Fighting the Man Box

 

 In the last few weeks, there has been resurgence of feminist dialogue in radical circles in response to actions and comments surrounding Deep Green Resistance.  As a radical feminist environmentalist, I am glad to see this conversation coming into the environmental movement because far too often privileged young, white men dominate the conversation. Would it be possible to have a constructive conceptual feminist analysis of gender that includes the experiences women, trans people and even men under patriarchy? I believe that this is not only possible but necessary in the struggle to end patriarchal oppression. In my opinion, under patriarchy anyone who deviates from the “man box” is punished. For the purposes of this article I will define the “man box” as an upper middle class, white, middle aged, monogamous, heterosexual, tall and muscular male bodied individual. Any deviation from the “man box” is punished by escalating levels of force. If you are poor, female bodied, a person of color, gender queer, LGBTQ, young or old, non-monogamous you will never fit into the box. This excludes the vast majority of the population and the vast majority of people have something to gain by fighting patriarchal oppression.

Under patriarchy, female bodied people are automatically excluded from the “man box” and are punished for the “offense” by harassment, lower wages, rape and even domestic homicide. Women’s role in a patriarchal society is to assure that men have easy access to reproduction, orgasms, children and cheap labor. Many of the ways in which women have fought patriarchy include gaining access to higher wages, birth control and abortion. By fighting for reproductive rights and higher wages (as well as the abolition of capitalism), feminists have organized to strike at the root of patriarchy. Women have great potential to destroy patriarchy, which ultimately affects people of all genders, due to their lived experiences of oppression. The lived experiences of oppression give women deeper insight to the roots of patriarchy than most male-bodied people, which can help activists identify crucial goals for a feminist struggle such as increasing access to abortion, maternal health care and contraception.

Women though, are not the only people who have lived experience of oppression under patriarchy. Trans people and genderqueer people also understand the escalating force used to keep people in the “man box”. Transwomen are routinely harassed, sexually assaulted and subject to police brutality for deviating from the “man box”. Transpeople also have insight into the ways in which patriarchy replicates due to their lived experiences of deviated from the gender binary. The gender binary is the societal framework which contends that people are either male or female and that their gender should appropriately match their assigned gender. For example, men are forbidden from wearing dresses and women are expected to wear dresses. By violating the gender binary, transpeople have insight into the escalation of force used to keep people into their designated box. The experiences of transpeople can greatly add to the depth of feminist analysis by adding an understanding of how people are treated on various sides of the binary. Some of the problems more common in trans communities such as safe access to health care, ending work discrimination and ending police brutality against trans people could be fought with trans activists leading the struggle and with women and men standing in solidarity with trans movements. The same could be said for problems more common in women’s communities such as access to reproductive rights, sexual and domestic violence and wage inequality should be fought with women leading the struggle with men and transpeople fighting in solidairity. 

Even men have a lot to gain by agitating for a feminist revolution. Men who deviate from the “man box” could be severely punished. Examples of this include gay men who have been murdered or boys who are harassed for acting femininely. Men suffer a rigid binary in which they will face similar levels of violence against them as women do when they express what society has deemed “feminine”. As most women and trans people have already learned, the greater the deviation from the “man box” the greater level of force used against you. Under patriarchy, men are not allowed to express emotion and suffer high levels of violence in their lives due to homicide, war and gang violence.

The capitalist class has been using patriarchy against the working class for a long time. An example of this is dividing work into “men’s work” and “women’s work” so that men and women rarely unite. While women are certainly more oppressed under patriarchy than men, under capitalism both suffer from the division of men and women. This does not mean though that women’s issues or trans issues can be seen as “distractions” or “divisions” from fighting capitalism. While patriarchy and capitalism are not the same institutions, they are linked and a fight against patriarchy is intrinsically linked to a fight against capitalism and vice versa. Globally, women have the lowest wages and little access to the means of production. Working class men have a lot to gain by joining in solidarity in a fight against patriarchy because we might finally be able to end the brutal system of oppression that is capitalism. Working class men need to listen to their sisters when they call them out for oppressive behavior because it will strengthen their movement and ability to fight capitalism. Even more importantly, it is the right thing to do.

Horizontal hostility is incredibly common within social movements. It is so much easier to take all our anger out at the working man who said an oppressive comment than eliminate the advertising industry which dictates what male desires should be. It is easier to throw a clueless comrade out of a meeting than to educate him on why his comments are inappropriate. Unfortunately, as the ruling class begins a relentless attack on the working class, it is imperative that we begin to fight together. 2011 was a time of working class revolt throughout the world. It is time we get organized and finally face our collective enemy as women, transmen and transwomen and men: the ruling class.