Kyriarchy

I talk about kyriarchy, the origins of the term and theory, and its effect on society.

Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/sep/10/kyriarchy-and-patriarchy

https://stayconfused.substack.com/p/intersectionality-and-kyriarchy?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

https://medium.com/@annaleo_/hierarchy-requires-constant-maintenance-not-equality-the-myth-of-inevitability-in-power-cdea269611c9

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/articles/Elisabeth_Schussler_Fiorenza

https://www.britannica.com/topic/intersectionality

The words I use in the recording may not match the words in the transcript.

Transcript

Kyriarchy

After all of the research I've done on meritocracy, the Protestant work ethic, and diversity, equity, and inclusion, I feel compelled to comment on one of the phenomena at the base of it all--kyriarchy.

Theologian Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza coined the term 'kyriarchy' in her 1992 book, But She Said: Feminist Practices of Biblical Interpretation, to describe the multiple hierarchies in capitalist society and how they operate, cooperate, and interlock. 'Kyriarchy' comes from the Greek words kyrios ('lord' or 'master') and archein (to rule), and it is a way to explain all of the intersections of privilege and oppression in society, especially as it's dictated by capitalism, and how certain demographics can be both privileged/oppressor and oppressed--and how those in charge can pit those at the bottom against each other so they don't join forces to challenge the status quo, and view those who do issue such challenges in derogatory ways. The wikiwand.com article on Schussler Fiorenza states that, 'More than merely naming the patriarchal disposition of traditional, limited biblical ideologies, she exposes their elitist, racist and classist nature, thus identifying them as kyriarchal (master-headed).' As the stayconfused.substack.com article, 'Intersectionality and Kyriarchy,' further elaborates: 'Kyriarchy is a term...to describe this interconnected system of hierarchies in which an individual can be oppressed in some relationships while being privileged in others. Fiorenza stresses that kyriarchy is not a hierarchical system as it does not focus on one point of domination. Instead it is described as a "complex pyramidal system" with those on the bottom of the pyramid experiencing the "full power of kyriarchal oppression". Fiorenza notes that there are ‘interdependent’ structural positions that individuals are assigned at birth. These positions are based on the stratification of gender, class, race, sexuality, religion and age' and 'Everyone in this system is moulded according to a dominance hierarchy that posits an ideal form of humanity. This dominance is spread through all instances of where power is organised. The closer an individual relates to the form, the higher they float in the ‘complex pyramidal system’. The ideal form for an individual is dependent on their structural positions.' 

But Schussler Fiorenza's theory goes deeper.

As the article on theguardian.com, 'The patriarchy is dead...but kyriarchy lives on,' points out: 'Kyriarchy links the latest feminist wave to decades of activism, while better framing today's more subtle oppressions. It helps us to recognise the interconnection of education, class and eating disorders such as anorexia, and of domestic violence and poverty, rather than encouraging us to indiscriminately blame men. It contextualises (sic) the contempt of working-class male unionists towards Margaret Thatcher. It helps to explain how women themselves can in some cases morph into the supremacist bully, when paranoid mothers pass on anxieties about food and bodies to their daughters, ground down themselves by years of trying to live up to constructed notions of beauty.' In other words, feminism is only one prism through which to view the society we live in; there are other prisms as well--race, socioeconomic status (or class), bodily and mental ability, sexual orientation, gender identification...The same guardian.com article states that, '...kyriarchy exposes a sin within the women's movement itself: that of feminist-perpetuated oppression'; furthermore, 'It may feel counterintuitive, but recognising your own privilege doesn't make the struggle for gender equality any less credible: it makes it more so, by allowing feminists to see that advantages – such as being born to a semi-prosperous family or being well-educated – don't necessarily protect against, say, rape.'

The concept of kyriarchy goes hand-in-hand with that of intersectionality, a term American civil-rights advocate Kimberle Crenshaw coined in 1989 to, according to the Britannica.com article on the topic, 'address experiences of oppression that could not be adequately understood as the result of ordinary patterns of discrimination.' As stated in the everydayfeminism.com article, 'Kyriarchy 101,' declares, 'we cannot merely challenge one form of systemic oppression – the patriarchy. We have to challenge all forms of oppression – the kyriarchy.' The concept of kyriarchy, just like the concept of intersectionality, illustrates the point Audre Lorde made about how “there is no thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives”; this is a major reason why single-issue activism is so problematic--it fails to take into account how everything in society is comingled and connected, and thus you can't separate one issue from any of the others. 

Though capitalism wants everyone who lives under it to think kyriarchy is 'the natural order,' kyriarchy, like all of the hierarchies within it, needs constant maintenance in order to retain its staying power; in other words, kyriarchy and all of the hierarchies it props up are, like capitalism, fragile, ergo lack of maintenance can send this mansion of cards crumbling down.

Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/sep/10/kyriarchy-and-patriarchy

https://stayconfused.substack.com/p/intersectionality-and-kyriarchy?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

https://medium.com/@annaleo_/hierarchy-requires-constant-maintenance-not-equality-the-myth-of-inevitability-in-power-cdea269611c9

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/articles/Elisabeth_Schussler_Fiorenza

https://www.britannica.com/topic/intersectionality