34 Comments

Thank you, my brain is stretching more and more with everything you publish.

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Thank you so much for spending your precious time here and for being open with my words. I’m so grateful! 💜

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Early morning read. Intrigued and will watch for Part 2!

Initial comment: sigh…. It is a lot and goes back so very far, this stuff.

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Thank you so much for spending your precious time with my words, I’m so grateful!

I feel that sigh completely.

Be prepared for more sighs from part two, I’m afraid.

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Great information of the history of women's labor in the medieval times. Women have always worked in jobs aside from indoor domestic labor, but it does not get acknowledged enough. Looking forward to reading part two.

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Absolutely!! Thank you so much for spending your time here and taking a moment to leave a kind word. I am grateful! 💜

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Thank you so much for the mention, I'm honored to be included among so many great female writers here! ❤️ Wonderful read! I always find it dissapointing when seemingly left-leaning people—though it's usually men—focus on class and class alone in their critique of our modern world, as if it exists, or has ever existed, in complete isolation from gender and other identities.

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The unwillingness to see the interconnectedness of it all is particularly interesting--I'm not going to get the quote right as I don't have it in front of me, but in The Will to Change bell hooks talks about how the inability of men to identify patriarchy as a guiding force in their behaviors is proof enough of false-male supremacy or the illusion of being all-knowing. Thank you for your words, for spending your time here, and for uplifting! I am grateful for you and your voice!

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Thank you for your meticulous research on this topic. **Grateful** to read a newsletter that bridges academia well with newsletter-style writing.

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Thank you for spending your precious time with my words, Ruth! And for taking the time to say this--it means a lot! I learned really early on in my masters program that academia speak isn't for me, I didn't like the hidden biases I was encouraged to write through. This feels better for the soul, so I am so grateful to have it received in such gracious ways. Thank you.

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Sorry about the asterisk (please ignore) it was meant to be bold font

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I do things like this all of the time! I so understand!

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Do all men really benefit from patriarchy? Yes and no. In the short run, yes, it's a zero-sum game. But in the long run, as per the law of karma (and also the concept of ubuntu as well), it's a NEGATIVE-sum game that ultimately hurts both primary genders to one degree or another.

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Hi - I agree with what you’re saying, in parts. I’ve written extensively how harmful the patriarchy is for those performing masculinity, this particular piece was a focus on specifically the feminine performance under patriarchy.

All men benefit, even if it harms them. Both can be true at the same time. Not all women benefit, while all are harmed. This isn’t saying women can’t, won’t, and don’t benefit within nor perpetuate that same harm, but the hierarchical nature of WSCpatriarchy makes the experiences separate.

If we can’t ever decenter men, we’ll never move beyond patriarchy. It’s such a hard line to walk, for sure. Acknowledging both while making space for both.

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Well-said overall. My point was, since patriarchy is a negative-sum game overall, thus ending that system would be a positive-sum result for both primary genders. (Too many men unfortunately see feminism as a zero-sum game.)

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I'm glad you clarified, as truthfully I totally missed this! Thanks for expanding. But yes, yes, yes, wholeheartedly agree. We can't keep introducing new initiatives into a broken system and wondering why the fail. The whole system has got to go.

Also, so glad you wrote primary genders, as my comment too was only focused on the binary and absolutely overlooking the experience elsewhere. Appreciate you adding that!! 💜

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You're very welcome, and thank you as well 😊

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Excellent read

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Thank you!! 💜💜

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Phenomenally researched and written! And what an honor, truly, to be included among so many great writers, thinkers, and researchers. I'm reminded of reading something about Lee McCarthy recently, how she resisted capitalist scarcity structures in her own way by supporting other writers far and wide. (https://lithub.com/leaving-cormac-life-lessons-from-my-correspondence-with-lee-mccarthy/)

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I adore your recommendations, thank you for adding one here!!! Very grateful to grow from your paradigms. Thanks for spending time with some of mine 💜

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Oh, but I am growing from yours, too! This book it seems to be taking me a lifetime to write has always included a chapter on ownership of women ... I am saving ALL your essays in my inbox, and when I get to that part of it, you might get tired of me referencing your work! Pretty much everyone you write about I've either never heard of before, or only a little. It's important. ❤️‍🔥

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Blocking out a bunch of time this week to deep dive into your posts. Best Substack I’ve found so far. ❤️❤️

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My goodness! My whole heart! Thank you for this. Honestly honored. Time is such a precious resource and to want to sit with my words means the world to my inner-child who didn’t dare dream of writing seriously. Thank you. 💜

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❤️❤️ you’re welcome. You’ve also inspired me to make a snarky feminist comic of proverbs 31. I can’t wait to start drawing!

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oh. my. goodness. I can’t wait to see what this yields!!!!

Happy creative time to you 💖💖

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Thank you! Entertained and educated, this morning!

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You’re so appreciated, Gabriel! Thank you for spending your time here! ❤️

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Loveedddd this - it’s so satisfying to see the dots connecting all the way to modern day influencers (if, at the same time, also somewhat disheartening lmao)

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Shana, thank you for taking a moment and saying this! I so appreciate you spending your time with my words, and then a kind comment on top of that? come on, my heart!! I think something similar often - especially when I stumble upon a woman fighting for the same exact thing 500, 400, 300 (etc…) years ago and it makes me want to scream. It is the both/and. Affirming to know this isn’t natural, debilitating to know how long we’ve been fighting against the same thing. Thanks again for taking time here ❤️

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Thank you for sharing your writing, always so thoughtful, researched and beautifully articulated.

I’m quite new to Substack, just a few months, and this comment is the first thing I’ve written! (I’ve been hiding, afraid of being seen)

I really just wanted to say how much I appreciate that you’ve allowed free access to your writing with the ‘pay if you can’ request. I love your writing, I’m very grateful it’s not disappeared behind a paywall. Thank you

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Truly feel honored your first substack comment—which ultimately renders you perceived—was here! Thank you 💜 I’m grateful you are here. Thank you for spending time with my words. Capitalism is weird and conflates financial support with the only allowable support and that just isn’t true. To have someone read my words and paradigms because they sought them out—feels unreal! 💜

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this was very informative and I enjoyed the voice over a lot! it’s hard to put in words currently but im glad I could scratch the itch of curiosity I’ve always had for women’s conditions in the past and how it relates to the present. Society is still affected by these things and people tend not to talk about these issues since it seems “progressive” now, yet there’s lot of work needed to be done! Thank you.

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Oh my goodness thank you for taking the time to write this. I am so glad you were able to scratch that knowledge-itch you had and I’m honored it was here!

Absolutely! We tend to conflate the progress of time with the progress of the human experience and that just isn’t true—have some things been made better because time has allowed awareness? Absolutely! Does that apply across the board to all things? Absolutely not. Part two goes into it, but there is so much to be said about how we confuse the Market with Human Nature, and that hurts us so much. Thank you for spending your time here, I am grateful!

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