Patriarchy is bad for your health.

Patriarchy is a distortion of the masculine principle that operates under the simple structure of power over, power over nature, power over others, power over self. As a result, patriarchy is inherently destructive to the earth and being that we are part of earth's ecology, is destructive to us, men just as much as women. Power over is intrinsically against relationality rendering connection and intimacy impossible because there is no interest in the universe of the other within this dynamic. This in turn leads to loneliness and isolation, which lead to anxiety and depression being that we are biologically social creatures. We need one another, it is simple. With this in mind, the epitome of success in the American over-culture is having a self-sustaining single family home living with a partner and perhaps children, cordoned off from community or any village-like system of support, meaning our nuclear families are meant to take the place of what once an entire village would hold. Patriarchy and capitalism says, we should not need others we should be able to do it all on our own.

Patriarchy expects linearity, all parts of our structures and systems operate under the assumption that each day one should be able to show up as they did the day before with the same energy and emotional capacity. This only serves male physiology and biology that operate on a 24 hour cycle, testosterone is at its highest in the morning and estrogen is at it highest in the evening, so we work from 9-5p. Women's hormones operate on a 28 day cycle, just like the moon, each day is a different phase. Cycling people have been adapting to the linear model of all our modern systems including work and school since the very beginning of life. This impacts the mental health of cycling people in countless ways. She has to mask with linearity on the outside, but cannot help but be cyclical on the inside, meaning she is always performing and believing that there is something wrong inherently with her. She then jumps on the bandwagon of wellness and self-improvement, trying desperately to fit into the patriarchal model of success all the while depleting her very life force, eventually leading to burnout.

The dismantling of the systems and structures themselves, while wholly necessary may take a little more time, but there is a lot that can liberate us all right now. We can all deepen our relational literacy, to learn how to be accountable, compassionately curious about another person's subjective experience, and to take responsibility for our actions whether they intend harm or not. We can all to collectively unpack internalized patriarchy and misogyny and call it what it is without being fragile about it. Men can take responsibility for the myriad blindspots that are part of the privileged position they occupy in our culture and become actively curious about the invisibilized world of women because ultimately women exist and matter. Women and cycling people can begin to embrace the superpowers within their cyclical nature, know their day to day fluctuations are not pathology and understand that to truly "optimize" their health, wellness, and heal their nervous systems they have to slow down, drop into their bodies, orient to beauty, and embrace pleasure, touch, and all things tactile, relational, sensual, and earthy.

Deep inner work and relationship work is dangerous to the patriarchy and the systems that support it. Deep inner work is subversive.