362 Quotes About Patriarchy

The woman who realizes that she is bound by a million Lilliputian threads in an attitude of impotence and hatred masquerading as tranquility and love has no option but to run away, if she is not to be corrupted and extinguished utterly.

If I were valuable to anyone, I would not be allowed to live alone.

Much of what is considered "good" in little girls is considered downright repulsive in little boys. Physical timidity or hypercautiousness, being quietly "well behaved", and depending on others for help and support are thought to be natural - if not outright charming - in girls. Boys, however, are actively discouraged from the dependent forms of relating, which are considered "sissyish" in male children.

Because of the way society sets them up, women never again experience the need to develop independence - until some crisis in later life explodes their complacency, showing them how sadly helpless and undeveloped they've allowed themselves to be.

There is plenty of work that needs to be done by men to dismantle patriarchy

Emotions were running so high in the country that I feared there was going to be some violence before the election. I even half-jokingly said to Hillary one day in October that it was beginning to feel like we were upsetting some cosmic natural balance by seeking to "upend the patriarchy." I didn't really believe it, of course, but a large part of the country seemed to believe Hillary represented an existential threat to the proper order of things.

No male successfully measures up to patriarchal standards without engaging in an ongoing practice of self-betrayal.

Marriage cannot be a job as it has become.

Any man who breathes has more power than a woman in her world – and our world too.