We have learned to serve the gods of places where nations have long ruled. Spaces on high ground and hills and glories violence as an altar. We have carved out our gods in marble, and stone. Throughout the centuries we’ve given them names, we have collectively willed them to life. Man- mankind, born out of itself and not out of the loins of a woman. The artificial medium exchange we have been exposed to is money, power, exploitation. All violent lessons taught to us as normalcy. Just like Ursula Le Guin stated, “we live in capitalism, (which can be called imperialism, war, any violent act against humanity and land), its power seems inescapable— but then so did the divine rights of kings (the will of “man”, the patriarchal systems). Any human power can be resisted and changed by a human being. Resistance and change often begin in  art.” In the Roman Empire we see the worship of their kings as gods. We see violence war, and the forgotten impact of women in our history. Our words, our language, have been corrupted by words seemingly misleading: gold digger, hysterical, catty, “female”, or the blame shifting towards women when it comes to traumatic experiences. 

             Our words have been colonized, our culture has been overtaken by laws that were male centralized, 

• What if we are the only ones?

• How would our world become?

• When we think about what a utopia is, we must look at the root of what isn’t. 

“By going back to our clear knowledge that the earth does not belong to us, but rather that we belong to the earth—as the cosmos does not belong to us, but we belong in the cosmos—we can also leap forward to that time when we know with equal clarity that we all belong together, belong equally with one another, on the earth which is our Mother and our home. Within a universe that is eternally God’s body, and our home.“

Monica Sjöö, The Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth

           We must deconstruct a world that has created various divides between people, classes, sexes and nations. Our emergent strategy is to go back to the beginning. When storytelling, art, movement was our only form of communication. When nothing tells us who we are or are supposed to be . When resources were deprived from the earth, and wealth was the earth and not man made items and luxuries. What is our justice when everything is already just. If we redefine a civilization by the laws of patriarchal power and shift it to matriarchal structures. If we were to, “identify issues that are relevant to the local community and build a world in which to explore the issue and possible solutions,” like Adrienne Marie Brown had expressed, we will no longer have to uphold the current power dynamics that we are governed by. The matriarchy is not a society that favors the “feminine” over the “masculine.” It is a circular system that values the human origin from a mother as a cultural pattern, “a matriarch recognizes that optimizing a society towards mothers and children creates a balanced society.” 

Patriarchy system and Matriarchy system 

           As you can see in these graphs I made, with the emphasis of information from Nergiz De Baere, the matriarchal structure is circular, which means it is communal, while the patriarchal structure is a triangle, which most westernized powers view as the correct structure within various ancient civilizations. The value of one ruler, and the centralization of men. The exploitation of land, women, and resources. This means the social system under a man is ant-nature, which optimizes society for whoever is on the top of the pyramid. Unlike the patriarchy, matriarchy values regeneration instead of exploration, love over dominance, reciprocity over greed and community instead of individualism. 

Goettner-Abendroth, a German feminist advocating matriarchy studies, focusing on the study of matriarchal societies speaks on several conditions that would meet the social needs of a matriarchal society:

• Balanced economic reciprocity without accumulation through a gift economy.

• Matrilineal kinship and gender equality. In other words, where the mother is the center of the household and society, and every person we interact with is equal like a sibling.

• An egalitarian society of consensus where everyone recognizes we have shared interests so we make decisions unanimously. This is in sharp contrast to the division and harmful conflict that defines patriarchal societies.

• A culture that recognizes the sacredness of life.

Plato’s allegory of the cave vs open communication and the understanding of one’s humanity without any other input.

         As a society, we have been conditioned to believe that exploitation and individualism is a centralized and normalized system of hierarchy that includes race, gender, sexuality, and more. Within patriarchal society, we see the access of consumerism, the centralized notion of class structures that obtain power for the higher and upper classes, the idea of ability within body people should be prioritized over those who have disabilities, and profit over well-being and individualism over community growth. The reason why I have used Plato‘s allegory of the cave is because it is a philosophical idea that exposes that what we are programmed to believe as correct in the society is what we will normalize. As humans, the things we could’ve created within the society to be beneficial for ourselves, and for each other has been manipulated by patriarchal power structures. Due to this, our society is strained from burnout and mental health problems increase for various people of different races. Class structures sexuality and gender have been exploited or overlooked and power and privilege is at the top of the pyramid.

CHIX, a platform that is working towards a media that is healed through the lens of matriarchy social structures, has demonstrated the idea of a better society. Stating, “we must adopt a regenerative mindset within our societies and systems,” which is:

• prioritize rest, sleep, and relaxation

• integrate Indigenous teachings with “Western” science to ensure we have a regenerative relationship with nature

• put well-being first (not profit)

• design resilient and circular systems that use waste creatively and for the benefit of humanity and nature