What do you call a woman who condemns other women for calling out a rapist and sexual deviant, in defense of the rapist? Donna Karan.

What do you call a man who uses his power, fame and money to sexually abuse and harass women? President of the United States.

We have one in the Supreme Court as well – remember the curly little hair on the coke can, Judge Thomas? I’m guessing Harvey Weinstein is eyeing the 2020 election for POTUS himself now, unless he ends up doing time with Anthony Weiner, that is. And I’d be remiss not to mention Bill Cosby and Bill O’Reilly here as well. “When you’re famous, they let you do anything.”

I thought we did away with all this in the early 90s when they tortured Anita Hill for warning the world about the exploitation she endured from Clarence Thomas's unwanted sexual advances. Conservatives call it “political correctness" and Trump triies to dismiss it as “locker room talk.”

It's taking so many generations for consciousness to shift: for old rich men to realize that the abuse of power and aggression toward women only make them smaller, not bigger. What a sad and desperate fetish – at this point almost a cliche – to leave women victimized or unemployable for “telling,” and ashamed, traumatized and marked for not telling. And it's not just by these men who remain elevated in powerful positions, but by the women who stand by these men, women who vote for these men, and women who question the motives of the women who have the courage to come forward and expose toxic masculinity for what it is.

I’m late to the party in binge watching “The Handmaid’s Tale” and I’m even more in a frenzy than normal. The terrifying truth as I see it is that the scenario is not far fetched and seems like a new Old World vision of a neoconservative Shangri-La.

The suppression of women is of course nothing new, but astonishing aspects of it are now reemerging so profoundly and so swiftly in our “democracy” that it is staggering. Not just women, but the spin and branding of union busting, earned benefits labeled as “entitlements” and healthcare, justice, land, housing, medicine, insurance, equality, fair pay and more as solely distributed to the wealthy few. It makes you take a closer look at the land of the free and the home of the brave.

There are two societies. Within the two societies, we still have thriving male hierarchy and unperturbed white patriarchal structures.

Margaret Atwood’s story of The Handmaid’s Tale illustrates perfectly how men and women participate in the suppression of other women – younger, fertile, more vulnerable women – in order to serve their agenda and procreate another generation to perpetuate and indoctrinate with their ideology. It’s a metaphor for life and the planet as well.

They start with money. They fire the women from their jobs and cut off their means of accessing their own money or owning anything, making the women rely on the “good” men to save them, rather than harm or exploit them. These men protect them from the other men and complicit wealthy women who are swiftly creating the new world order at the expense of other women they have enslaved.

This past year our society’s unrest and resistance has reflected the changes we see: election fraud, the staggering increases in power of white rich men, puritanical repressed women who support their ideas, implementation of ideology into law, overturning of protections under the guise of “undoing restrictions,” racist and sexist oppression, the return to white religious puritan values in schools and commerce and government, Nazi symbolism, violence, the effort to strip away healthcare access to millions, and more.

It's depressing laying this all out, so let’s move toward a solution-based perspective, shall we?

** “pa·tri·arch·y

ˈpātrēˌärkē/Submit

noun

a system of society or government in which the father or eldest male is head of the family and descent is traced through the male line.

a system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it.

a society or community organized on patriarchal lines.

plural noun: patriarchies”

From the Urban Dictionary: “white supremacist capitalist patriarchy":

"The social and political system prevalent in the United States and much of the world right now. Its agenda includes white supremacy and other forms of racism to keep many ethnic and racial groups in their place (often aided by political leaders of the oppressed ethnic groups), religious fundamentalism and prejudice reminiscent of medieval times, inhuman levels of riches and wealth for corporations and rich individuals of the upper and upper middle class (at the expense of the environment and the great majority of the world's people), total destruction of social welfare programs to the poor, war and imperialism on a global scale…”

I haven’t read the book or finished the series as to the plight of the handmaid, but what I do see is that all through history, women have endured and risen up from slavery and oppression only to be slapped back down, and to rise back up. From the Salem witch trials to bra burning in the 60s and pink pussy hat peace marches earlier this year, we see the endurance, tenacity and relentless persistence to push forward, to heal and evolve.

Personally I’ve taken on my own crusades. Not many are called to rise up unless something catastrophic or threatening to primal needs threatens their well being, safety or comfort zone. Many retreat, self medicate or sink into despair, but others like myself become sort of accidental crusaders. Not to say that in doing so you don’t despair or suffer, or even wish you’d never been born, but then I think of that old example from “It’s a Wonderful Life” where Clarence tells George that because he wasn’t there to save Harry when they were children, Harry wasn’t there to save all those soldiers in his platoon. All those lives lost, in that version of never being born, have ongoing generational ripples that create and affect life.

Those who are “called” to something, not only in a religious or spiritual sense, who fight back, rise up, “take a knee” and push forward in the face of injustice, oppression or fascism – they are the only reason anything ever changes. Ever.

None of us know how our efforts or voices will affect the lives of others, or the circumstances we find ourselves in, but even the smallest of actions can cause a reverberation, a ripple of hope or change that we may never see or know. Sometimes the satisfaction of simply showing up makes a difference to your own cause, despair or dilemma. The courage to step into the light rather than staying in that musty dark cave.

While many men participate in the current movements, and even sport their own pointed pink knit caps, I think what really needs to happen is a clearly defined male movement – especially white males declaring their very own war on the rancid rabid patriarch regime. Saying loud and clear: The “good guys” are here. Labels don’t matter but showing up does.

“Antifa” is now a slogan, a brand, a label. Our American grandfathers and others were also anti-fascists in WWII against Nazi Germany. We have to be aware and attentive to labels and the agenda of those creating them.

Good, fair-minded, evolved men need to take a clear stand – a brigade, a march or a knee as to the rights of all others, especially women and non-white others. White men, old and young, need to rise up to the loud old rich white echo-chambers of our past and present – the ruling class that remains hell bent on strangling growth, evolution, sophistication, whether brown, black or female.

It’s well past time to Occupy White Patriarchy. What could be more potent and powerful than the voices, faces and fists in the air from white men fighting fascists in solidarity with their brothers and sisters? White men, young and old, standing up or taking a knee for Black Lives Matter, women earning equality, the NFL ostracizing a man for exercising his rights, the KKK’s loud and ugly resurgence, Goldman Sachs’ White House, and the typical consumer of the NRA?

That is what is missing from the voices of peace marches and massive rallies we’ve seen in the Trump era. You can’t just show up when it matters to you personally. You need to show up collectively because it all matters NOW, to everyone. It’s all changing rapidly “under his eye.” Men could even have their own signature slogans and special hats (but that’s a whole other story and entrepreneurial venture capitalist marketing campaign). Or better yet, capes.

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