Patriarchs create and foster ‘hostile environments’ for women* and people from other vulnerable communities.
Patriarchs embody the fear of these unsafe places and propagate and impose it on these people.
Once people’s consciences are smeared with fear, their ‘saviour instinct’ unleashes. The very people who cultivate these dangers come forward to offer protection to women and other vulnerable sections.
But, a thin veil separates these acts of saving people and creating safe spaces: you protect people because the numerous risks posed to them continue to exist while creating safe spaces eliminates the need to shield anybody at all.
When this ‘saviour instinct’ explodes in society, it hinders individualities and disallows the exposed people from attaining their true personhoods.
And, people pursue it relentlessly because it is simpler, more comfortable even, to put checks on a few people than overhauling entire systems, including themselves.
And when women refuse to conform to these unjust rules and regulations, patriarchs are forced to confront their own inadequacies and biases, which paralyses them with fear.
The fear compounds and swiftly turns into hatred, constructing even more dangerous and treacherous spaces. The cycle repeats, and the erosion of women continues.
*women/womxn/wimmin/womyn
