Reddit reviews Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire
We found 2 Reddit comments about Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
From the perspective of feminist/critical theory, 'patriarchy' is not simply the rule of males over females, or giving preferential treatment to a sex.
Rather, feminists argue that the masculine gender role(ways of doing, seeing, thinking, being, etc.), as opposed to the male sex, are valued over feminine, queer, or another other type of role. The rule of males over females, their preferential treatment etc is derived from this.
In this sense, females are essentially allowed to be 'men', to 'wear the pants'. They have been allowed to occupy roles traditionally associated with the masculine gender role, such as being a CEO or politician. However, the organization of society, 'how things are done' if you will, is still very much a masculine-centric, and thus patriarchal one. It is still a question of 'who wears the pants', as opposed to the skirt, dress, toga etc.
If you're interested in other theories of power, I highly recommend checking out Hardt and Negri's Empire, which is mostly spot on from what I've read, though there are a couple ideas I disagree with that don't quite fit with other theories that I'm into. Here's a link to the pdf of Empire in case you want to check it out without buying it.
Probably more important is their 'sequel', Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire, which describes the way 'Empire' maintains itself through a state of constant warfare, as well as describing the rise of its antithesis, which they dub the 'Multitude'.
Both of these books are super trendy right now, both amongst lefty activists and intellectuals, but also among military theorists and think tank-y people.
They also came out with a third book, which goes into more detail on what revolution might look like.
Sorry, I know that was way too long.
TL;DR: Feminist critique is not of who wears 'the pants', but that it is still always 'the pants' and not some other article of clothing.
Also, everyone should read Hardt and Negri.
https://www.amazon.com/Multitude-War-Democracy-Age-Empire/dp/0143035592