You have the power!

When people hear ‘power’, most picture presidents, generals, priests, police, ministers – the usual male suspects in suits and uniforms. But real power is harder to pin down.

In today’s world, power is more about who decides what counts as truth. Who owns what tools. It’s not just ‘power’ – it’s ‘power over’. The kind that’s made up its mind before you walk in – and sentenced you before your voice is heard.
Traditional power structures – media, law, religion, and now tech oligarchs – have one thing in common: men guarding the gates like it’s their divine birthright. These institutions are finely tuned to suppress, all under the guise of democracy.
And while women have always resisted, rerouted, or disrupted, the playing field was never designed to be fair – and it still isn’t. The systems we live under were built by men, for men. But the rules are shifting. Now it’s our move. We’re not asking for a seat at the table anymore – we’re bringing our own chair and making room for us.

One way to start is by understanding today’s media moguls and rejecting the misinformation, malinformation, and disinformation they are pumping out.
These patriarchs don’t wear silk ties or run printing presses like in the 20th century. This century, the powerful patriarchs own platforms, social network sites (SNS), and social media companies (SMCs). They filter what we see, bury what we say, and boost whatever keeps us scrolling on – truth be damned, legality usually optional. And while we scroll, they quietly strip-mine our data and sell it to the highest bidder.
These are the new oligarchs – the 21st-century media moguls – the new custodians of truth, and they’re not impartial. Their platforms reward outrage, disinformation, and misogyny with algorithms that feast on conflict. They claim to protect speech but profit from hate. And they do it without consequence. They are billionaires with state-level influence and zero accountability. They are unelected monarchs of the digital age, untaxed priests of the algorithmic gospel, deciding what matters, what trends, what’s real, and what they want you to see, hear, and read.
Think it all sounds too dramatic? Then ask yourself this: Who cashes in when women are objectified and reduced to clickbait? Who profits when rape culture gets a PR makeover as “locker room banter” or “boys will be boys” or “look at what she’s wearing”? And who wins when the digital world doesn’t just echo gynophobic banter, but amplifies misogynistic, phallocentric rhetoric – language coded to silence, shame, and push women to the margins, just as it has for centuries?

The Oldest Trick in the Book
Power rarely shows up with a bang. It creeps in quiet. It shields bigots, slips shame into our minds, and hides in words we barely notice – but eventually feel all the same.
Language has always been a patriarchal Trojan horse – a quiet weapon, smuggled in to define the world on masculine terms. It’s time we stopped playing along. Time to rewrite the dictionary – and herstory – in our own words.
Language doesn’t just reflect power – it enforces it. Softly. Relentlessly. Until we stop hearing it for what it is: control! Ask yourself this: Why is ‘cunt’ the go-to insult, when it’s actually a masterpiece? A life-giver. A nerve-packed powerhouse. A word that should spark awe – not offence.
One win by Generation Z: they’re taking back ‘cunt’. And with it, ‘cunty’ is born – no longer an insult, but a compliment. Representing something bold, audacious, stylish, and unapologetically powerful – ‘cunty’ is not a dirty word.
Unlike the word ‘domestic’ – which, when paired with ‘violence’, shrinks systemic brutality into a petty argument over who forgot to the beer in the man’s castle. Words matter. They sustain androcentric perception. They reflect power – and help keep it exactly where it is: in the hands of those who benefit from the status quo.

Before Patriarchs
We’ve been sold the lie that patriarchy is just the natural order of things. But history says otherwise – though you’d hardly know it, after centuries of careful edits by the men in charge, busy writing themselves into glory and everyone else out of the story.
Before the world was carved up by phallocratic empires and colonising armies, egalitarian societies that valued cooperation over conquest, nurture over control, and communal wellbeing over individual gain were alive and productive.
Matricultures flourished – not in some imaginary utopia, but in real places, with real people. They never equated power with domination. They prioritised sustainability, dialogue, and shared leadership. They weren’t perfect – but they offered and shared more than the patriarchs, who continue to try to erase us all: everyone who isn’t a privileged person with XY chromosomes! But we, the XXs, are still here – louder, stronger, and harder to ignore than ever before.
Why Continue to Fight?

Let’s be clear: the enemy isn’t men per se. It’s the system – the patriarchy – the system that conditions men to lead and women to follow, men to command and women to comply, men to dictate and women to succumb. A system that lets a man brag about grabbing women “by the pussy” – and still hands him the presidency. Twice. FFS! A system that has been ignoring the mechanism of the female body for centuries.
These and countless other patriarchal actions are amplified by male-owned social media oligarchs, operating within a marketplace governed by bro-logic, regressive ideals, and toxic masculine algorithms that reward privilege while contaminating the minds of the many and distorting public consciousness.
Real change starts with you: disconnect from the platforms that enrich the oligarchs and invest your time in women-owned spaces. You do have the power!