Now that Maiken is gone, you’re whacking yourself off to get back to being the male centre of attention here, aren’t you?

As you probably know, I am very jealous of my position here.

I read your links and the first link is pretty interesting. Some of the others are less directly relevant. But I was more interested in why people *here* would say that, because I’m interested in the all the possible variants of the theory. I mean,

But who do males actively and systemically punish, everywhere in the world? Single mothers.

I mean, I know this (as you correctly note), but The Patriarchy could be, for instance, misguided or whatever. It can’t be directly inferred that single mothers are the greatest threat to The Patriarchy *just* because The Patriarchy lashes out against them. It doesn’t answer why *would* it be the greatest threat.

For instance, single motherhood could instead plausibly be part of a feedback system that keeps patriarchy stable. Consider:

1. Feminism opens up more options for women.

2. More women become single mothers.

3. This means, in theory, that there’s more likely to be a large, atavistic group of men without the same kinds of family units.

4. The enforcers of the patriarchy would thus have a larger pool of males from which to recruit, males who are susceptible to the idea that their stake in society can only be reasserted by reasserting control over women.

5. Familiar backlash patterns are greatly exacerbated following a critical mass.

6. Women’s options are restricted.

You can even work the porn-as-propaganda angle into this story very easily.

Of course, it’s only one possibility. But what makes single motherhood any more of a threat than merely a feedback control system? The relative suffering of extant single mothers could just be a precursor to the full feedback loop.