Brotherhood and Intersectionality

1. PATRIARCHY, BROTHERHOOD
AND ROMANCE IN
Blood Red Road

2. Brotherhood
Characteristics we
listed from our first
class:
Fraternity
Organized
Powerful
Gang
Rough/competitive
Sinister( brotherhood of
mutants)
Hierarchy
Bond
Governing
Official
Power/action-based
Amassing power to accomplish goals
Men have to prove themselves
to be included in the brotherhood
Projecting a powerful image
Standing for beliefs
Rules are clear
Men have each others’ backs

3. GROUP EXERCISE
Name the Brotherhoods in Blood Red Road. In what ways do
they exemplify the qualities we discussed on the first day?
Write down your responses as a group. Find evidence to
support. We will discuss this in about 15 minutes.

4. Patriarchal Society (This full essay is listed under Critical Essays on our
website)
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/feminism/a/patriarchal.htm
FeministTheories of Patriarchy
By Linda Napikoski, with contributions by Jone Johnson Lewis
.
Definition: Patriarchal (adj.) describes a general structure in
which men have power over women. Society (n.) is the entirety
of relations of a community. A patriarchal society consists of a
male-dominated power structure throughout organized society
and in individual relationships. The concept of patriarchy has
been central to many feminist theories.

5. What is Patriarchy? (FullText is available on our website
under critical essays)
by Malise Rosbech
http://www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/article_comments/what_is_patriarchy
“It is perhaps one of the most used terms in feminist discourse,
but the concept of patriarchy has a history that we need to
address. Not only has it got the potential of excluding and
discriminating against other groups of people, it is also
sometimes reactionary and anti-feminist. Feminism should
abandon the concept of patriarchy and instead look towards the
future of an intersectional feminism.”

6. “Patriarchy has more recently undergone a welcomed
reconceptualization. Rosemary Hennesy, for example, describes
patriarchy as a system by which more social resources ‘accrue to men as a
group at the expense of women as a group’ but that patriarchy is a
‘variable and historical social totality in that its particular forms for
organizing social relations, such as work, citizenship, reproduction,
ownership, pleasure, and identity, have had a persistent effect on
heterogendered structures in dominance at the same time these
structures vary and are sites of social struggle.’ She even differs between
bourgeois, postmodern and public patriarchy.” Rosbech

7. “Now, this conception allows more room for understanding the historical
and cultural context. What is important to notice in this conceptualization,
is that patriarchy becomes differential. That is, when patriarchy is
variable in a context, it can be theorized how it works in concert with for
example a racial system of white supremacy or the class system. This
could for example mean that we could understand how some men have
more patriarchal powers than others, and that not all men equally benefit
from patriarchy. In this way patriarchy is only one out of many forms of
oppression and it should always be understood and theorized in
conjunction with other oppressive structures.” Rosbech

8. “Yet, the issue here is that it never loses its universality of
oppression; although it is a variable, the bottom line is that men
dominate women. According to this understanding of patriarchy we
would only be able to theorize how some men are ‘lesser patriarchs’
than other men, but never how a woman can inhabit the role of the
patriarchal oppressor. In reality this understanding of patriarchy
doesn’t take us much further than the Radical Feminist sex/gender
distinction inasmuch as it does not fully theorize how cis-women
(women whose gender matches the sex they were assigned at birth)
can and do participate in the oppression of other women and
minorities. The latest example is the exclusion of trans*-women
from the Radical Feminist meetings.” Rosbech

9. “‘Kyriarchy’ is a neologism (a newly coined word or expression)
coined by Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza to denote interconnected
oppressing systems in which a person or a group of people might be
dominated or oppressed in some relationships but privileged in
others. Kyriarchy is the intersectional extension of the concept of
patriarchy, but one that does not rely on the inherent dualism of the
sex/gender distinction. Kyriarchy encompasses sexism, racism,
homophobia, trans*phobia, classism, ableism, cissexism and other
forms of hierarchical structures that has been institutionalized or/and
internalized. The currently very popular term ‘intersectionality’ is the
study of these intersections of oppression and domination.” Rosbech

10. “There are at least two very important contributions the concept of
intersectionality brings to the feminist discourse and struggle. Firstly, that
all forms of oppression should be challenged and fought against. This is of
course a much more inclusive concept than patriarchy, recognizing the
wider struggle against all domination. Secondly, that experiences of
domination differ and overlaps. That is to say that one form of oppression
cannot be separated from another, for example, sexism can be racialized
and racism sexualized. You can therefore not say that a black woman
experiences racism as something separate from sexism. The sexism that
black women face is often shaped by their gender. Although both black
and white women, abled and disabled women, middle class and working
class women experience sexism, it is significantly different in form.”
(Rosbech)

11. “This of course is where the three words 'check your privilege'
come into the picture. While intersectionality is the study of
intersections, ‘check your privilege’ is an everyday statement that
can remind individuals of any structural social advantages they
might have by position, birth or other, such as being a man, white,
cis or wealthy. ‘Check your privilege’ is just a reminder of how
privilege might have affected what you have said or done. The
purpose and measure of kyriarchy and intersectional studies is to
understand the power and tendencies to silence, oppress and
minimize others.” (Rosbech)

12. From bell hooks: "Visionary feminism is a wise and loving politics. It is rooted in the
love of male and female being, refusing to privilege one over the other. The soul of
feminist politics is the commitment to ending patriarchal domination of women and
men, girls and boys. Love cannot exist in any relationship that is based on domination
and coercion. Males cannot love themselves in patriarchal culture if their very self-
definition relies on submission to patriarchal rules. When men embrace feminist
thinking and practice, which emphasizes the value of mutual growth and self-
actualization in all relationships, their emotional well-being will be enhanced. A
genuine feminist politics always brings us from bondage to freedom, from lovelessness
to loving."
Also from bell hooks: "We have to constantly critique imperialist white supremacist
patriarchal culture because it is normalized by mass media and rendered
unproblematic.” Napikoski

13. Discussion topic
Find and name the Patriarchies/Kyriarchies/Intersectionalities in
Blood Red Road. Who is oppressed?Who is the oppressor?What
recourse do the oppressed have? Who is in control? How do
they maintain it? Can you map out the power structures in any
way? Can one be both a contributing member to the patriarchy
and at the same time a victim of it?
Where/when/how does that happen in our text?

14. I can’t resist the love triangle/
quadrangle.
Compare Saba’s feelings about Lugh (p. 3, 17-19, 32-33, 80,
266-267)
With her feelings about De Malo: p. 139-140, 188-190,
And Jack: 179-180, 219-222, 246-247, 262-268, 282-285, 300-
304, 318-319, 323, 334-336, 362-365
How would you describe her feelings? To what do you attribute
them all?

15. Homework
■ Finish the book.
■ Prepare for the Jeopardy game.
■ Start thinking about how you would like to address the possible topics for the short
paper on Blood Red Road.