Combat Patriarchy
Critique of Social Cisheteropatriarchy on the "Left", by Lorelai Armistead
Cisheteropatriarchy is the economic, political, ideological and social pattern of organization, structure and processes that monopolize power in the hands of cisgender, heterosexual men and those with more proximity to them. Social cisheteropatriarchy, or social patriarchy, is the reification of such monopolization of power within “Left” ecosystems: social-democratic organizations, revisionist “vanguards” and would-be vanguards, anarchist scenes, and so on. It breeds many errors that infect, defang and ultimately dismantle more revolutionary movements and organizations. Our weapon against this is material transfeminism, and every comrade of every gender and sexuality should take up this weapon to defend against the reaction in and outside of the “Left” ecosystems.
With material transfeminism as our guide, we can make criticisms of (cishetero)patriarchal chauvinism done by individuals on interpersonal and organizational levels. Anyone of any gender or sexuality is capable of patriarchal chauvinism. This brings us to the first type of social patriarchy: individuals and organizations ignoring criticisms from 2SLGBTQIA+ comrades, especially those more marginalized than the ones being criticized. Ignoring, downplaying, pretending to listen but not changing behavior, gaslighting, and other forms of classic patriarchal chauvinism rear their head again in “Left” ecosystems and is the first type of social patriarchy.
The second type of social patriarchy is the wielding of interpersonal relationships, especially sexual and romantic, as well as hierarchical dominance established between individuals (especially cis men), as soft power within an organization. The relegation of criticisms that should be made in groups to the side so as to avoid and minimize vulnerability, the asking of political support (especially votes) based on these interpersonal relationships, the use of comrades of marginalized genders (especially trans women) to be token faces of organizations without having predominant political power even within the social sphere - these are all the second type of social patriarchy.
The third type has to do with the promotion and protection of cisgender men’s sexual and romantic power over queer people, especially queer women, gender-nonconforming and transmasculine people. Because of the current conditions of society there is already a power differential between cis men and cis women that allows the former to have sexual and romantic entitlement, and this power differential is accelerated between cis men and queer people, especially queer women, gender- nonconforming and transmasculine people. It is also accelerated when the social-patriarchal individual seeks out and commits to people who are more vulnerable (economically, socially, mentally, age-wise and so on) as partners. This has repeatedly and consistently produced “sex pests” on the individual level who abuse, assault and/or rape queer people especially queer women, and are either allowed to protect themselves in an unstructured environment that has already replicated patriarchy - such as anarchist “scenes” - or are protected by structured social environments that have already replicated patriarchy such as various social-democratic “vanguards.” While most overtly and consistently done by cis men, this sexual and romantic abuse can be done by anyone of any gender or sexuality. When these power differentials are passed by uncritically and not addressed, when people enter organizations with the explicit or implicit purpose of sexual and romantic relations especially with such a power differential, and when abusers are allowed to stay within organizations without investigation, expulsion and organizational self-criticism: this is the third type of social patriarchy.
The fourth type is the undue and disproportionate sexual and romantic control exerted by one - usually privileged - partner over another. Such things as ignoring or ‘forgetting’ boundaries, policing monoamory or polyamory but not communicating or submitting the same power to the other; the policing of gender or gender expression or sexuality, whether through pronouns or name or clothes or hormonal or surgical or ontological or other; the policing and limiting of a partner’s presence, affections, and overall ‘presenting of dating’ so that the policing partner appears more available, ascribing certain qualities to biology (doing bioessentialism) such as saying that a partner is upset because ‘they are on their period.’ The seeing and navigating of polyamory as competitive is another example. These things are often wielded and/or multiplied because of the power differential laid out in the third type. This undue control done between people whether at organizational events or not, or in official or unofficial capacity - this is the fourth type of social patriarchy.
The fifth type is the overall concentration of power - soft power, economic, political, ideological/cultural, social, ecological, “hard” power, “bio”power, health, organizational, defensive, or any other kind of power within the hands of cisgender men and those with more proximity to them. There is the overt kind of this social patriarchy, such as the dominance of cis men and cis people overall in leadership - whether at the small, local, regional or whatever level - which can be seen in various socialist countries, social democratic countries, socialist parties and organizations, and so on. There is also the covert kind of this social patriarchy, which is the use and reification of the ‘boys club’ (to privilege cis men over more marginalized genders), the reductionist focus on class and/or nation without adequate focus on cisheteropatriarchy, the talking over others and impatience with others especially of marginalized genders, the relegating of comrades with marginalized genders to less powerful roles and positions as a trend, the eschewing of interpersonal financial responsibility and interpersonal domestic labor, the avoidance and/or lack of thorough study of revolutionaries with marginalized genders - these make up the fifth type of social patriarchy.
The sixth type is the wielding of social patriarchy by the middle elements with respect to gender, especially white cis women, white queer people, against the more oppressed elements which are trans women and nonwhite gender-nonconforming people in general. This comes in part from a lack of recognition of transmisogyny as the fulcrum of patriarchy and of classist transmisogynoir as the unifying axis across capitalist-imperialism, white supremacy and patriarchy. This type has the ruinous effect of stopping social alliance between marginalized genders before it can begin, and of breaking it up where it already exists. In a sense this is a type of social opportunism by the middle elements so as to gain favor and individual power from cisgender men. Willingly participating in patriarchal structures as a token or opportunist and diverting revolutionary energy purely into reform, such as assimilationism, liberal feminism and pinkwashing, and even contemporary Marxist feminism, proletarian feminism and radical feminism, as well as the setup and encouragement of these things by cis men and cis people - these all make up the sixth type of social patriarchy.
The seventh type is the ideological-organizational disproportionate focus on the struggles of economically exploited cis men to the exclusion of economically exploited people of marginalized genders. The downplaying and lack of participation in collectivizing domestic labor, childcare programs, healthcare less needed by cis men, and so on; as well as the ideological assertion that traditional socialism alone is enough to dismantle patriarchy while having no concrete analysis or plans to do so. The over-focus on the proletariat, including comprador proletariat, to the exclusion or sidestepping of the precariat and the Nexus which are far more oppressed by cisheteropatriarchy; all of this ideological-organizational right deviation is the seventh type of social patriarchy.
As with liberalism, patriarchy has innumerable crimes and no list of aspects of patriarchy can be complete. But cisheteropatriarchy conflicts concretely and abstractly, on basic and complex levels with communism and communist revolution. All of us need to take up material transfeminism as a revolutionary weapon against cisheteropatriarchy and in doing so advance the ideology and practice of communist revolution. This is one of the greatest tasks on our social front and mirrors with respect to the material economic, political and ideological/cultural conditions of our lives and society.