No-one is advocating for returning to that way of living, but it does indicate that patriarchy and the violence that goes with it are not somehow "natural" and the way it's always been. It's not moot as long as every time I write about it men come out of the wordwork to insist that I am wrong, despite all of my research and citations (and they still do). Too many in our culture are deeply attached to that perception, and I consider it highly worthwhile to keep challenging it.

This piece came out of the responses I made to just such a man in the comments of someone else's story. He came after me for saying that we hadn't always lived this way, and I figured I might as well get paid for the response I put together to challenge that baseless assertions.