patriarchy

A complex system of gender politics which enforces strict and outdated norms and rules on our behavior and the way we interact with one another based on our gender. Patriarchy hurts men and women equally, as men are held to unreasonable standards such as the expectation that they must be strong, unemotional, aggressive, and hyper-heterosexual. Women are assumed to be weak, overly-emotional, maternal, and dependent. Any deviation from these norms causes the individual to be ostracized, but adherence causes adverse effects as well, such as the tendency of courts to see men as poor care takers, causing them to often receive unfair treatment in child custody cases, or the fact that men are less likely to report health issues and therefore have a shorter average lifespan than women, and are much more likely to commit suicide.