On patriarchal reversals

Blue Copper by M.K. Hajdin

This brings up a very important subject which is the idea of reversals. We live in a reversal society. For example, the idea that Eve came from Adam is a reversal. It’s ridiculous. Who could believe that? It’s contrary to all biology. But with that myth in mind, people can justify somehow the idea that God is male. And therefore that male is God. And that he’s the origin. But he’s not the origin. The Bible is full of reversals. There are reversals everywhere. Orwell thought that when he wrote in 1984 about Doublethink. You know, the Ministry of Truth was where they made up lies, the Ministry of Love was where they tortured people. Everywhere you go there is Doublethink. There’s ‘natural’ make-up that of course is unnatural. Or think of ‘pro-life’. When they say ‘life’ they mean ‘death’.

— Mary Daly

Patriarchal reversals happen when a man, or a woman who has aligned herself with men, asserts that feminists are guilty of X when in fact it is men who are guilty of X.  It’s a projection, a verbal sleight of hand that seeks to distract from what the patriarchy is doing by putting women in a defensive position.

Example:  “Radical feminism is all about money”.  In fact, the patriarchy is all about extracting financial resources and other resources like time, ideas and labor, from women for the benefit of men.  Feminism is about redistributing those unfairly hoarded resources, not about greed, as some of its critics suggest.