sometimes i think about how strange it is when women defend religious systems that historically restricted them.
and the only metaphor my brain keeps coming back to is something my friend said mid convo:
women supporting religion is like a chicken defending kfc.
not because faith itself is stupid. belief isn’t the problem. people believe things for comfort, community, meaning. that’s human but the problem is the structure.
most major religions were written, interpreted, and institutionalized in deeply patriarchal societies and sometimes even pedophilia. the rules about authority, modesty, purity, obedience, family roles, they weren’t produced in neutral environments. they came out of worlds where women didn’t vote, didn’t own property, and often didn’t even count as full legal persons.
so when women passionately defend those systems without questioning them, something strange is happening.
it’s not just external patriarchy anymore. it’s internalized patriarchy.
because patriarchy isn’t only a structure around women. it installs itself inside them. it teaches you how to watch yourself. how to regulate yourself. how to feel pride in your own containment.
you start to believe that restriction is virtue. that obedience is strength and sacrifice is dignity.
and once that belief settles in, the system barely has to enforce anything. people enforce it themselves. that’s the genius of it.
systems of power survive best when the people inside them protect them voluntarily.
and this doesn’t only apply to religion. it applies to culture, tradition, family structures, social expectations. anything that tells you “this is just how things are.”
because the system works best on the naïve.
on people who never stop to ask who wrote the rules and who benefited from them.
liberation doesn’t necessarily mean abandoning belief or culture. it means understanding them clearly. knowing where your rights are. knowing which parts are choice and which parts are conditioning.
every person, but especially women should know exactly what freedoms they have, historically and legally. they should know the battles that were fought just so they could have those freedoms at all.
because the moment you understand your rights, the system has a harder time convincing you to give them away politely.
and historically, the easiest rights to lose are the ones people don’t realize they have.