually obtain the power to continue patriarchy. Not ALL men and boys hate women but very many don't seem to be too bothered about having an unearned status higher than women and girls in the patriarchal gender hierarchy and therefore very many (almost all? or all?) men are silent about ending patriarchy. This isn't confined to America. The same goes for the UK and many other countries.

As far as I'm aware, radical feminism is the only political philosophy that wants to end patriarchy. Radical feminism is, however, derided and denounced and opposed at every opportunity by almost everyone, including most feminists who prefer to knock a few rough edges off patriarchy but let it continue. All other political movements seem happy for patriarchy to continue for ever.

Almost everyone, especially the people with political and economic power, prefers that patriarchy should continue, therefore patriarchy will continue. Perhaps more people should listen to radical feminists instead of ignoring, demonising or silencing them.

[BertrandRussell]

Anything but, in my opinion.

[BabyGanoush]

I feel we are going back to the 80s

And that's not good

[MickleTonster]

I've been feeling really disheartened too - how can we be taking such massive steps backwards?

Someone posted an article about reasons people have voted trump that I found comforting though www.cracked.com/blog/6-reasons-trumps-rise-that-no-one-talks-about/

Perhaps there are other perspectives to consider (although it is still hideous that sexism has been legitimatised in such a public way).

[BertrandRussell]

It seems to me- and I stand ready to be told I'm over reacting- to be an extension to their logical conclusions of all the threads on here where people are mocked and derided for pointing out and worrying about sexism and racism. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance-as someone said. We take our eye off the ball at our peril. And that's what we've done.

[LumpySpacedPrincess]

Far from a last gasp

Misogyny is on the up and that extends to women. The internet is largely a tool that teaches the young their fixed gender roles and young men learn that a women's place is on her knees.

Young women are frightened to say they are a feminist, or only identify as a "super cool happy inclusive to all equalist" cos they believe equality has been achieved or that feminism is about being super nice to everyone.

So we have a super diluted form of feminism being adopted by the young at the same time as women are losing rights. Not good, not good at all.

Way too many supers there but cha get my drift.

[vesuvia]

BabyGanoush wrote - "I feel we are going back to the 80s. And that's not good"

I feel we are going back to the 1950s and that's worse.

[sausageeggbacon111]

The issue with Trump being elected is a lot of women voted for him. The question of why may be difficult to answer and those answers difficult to swallow. Feminism has alienated many working class women, in a piece in the Independent it talked about the white women who did not get a University Degree and in fact probably didn't even consider the possibility. These are not total stupid women just that many families could not afford to put the kids in higher education. And feminism has become very high brow, where you need to have read the right books and understand issue. The glass ceiling has no meaning to these women, it will never affect their lives and empowering a select few with the right education just makes them angry.

The Feminism that they hear about is all men are potential rapists, PIV equates to rape and women should turn to political lesbians. These are women who will look at their fathers, brothers and sons and question how can these be potential rapists. They will question the sanity of people going there are more than two genders. Feminism has become a high brow intellectual pursuit that does not relate to the masses. So long as it takes a top down approach no one should be surprised at Brexit and Trump. The masses do not get the arguments because they have no meaning to these women's day to day life. Changes in how feminism is perceived by the masses is the only thing that will get the average woman onboard with feminism.

Just my penny's worth.

[DeviTheGaelet]

Yep. It's all the fault of feminists
The issue with trump being elected is a lot of white, less educated Christians voted for him. Some of those were women (but fewer than men). The only thing it has to do with feminism is that is just one movement that is making the white Christian population feel they are losing privilege. I don't have any sympathy. Rather I'm shocked at how narrow minded and regressive a large portion of the population are.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/11/08/us/politics/election-exit-polls.html?_r=0

[BertrandRussell]

"The Feminism that they hear about is all men are potential rapists, PIV equates to rape and women should turn to political lesbians"

Good Lord!

Could you link to some of the places where they hear this stuff? I'm fascinated!

[WankingMonkey]

Blacks riot, Muslims set bombs, gays spread AIDS, Mexican cartels behead children, atheists tear down Christmas trees. Meanwhile, those liberal Lena Dunhams in their $5,000-a-month apartments sip wine and say, "But those white Christians are the real problem!" Terror victims scream in the street next to their own severed limbs, and the response from the elites is to cry about how men should be allowed to use women's restrooms and how it's cruel to keep chickens in cages.

From the cracked article above. It makes so much sense...I haven't been able to understand the decision at all, I feel I am closer to it now.

[FreshwaterSelkie]

I would love to think it's the last gasp of a dying breed, but I get much more of the sense that it's another backlash. I was just re-reading "Backlash", by Susan Faludi and was struck by how much of the pushback against feminism the 80s/early 90s is not only still happening, but happening in new ways. I do wonder if it's another cyclical phase - gains in the 70s, losses in the 80s and early 90s, gains in the later 90s and noughties, losing ground in the 20-teens.

[venusinscorpio]

Yes, I read it again a few years ago after reading it first at 16 and was struck by the same thing.

[LumpySpacedPrincess]

I agree with that Fresh and the internet is a mainly misogynistic space.

It will only stop when men treat women as people, not things. That's all women not just their wives and daughters.

sausage you're a bloke aren't you.

[LassWiTheDelicateAir]

I don't think sausage is a man.

[Bitofacow]

OP I really, really, really hope you are right.

Really

[VestalVirgin]

In the end, it really doesn't matter what we think it is. We should prepare for the worst.

[Boolovessulley]

Trump was voted in by white males.

Stop blaming others for white males actions.

[TeiTetua]

The last gasp of an expiring Patriarchy, or the first roar of a newly resurgent patriarchy?

To say that Trump was entirely elected by men is thoroughly anti-feminist, by ignoring the many women who voted for him. It may be frustrating for feminists to consider the many women who don't see feminism's benefits, but you can't just pretend it's not true. Or well, you can, but it loses elections and stuff like that.

[Obsidian77]

I hope you're right op but I fear otherwise. I think we'll have a clearer view when the electorate grasp that Trump had no intention of keeping any of his promises. Do they think "we made a shit choice, this guy was never going to deliver" or do they blame the liberal East coast feminists yadda yadda.
I'm worried by how exactly America is going to be made "great" again. I suspect we'll see an uptick in social conservatism.

[LassWiTheDelicateAir]

TeiTua some of the posturing on MN and the Guardian with commentators falling over themselves to set out their impeccable liberal credentials is making me sympathetic to those who voted for Trump. If I'd had a say I'd have voted for Clinton but still...

I thought this article in Forbes was interesting.

America is a nation of many economies, but those that produce real, tangible things — food, fiber, energy and manufactured goods — went overwhelmingly for Trump. He won virtually every state from Appalachia to the Rockies, with the exceptions of heavily Hispanic Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico, and President Obama’s home base of Illinois

The Improbable Demographics Behind Donald Trump's Shocking Presidential Victory
www.forbes.com/sites/joelkotkin/2016/11/09/donald-trumps-presidenti-victory-demographics/#36ba92b579a8