Ashley Judd nails patriarchy
Her analysis may fall short when it comes to hip hop, but Ashley Judd just nailed an important part of how patriarchy functions. This comes from a column at The Daily Beast in which Judd responds to criticism of her apparently “puffy” appearance. Judd calls out the way the attacks come from women as well as men:
That women are joining in the ongoing disassembling of my appearance is salient. Patriarchy is not men. Patriarchy is a system in which both women and men participate. It privileges, inter alia, the interests of boys and men over the bodily integrity, autonomy, and dignity of girls and women. It is subtle, insidious, and never more dangerous than when women passionately deny that they themselves are engaging in it. This abnormal obsession with women’s faces and bodies has become so normal that we (I include myself at times—I absolutely fall for it still) have internalized patriarchy almost seamlessly. We are unable at times to identify ourselves as our own denigrating abusers, or as abusing other girls and women.
