China: Gender Issues and Patriarchy 3 - Tethering-Monkey Studies
China: Gender Issues and Patriarchy 3 - Tethering-Monkey Studies
In "China: Gender Issues and Patriarchy", I once wrote:
"Chinese feminists, already disadvantaged by a lack of political participation, are further unable to effectively resist patriarchal organizations because of speech censorship and powerful state coercive institutions. Over time, they have gradually evolved on the internet into two camps: one moderate camp that focuses on encouraging women to improve themselves, and one radical camp that indiscriminately attacks men. Both have drifted away from the core original intention of opposing patriarchy."
This binary classification overgeneralizes and is somewhat biased.
Against the backdrop of systemic discrimination and structural inequality, the patriarchal system alienates feminists and gives rise to a third type that has likewise diluted its anti-patriarchal basis: the "tethering-monkey camp," which is enthusiastic about "tethering-monkey studies." These women believe that since patriarchal society as a whole tilts resources toward men, instead of working hard and improving themselves, they might as well spend their time and energy finding a rich and powerful male partner, then tether the man by managing their family status and thereby obtain a steady stream of social resources.
When a woman spends all her intelligence and tactics on the dependent game of "tethering a man" and "managing family status," she has already tacitly accepted that she is merely a high-level parasite attached to a host. They are good at numbing themselves with the idea that "as the controller, I tether the man and make him work for me." Yet however strategically they may appear to operate, the foundation of their power remains fragile, tied to another person's loyalty and charity. The confident statements of the tethering-monkey camp repeatedly reveal the contradictory thought that they hope their husbands will succeed, but not become so successful that they can discard them at an affordable cost at any time. This is enough to prove the fragility of tethering-monkey theory.
If some members of the tethering-monkey camp call themselves feminists because they have tethered men, that is a kind of crystalline stupidity, because in reality they are acting as accomplices of patriarchy. The resource-distribution inequality that patriarchy creates within men is not necessarily smaller than the inequality between the sexes. When women raise their social status and living standard by attaching themselves to and tethering powerful men, it is structurally the same as disadvantaged men in a patriarchal society clinging to and using powerful men to seek political power (for example, relying on connections to get things done). Both are compromise with, and tacit approval of, patriarchy. Such tacit approval gives patriarchy an endless supply of vitality. When women dress themselves up as glamorous, gentle, considerate, and in line with stereotypical male aesthetics in order to tether men, even if they are merely putting on appearances to seize benefits and inwardly despise it, this is enough to make lower-class men believe that the motivation for climbing upward is to obtain higher-quality sexual resources, rather than to realize personal ideals in Maslow's theory. This is also structurally the same as the political motivation for climbing upward being to obtain more power resources and satisfy the desire for power. It is entirely positive feedback for patriarchy.
True female awakening is by no means fighting for power and profit in the backyard carved out by patriarchy; rather, it requires thoroughly breaking away from the servile mindset that "marriage is a second reincarnation." The tethering-monkey camp tries to control the world by controlling men, but in reality they are only expensive accessories that may be replaced at any time, not independent people.
As for the methodology for achieving gender equality, I briefly mentioned it in "China: Gender Issues and Patriarchy":
"Lower-class men and women should first improve their own economic conditions, while also cooperating with each other, striving for broad political participation in daily life, supervising and promoting the formulation and implementation of equality laws, and jointly resisting patriarchy in all public-opinion events concerning gender. Only then is gender equality possible."
The "cooperation" here can be supplemented with some details: we need to establish mutual-aid networks that do not take blood ties and marriage as their only bonds (such as professional alliances, community mutual aid, and interest groups). When a woman or lower-class man faces unemployment, illness, or legal difficulties, if the social support network is strong enough, she does not have to be forced to exchange "the sale of independence" for survival resources.
Beyond material and legal independence, independence of personality is also an important part of achieving equality. Whether it is tethering-monkey studies or the broader psychology of admiring power, its essence is an aesthetic dependence on power. Some women or lower-class men verbally approve of and demand equality, but subconsciously still worship the "domineering CEO/power-holder," believing that being "favored/promoted" by the strong is a reflection of their own ability. We should break the aesthetic attachment to, and worship of, power; otherwise, when we obtain power, we will still become the next oppressors.
- Divider -
If the native Chinese tethering-monkey camp can, to a certain extent, be understood as a forced choice made by a disadvantaged group without upward mobility under a domestic background of rampant patriarchy, then the "Bay Area rich-wife studies" shown in P1 is Chinese women simply copying tethering-monkey studies from a strongly patriarchal society into an implicitly patriarchal society [1], which appears absurd and ridiculous.
American society's culture of diverse employment and ability above all, though it has produced many negative effects because of its social-Darwinist character, brings far less anxiety over gender inequality than the strongly patriarchal societies of East Asia. The tethering-monkey camp came to American society in pursuit of gender equality, yet retained the tethering-monkey thinking left behind by patriarchal society, hoping that even after arriving in America, men would still work for them. In essence, this is wanting to have it both ways. Apart from incompetence, there is no more precise word to describe the tethering-monkey camp of the San Francisco Bay Area.
- Notes -
[1] Implicitly patriarchal society: The United States is not an almost fully gender-equal society like the Nordic countries; patriarchy still exists implicitly through structural inequality. But U.S. law strictly protects women's rights, and opposition to gender discrimination has also become politically correct. Especially in economically developed regions such as New York and the San Francisco Bay Area, capable women have ample opportunities to display their talents.
