Short Response to "Patriarch, the System"

In "Patriarchy, the System: An It, Not a He, a Them, or an Us," Allan Johnson talks about how patriarchy is set in place by humans and perpetuated by everyone's constant acceptance of it and participation in it. Johnson explains that "patriarchy is based in part on a set of symbols and ideas that make up a culture embodied by everything from the content of everyday conversation to literature and film" (Johnson). One symbol that he points to is language. Johnson explains that words that used to have one meaning and connotation during prepatriarchal times now have completely different meanings and evoke drastically different images under a patriarchal system. One such word is the word witch. While "the witch was the wise-woman healer, the knower of herbs, the midwife, the link joining body, spirit, and Earth," she is now considered evil and coniving (Johnson). Simply because we have accepted these negative connotations of otherwise positive words under the patriarchal system, we have perpetuated the oppression of women.

This specific passage relates to the current political scandal, which shows a television clip of Delaware Republican Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell admitting that she "dabbled in witch craft." While the clip is from eleven years ago, it is gaining much media attention and is being used to portray the candidate in a negative light. One Republican stategist Karl Rove warns, “In southern Delaware, where there are a lot of churchgoing people [who are] probably going to want to know what was that all about” (Stelter). It seems ridiculous to hold this against O'Donnell. First, she says she "dated" a witch, and wasn't really aware of what she was getting herself into. Second, the clip is from eleven years ago and she was clearly speaking about an event that occurred even earlier, when she was in high school. Furthermore, even if O'Donnell participated in witch craft, who is to say that this makes her a bad political candidate? Who is to say that witch craft is not positive, just as the wise-woman healer of prepatriarchal times benefited society? It seems that the use of this tape is clearly to do harm to O'Donnell's campaign and to portray her in a negative light. Moreover, by employing the norms set by the patriarchal system, her political opponents are succeeding in raising questions about her moral character.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc5HXVxe7XM

Allan G. Johnson, "Patriarchy, the System: An It, Not a He, a Them, or an Us."
Selter, Brian. "Political Cauldron Stirred by Old Video of Candidate." The New York Times, 19 Sept., 2010.