“I call myself a patriarchal woman because I was socially programmed, as are most women and men, not to see the ways in which women are oppressed by traditional gender roles. I say that I’m recovering because I learned to recognise and resist that programming. For me, such recognition and resistance will always require effort — I’m recovering rather than recovered — not just because I internalised patriarchal programming years ago but because that program continues to assert itself in my world: in movies, television shows, books magazines, and advertisements as well as in the attitudes of salespeople who think I can’t learn to operate a simple machine, repair technicians who assume I won’t know if they’ve done a shoddy job, and male drivers who believe I’m flattered by sexual offers shouted from passing cars (or, worse, who don’t give a moments thought to how I might feel or, worse yet, who hope I feel intimidated so they can feel powerful). The point here is fairly simple: patriarchy continually exerts forces that undermine women’s self-confidence and assertiveness, then points to the absence of these qualities as proof that women are naturally, and therefore correctly, self-effacing, and submissive.”

-Lois Tyson, Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide

So I guess I need to read this book now.