I know better, but fuck it, can you please explain to me how the fuck would patriarchy be the cause of me waking up with a fever?
Okay let's take a scenario: Imagine that last night, you decided to jump into a frozen lake despite the warning that you would get a cold.
Now, to understand how patriarchy could be responsible for that we need to understand what is patriarchy:
A domination system of men over women. Ok. So right now, you'll say, not much to do with the subject. But let's look closer:
Patriarchy like any domination system, is structured like a hierarchy. Much like capitalism where there are positions of class and racism where there are position within whiteness, there are
positions within masculinity:
In patriarchy, being a women is a position at the bottom of the hierarchy of masculinities. The men at the top and the women at the bottom and you get like any domination system, in between positions.
As men are also hurt by patriarchy. If being a woman is a position of subjugation,
this means that a man can be feminized and fall in the inbetween position of the domination and feel the oppression of patriarchy much stronger. As a result, men are pushed, by the system, to be more masculine to escape that domination. A little slip up, an emotion, a non normative behavior, and you will fall and be called "not a real man".
And since "being a real man" is also a position where you will suffer - as we are not meant to live like machos - well this is a position, at the top that creates immense suffering and a biggest reject of women. This is were incel are and this is why they suffer so much while hating women. Under them are all the masculinities that are considered, "too feminine" and also the position that are not hetero and cis normative (trans men, gay and bi etc.)
This is still not the point... but now, you understand how patriarchy pushes men to have certain behaviors. And there is one specific behavior that is documented and linked to patriarchy in men :
Men tends to take more risk.
Taking risk, is seens within patriarchy as a masculine traits, it removes feminity, it's makes us "real men". This is why you will see more death for men in the streets than women. As men will tend to have personnalities that will prevent them to seek help, shelter, health etc. THis is also why there are more men involved in traffic accidents. The risk taking behavior is something that we are pushed - as men - to follow to jump the ladder of masculinities.
So, if you jumped into a frozen lake, or like one of my family member one day, drunk into a closed pool... well you would have risked not only to die, but to catch a cold.... most likely because of a set of behavior that are directly linked to the seeking of a masculine position and therefore... linked to patriarchy.