For those of us who have spent our lives trying to dismantle this endlessly destructive system of patriarchy, it has become increasingly clear in recent months that something even more terrifying is happening. The wheels are coming off. We are in the middle of a chaotic, unhinged acceleration of the most violent and cruel aspects of this system, which has evolved into what I call Psychopatriarchy.
Psychopatriarchy is a reaction, a backlash against the progress we have made on every front: women’s rights, civil rights, immigrant rights, workers’ rights, trans rights, and more. It has given rise to an authoritarian fascist reality that poisons our social and psychological environment with terrorizing violence, cruelty, and insecurity. It has consolidated the billionaire class, driven by the mindset summed up in the slogan “move fast and break things”—or, one might say, grab things, rape things.
Psychopatriarchy is visible in the 120 people who own more money than half the world’s population; in the systems of oppression, surveillance, and violence that grow more sophisticated and widespread; and in the few mostly white men with extreme wealth and power who are now merged with the government and own the systems of communication, AI, police, and state militias like ICE.
Psychopatriarchy is the sanctioning of extreme hatred and violence against women from the top—much of it by men who are rapists, batterers, pedophiles, and abusers, or by men who openly support them. The president of the US is a civilly adjudicated sex abuser who has not only flippantly dismissed allegations of sexual violence against others in his orbit but has made that attitude fashionable and popular among the men in his delusional cult. He has created a suffocating atmosphere of misogyny and predation. We need only look at the manosphere, or the online rape academies where millions of men exchange tips for drugging and raping their wives, girlfriends, or sisters; at deepfake pornography that is destroying thousands of women’s lives; or at sex robots. Or at rape islands where some of the world’s most powerful men are alleged to have raped underage girls and not one has been prosecuted. Or at universities where young men allegedly gang-rape an incapacitated woman, or where young women can’t set down a drink at a party without fear of being drugged, and where they are blamed for being assaulted.
Psychopatriarchy is women dying preventable deaths because abortion care is denied or delayed, or the introduction of extreme constitutional amendments like North Carolina House Bill 1232, which might legally allow men to kill women who have abortions. This bill will hopefully not pass, but the fact that it is even being considered shows how far we have fallen.
Psychopatriarchy is the open, unapologetic death of compassion—as Elon Musk said, “Empathy is the fundamental weakness of western civilization.” This means contempt for anything that seems emotional, alive, feminine, or caring. Strength in the form of dissociation is revered. When you feel nothing—no guilt, no shame, no horror at your actions—you can better serve your goals and the state. When you are ruled by blind devotion to the president, the boss, the father, you become capable of doing anything in his name.
Psychopatriarchy is renaming the Department of Defense the “Department of War”—well, the “High-T Department of War,” as Hegseth calls it—and wanting all military personnel aged 30 and over to “have the right testosterone levels” to operate at their “absolute best” and to optimize “natural capabilities,” “longevity,” and “readiness.” It is preparing a psycho army driven by chemicals beyond their control.
Psychopatriarchy is wanting to livestream a firing squad. It is the endless genocide in Gaza, the outright murder of babies, toddlers, mothers, fathers, journalists, and doctors. It is the US bombing a girls’ school in Iran and murdering 120 girl children and 26 teachers, and no one ever tTaking responsibility for one of the worst war crimes since Vietnam. It’s illegally kidnapping presidents and randomly murdering people by bombing them in boats in the middle of the sea. It’s masked men dragging away wailing children from their parents. It’s killing activists in the streets: Renee Good and Alex Pretti. It’s intimidating and threatening deportation to those who disagree with you: Ilhan Omar. It’s creating the conditions for the lynching of Black people across the United States. It’s tearing down ancient grandmother trees to build walls to keep suffering people out or to landscape a golf course. It’s the coldhearted, compassionless billionaire class taking everything, erasing everyone.
Psychopatriarchy is the destruction of all forms of accountability. Infinite impunity. No Supreme Court, no Department of Justice, no leaders, no Congress. Withdrawing from or refusing to be part of any international courts or abide by international law. When there is no accountability, when there is nowhere to turn for justice, a society loses its moral footing and begins to fall.
Psychopatriarchy is not just a political idea. It’s a state of existence, a blight on the human condition that locks us into daily terror, cruelty, depression, malaise, a manufactured sense of powerlessness, alienation and a desire to disappear. It is a kind of low-level anxiety, an ongoing foreshadowing or feeling of imminent destruction coming from multiple directions at once, and rather than reducing these threats (AI, nuclear weapons, climate catastrophes, pandemics), the psychopatriarchs are accelerating all of them. AI is charging forward with no regulation, the nuclear arms race is escalating, oil drilling is increasing at breakneck speed.
Psychopatriarchy is jet fuel to all the other -isms: racism, colonialism, imperialism, capitalism. It is propelled by its own mad trajectory. We can try to block it (courts); we can starve it (strikes); we can remove it (vote and get them out of office). We can name and shame it (speaking out, marches and rallies), refuse to normalize it (write about it, make art about it); we can prosecute it. We can create a parallel world that is so inviting, generous and caring that even those who are still struggling to break out of the cult will eventually be emboldened.
But what we cannot do is go to sleep, become small and still, with the childlike fantasy that they will not find us. What we cannot do is succumb to it or become them – numb, selfish, hollow and cruel. Our feelings, our pain, our empathy, our rage, our love, our refusal to turn away will be our salvation. Psychosis is the inability to tell what is real from unreal. Our work is to say what we see and trust what we know, to keep speaking truth to power and go to any lengths to stay connected to reality and each other.
V (formerly Eve Ensler) is a playwright and activist and the founder of V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women and girls.
Frequently Asked Questions
FAQs We Are Seeing Psychopatriarchy Rise Everywhere
1 What does psychopatriarchy mean
Its a term combining psychopathy and patriarchy It describes a system where patriarchal power structures reward and elevate people with psychopathic traitslike lack of empathy ruthlessness and manipulationespecially when those traits are coded as strong or masculine leadership
2 Is psychopatriarchy an official academic term
Not really Its a coined activiststyle term rather than an established concept in psychology or sociology Its used to describe a pattern not a diagnosed phenomenon
3 Why are people saying its rising everywhere
Observers point to the visibility of combative empathypoor leaders in politics business and media plus online cultures that glorify dominance and mock compassion Whether its actually rising or just more visible is debated
4 What are psychopathic traits exactly
In psychology they include shallow affect manipulation impulsivity grandiosity and low empathy or remorse Psychopathy is a clinical construct its not the same as an official diagnosis like antisocial personality disorder though they overlap
5 Does this mean all men or all leaders are psychopaths
No The concept is about systems that reward certain traitsnot about men in general Most men dont have these traits and plenty of leaders are empathetic
6 What are some examples people cite
Common examples include leaders who mock vulnerability corporate cultures that celebrate crushing competitors and social media figures who build followings on cruelty or contempt for empathy
7 How would I recognize psychopatriarchal dynamics at work
Watch for empathy punished as weakness rulebreaking rewarded if it produces results loyalty demanded over ethics and people with charm but no accountability getting promoted
8 Whats the harm
Critics argue it normalizes cruelty erodes trust in institutions silences dissent and harms mental healthespecially for women marginalized groups and anyone seen as soft
9 Is there evidence this is actually happening
Theres research on dark triad traits in leadership and on gender bias in how dominance is perceived but psychopatriarchy as a unified claim is more interpretive than empirically proven
