SOCIAL

THE MINISTRY OF VOICE believes that we need to challenge what is commonplace and interrogate what is taken for granted. While we can maintain an idealistic vision enriched through passion for an egalitarian society, we must make action to uphold these ideals. We must use our voice to defend the possibility for this reality. We cannot become so jaded that our vision merges with apathy and subsequent complacency. We must interrogate social hierarchies. We must question the virtues of those who have organized our existing social paradigm.

The constructions of patriarchy are crucial to existing hierarchies within our social structures. Patriarchy is real and the chief contributor to the inequalities which exist between men and women. It is a social organization. The hierarchy places the role of men to be greater than that of women and systematically dominates and exploits women into a state of oppression. While great strides have been made to elevate the position of women in society and validate her experience and ability, the patriarchy remains intact. Women maintain an inferior position in the labour market, and the exploitation of women in advertising is ubiquitous. Existing social structures remain male-centric.

Heidi Hartmann suggests that, "all men, whatever their rank in the patriarchy, are bought off by being able to control at least some women." Men of different classes and races maintain specific positions within the patriarchy, and are united though their domination over women. Most men are unwilling to let go of their patriarchal right, as it would mean a willing dismissal of their unearned place in the social hierarchy. However, Hartmann states that men are dependent upon each other to maintain this system. Men are dependent upon fear, rather than reason to care for their counterparts, to continue the injustices which the patriarchy perpetuates. While they may not overtly assert their power, they adhere to the expectations of the patriarchy.

This discourse power brings forth a discussion of labour. The members at the top of the social hierarchy maintain control over the labour force and the processes of production. In the case of the patriarchy, women are restricted in the existing social systems through men's control over women's labour power. This is not a natural occurrence, it is a constructed hierarchy. Those at the top of the social hierarchy maintain the most power and unearned privilege. The right and power which they exercise is not earned through struggle or merit, it is granted and utilized to maintain their position of dominance.

The placement of men within the social hierarchies is dependent upon gender, race, class, nationality, marital status, sexual orientation and age. To challenge this organization is to challenge legitimacy of those who exhibit the most power. Those of us who maintain heightened positions must relinquish that privilege, or at the very least acknowledge it and be conscious of it in our daily interactions.

However, the individual must learn to understand their position and experience within the system for themselves. To be radical is not only to reject and interrogate. We must share and understand the individual and collective experience. Before we break the silence as a collective which has hope for the reorganization of all peoples within these existing social structures, we must listen to the silence and hear the voice of those who have been oppressed.  

We must raise our heads and take the power which we have been denied. This will not destroy the life we love. It will improve it.

THE MINISTRY OF VOICE

For more information on our inspiration, check out these great sources:

Connell, Raewyn. "The Social Organization of Masculinity." In Feminist Theory Reader: Local and Global Perspectives, edited by Carole R. McCann and Seung-kyung Kim, 232-243. New York: Routledge, 2010.

Hartmann, Heidi. "The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism: Towards a More Progressive Union." In Feminist Theory Reader: Local and Global Perspectives, edited by Carole R. McCann and Seung-kyung Kim, 169-183. New York: Routledge, 2010.

McIntsoh, Peggy. "Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack." In Race and Gender in the United States, edited by Paula Rothenburg, 163-168. New York: Worth Publishers, 2006.
Read it On-line!: http://sascwr.org/resources/pdfs/anti-oppression/WHITE%20PRIVILEGE.pdf

mediasanctuary. (2010). Chris Hedges "Death of the Liberal Class" at Sanctuary for Independent Media 10-17-10 [video] Retrieved March 1, 2011, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYCvSntOI5s. 

Rowbotham, Sheila. "Women's Consciousness, Man's World: Through the Looking-Glass." In An Anthology of Western Marxism:From Lukacs and Gramsci to Socialist-Feminism, edited by Roger S. Gottlieb, 279-295. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.