There are many examples of where one group dominates another and limits social change.
Examples: Men dominating women, whites dominating non-whites, citizens dominating migrants, etc.
Some dominants like their power but others in the dominant group may not. Let’s assume that those who are dominated do not like it (sorry masochists!)
While thinking about this combination of power structure and interaction, I came up with the following 2×2 (I love 2x2s!) example for “men’s” and “women’s” bikes:*
This figure shows three things:
- Men who ride on cross-bar bikes and women who ride on step-through bikes are “supporting the patriarchy” in a passive or active way. That’s how things do not change.**
- Women who ride cross-bar bikes are fighting the patriarchy, which may work but probably will not, since they are the victims of patriarchy.
- Men who ride step-thru bikes are ignoring the patriarchy, which weakens it. If enough men stop caring, then the patriarchy (with respect to bikes) will collapse.
These observations are not based on justice as much as real-politiek, in the sense that shifts of power are far easier when they come from above (evolution) than from below (revolution). I do not state this fact as something I agree with; I state it to clarify (a) how people on the two-off diagonals (fight and ignore) are allies in changing the status quo and (b) how much easier it is when defectors from the oppressor class help those in the oppressed class.
Can you make such a 2×2 for your causes? Vegan diets? Gun control? Reading books? Go ahead!
My one-handed conclusion is that bottom-up social change is much harder without some top-down help.
*Here are some critiques of those “differences,” which I agree with. I’m just using the streotype as an example.
** Here, via RB, is the A-Z of the all-inclusive bike seat (see image):
