Thursday, June 18, 2015

Parenting, Property, and Healthy Relationships

The article that inspired the previous two posts, had to do with a YouTube video, Dad forces son to destroy Xbox.

I've posted previously about power dynamics, and included links to resources about abusive vs. healthy relationships.

In the online discussion, some of the women argued that the Xbox was the father's personal property, and he could do whatever he wanted with it. To which my (and other women's) response was that the *father* could sell it, trade it, give it away - but smashing a working device is violence. And forcing his child to smash a beloved toy, is emotional abuse.

The women promoting doing anything they wanted with private property then suggested that if violence to objects was off-limits, then that could extend to policing what other people ate. That would be why I started this series with the concept of body autonomy, and some of the rights / limitations involved there.

When I first conceived of this post, I thought I'd then get into the concept of the patriarchy. My own father argued for the applicability of the ancient Roman pater familias.

But in the meantime, Dr. John Johnson (@astrojohnjohn on Twitter, I've also previously linked to his blog) made a comment that reminded me, intersectionality addresses not simply "the patriarchy," but the kyriarchy.