#letthemusicplay💙

I would like to explain what patriarchy is to the men who try to explain it to us. Patriarchy is being a little girl and having to serve at the table, while your brother doesn’t. It’s carrying the physical and mental load while being told you’re lucky because your husband “helps” you. It’s a job interview where they ask if you have children or plan to have them. It’s an attempted rape on a beach while you’re alone, reading a book. It’s being infantilized by a man simply because you’re a woman. It’s the knot in your throat when you’re alone at night and cross paths with a man who has a predatory look. It’s a career path blocked because you’re pregnant or have children. It’s the discomfort of walking into a bar full of old men and becoming the target of stares and remarks. It’s a comment about your appearance from a colleague. It’s an employer telling you to “take better care of yourself.” It’s a university professor hitting on you, exploiting his position of power. It’s the violence of childbirth with the Kristeller maneuver and episiotomy. It’s having to hide your period and work through the cramps. It’s being either married or “marriageable.” It’s earning half of what your male colleagues earn. It’s being sexually harassed by your music teacher. It’s being violently harassed by your middle school classmates. It’s dancing at a party and finding hands on your ass. It’s being beaten, raped, and killed—and then being blamed for it. Patriarchy is a husband who kills your children because you want to be a free woman. And finally—though not because the list is over—it’s having to listen to men explaining to you that patriarchy doesn’t exist. — G. Perin