Patriarchy

Olde Town Augusta

City of Augusta

Sunset

View from 5th Street Bridge

"Railroads" Historic Marker on the River Walk

Written by a Man

Railroad going across the Savannah River

The City Council of Augusta in 1994

Only one or two women on the list of members

Vegas Showgirls

Strip Club on 6th Street

Vegas Showgirls Door

And right around the corner...

Fantasys

Strip Club on Broad Street

(Black Strip Club)

And right across the street...

Discotheque

Strip Club on Broad Street

These are pictures of the city of Augusta at the sunset, the railroad and engineering information and the three strip clubs in Downtown/Olde Town Augusta. In the picture of the city of Augusta, there are tall buildings where both men and women work, however, the buildings themselves, along with the city, were most likely designed and built by men and men only. The architects, the engineers, the construction workers, the contractors and the city planners were probably all men, especially since Augusta was not “built” in this current era. The city of Augusta itself represents patriarchy. The same goes for the railroad tracks on sixth street and the bridge that crosses the Savannah River: designed and built by men. The cliché “It’s a man’s world” is no myth. All the engineering surrounding us in society was created by men. In the strip clubs, it is only female dancers…another representation of patriarchy in practice.

Patriarchy is more than domination. It is acceptance. Johnson writes that, “…we all participate in something larger than ourselves,” (Johnson 77) which is patriarchy. Everyone in society is to blame, so to speak, for patriarchy…not just men. Yes, men created the strip club, own the strip club, go to the strip club, advocate for the strip club, but women are the ones dancing. By no means am I blaming either the male patron or the woman dancer, but they both live in a society that accepts the strip club as normal and they both play their roles in order to keep the practice going. This is patriarchy. Patriarchy completely covers our society: “Patriarchal culture includes ideas about the nature of things, including men, women, and humanity, with manhood and masculinity most closely associated with being human and womanhood and femininity relegated to the marginal position of ‘other,’” (Johnson 84). It is something that everyone is a part of, whether they are aware or not and it is represented much in Olde Town Augusta.