CW: chapter 2 contains a detailed description of child abuse by a parent
Hello comrades, it’s time for our second discussion thread for The Will to Change, covering Chapters 2 (Understanding Patriarchy) and 3 (Being a Boy). Thanks to everyone who participated last week, I’m looking forward to hearing everyone’s thoughts again. And if you’re just joining the book club this week, welcome!
In Ch.2 hooks defines patriarchy, how it is enforced by parental figures and society at large, and the struggle of antipatriarchal parents to raise children outside of these rigid norms when the border culture is so immersed in them. Ch.3 delves deeper into the effects of patriarchy on young boys and girls and the systemic apparatuses that reinforce gender norms.
If you haven’t read the book yet but would like to, its available free on the Internet Archive in text form, as well as an audiobook on Youtube with content warnings at the start of each chapter, courtesy of the Anarchist Audio Library, and as an audiobook on our very own TankieTube! (note: the YT version is missing the Preface but the Tankietube version has it)
As always let me know if you’d like to be added to the ping list!
Our next discussion will be on Chapters 4 (Stopping Male Violence) and 5 (Male Sexual Being), beginning on 12/11.
This exactly how I feel about my dad. My parents never hit me and would never entertain the thought but they were both “old-fashioned” as people say. Dad was the man of the house and you did whatever he said and even in my 30s I still feel an almost unnatural subservience to him.
Im the same and my brother is the same. My “failures” are often things my dad would disapprove from, his disapproval lives in my head rent free.
Although him and my mom have had a ton of family therapy over the past two years with my little brother, so maybe there is room for healing of relationships in the future