Oh! Silly white Women: I was a monument to the patriarchy

Abstract

Stereotypes around femininity presented to young Women have historically not been inclusive often consisting of single-story one-dimensional white ideals of femininity. Young Women could lean into the stereotype or turn away, the dismissal often created new stereotypes due to a lack of variety in feminine representation such as “I’m not like other girls.” The exposure to these white feminine stereotypes created cracks in a young Woman’s relationship with femininity and what it means to be girl. Causing a shift to antifeminist and sexist thought while developing internalized misogyny. This presents externally as Women hating behavior that supports the learned mindsets of white men in regards to the sexualization, degradation and the general treatment of other Women. The patriarchal system influenced millions of young Women across the country in their homes, in their classrooms, each night on television, and then reinforced the same imagery on the covers of teen magazines. These young Women often started behaving as a monument to the Patriarchy acting for the best interest of the heteronormative white male experience. I was one of those young white Women, and due to a lack of strong feminist representation I instead turned into a living, breathing, and sometimes ‘preaching’ monument to the patriarchy. Through autoethnography and research of pop culture from the 1990’s and 2000’s, I will analyze my own experience. I was manipulated by the heteropatriarchy and colonialism to be antifeminist, to hate other Women and actively cause harm to others based on their expression of femininity.