An honest apology from The Patriarchy (sorrynotsorry)
To be honest, we're not all that sorry...
For reasons entirely beyond our comprehension, there’s a lot of shade, and worse, being thrown at The Patriarchy these days. You all seem to think that we’ve been doing something wrong and that we owe you some kind of apology. But do we?
Sorry, but being sorry is just not our thing; it’s not how we roll. How we roll is over you, as in ‘steamroll.’ We’re really, really SORRYNOTSORRY that we tried to keep you down. You. You know who you are. You are anyone who scares us. You are probably female, but you might also be brown or poor or have a culture and/or set of values that are different enough from ours that we find you threatening. Or you might want what we want without being one of us.
Just to be clear, we are the White Impenitent (and Impertinent) Male Patriarchy (WIMPs). We are the crème de la crème. We are the masters of the universe. Whatever we get, or take, we deserve. We deserve world domination.
Admittedly, that’s not going so well at the moment, but at least we’re wrecking things as fast as we can. If we can’t have everything we want, then neither can you.
You say we want everything for ourselves and don’t want to share? Well, yes. Doesn’t everyone feel that way? Aren’t we just better at getting what we want than you are? Isn’t that why we deserve to get whatever we want? Do you really want an apology for what we have been doing that you would have been doing too, if only you were superior, like us? Is there anything so bad about wanting to control and dominate others? Isn’t it natural… law of the jungle, etc.?
If it was wrong, we’re SORRYNOTSORRY.
And, dear little women, of course we want to control you. What choice do we have? We desperately desire and need you and we don’t understand you. You are so powerful in so many ways that you terrify us. The only way we can have you where and how we want you, without debilitating fear, is under our thumbs.
So, SORRYNOTSORRY.
To be brutally honest, we are feeling depressed these days. There is just so much loud squawking from you gals, and from all you girlymen who think you have a right to your emotions and who actually respect your female partners as equals. And everyone else whose sense of identity does not fit within the narrow parameters that we recognize as safe and in our best interest. Also, there is a tsunami of brown people coming at us. We’re trying to build dikes and seawalls as fast as we can, but leaks are everywhere.
And speaking of dykes, there are a lot of those, and other women who don’t understand how important we are — who just don’t seem to care. And who seem quite able to take care of themselves without our help, or interference. How very frustrating this is.
We admit it — the hard work of maintaining our position as top dogs, as men who have everything and believe that we deserve it, is getting old. We are getting old, and tired. But we will soldier on, because we don’t know what else to do or how to think about life any other way. About the last thing we want is to be judged by those whom we deem inferior to ourselves.
But is our time of dominance over, or almost over? Do we see the writing on the wall? Does it say, “You are so over, motherfuckers. Get out of the way, and let people who see a bigger picture than you will ever see take over and begin the work of cleaning up your messes — moral, political, cultural and environmental.”
If that is true, isn’t it obvious that our attempt at an apology will be as clueless and self-serving as everything else we do? Nevertheless, we’ll go down kicking and screaming. For we are the champions. At least, that’s what we tell ourselves when we look in the mirror.
So let us say it once again, with all the sincerity we can muster:
SORRYNOTSORRY.
Thanks, Nancy. It will come...
I’m looking forward to your next post. No presh….