Flip the Script: Standing up to the Patriarchy

Andrea Hylen
5 min readFeb 17, 2024
Photo by Unseen Histories on Unsplash

Day Eighty-one

Standing up to the Patriarchy

“We’ve got to face the fact that some people say you fight fire best with fire, but we say you put fire out best with water. We say you don’t fight racism with racism. We’re gonna fight racism with solidarity.” ~Fred Hampton, I Am A Revolutionary: Fred Hampton Speaks

We are at a pivotal time on planet Earth. Major governmental elections are happening around the world this year and the leaders we elect are going to shape the world along with us.

One of the ways we have been stuck in a patriarchal, war-focused, defense-focused, colonialist system is because of fear. Government and political leaders have used fear to stop change. Families have used fear and guilt to keep children in line. Corporations have used fear to justify corruption.

When you hear a news story or listen to a leader in power who is promoting an idea with fear, trauma from the past gets triggered by the fear. Your reptilian brain is responding, and you are disconnected from your heart. Fear sets off a feeling of being unsafe and needing an authority to take charge and keep you safe.

A couple of ideas for flipping the script on colonialism and the patriarchy:

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Andrea Hylen

Founder of Heal My Voice and The Incubator. Life Scientist. Live house-free. Widow. Mom of Adult Daughters. Grief. Writing Sexuality. Evolutionary Woman