While it's true that the people who benefit most from patriarchy are the elites who use regular men as cannon fodder, and as cogs in their wheel, pretending that women have historically had a lot of privilege in relationship to men is both laughable and counter-factual. You need a history lesson, dude!
Just 50 years ago in the US, women had hundreds of fewer legal rights than men. It was legal to beat your wife until the 1920s, but the laws against it were not enforced until the women's movements of the 1970s demanded it. It wasn't illegal to rape your wife in all 50 US states until 1993 - and even now there are loopholes in several states. Women in the US couldn't get credit cards or home loans in their own names until the 1970s. They could be fired for becoming pregnant or openly paid less for the same work simply for being women.
In ancient Greece and Rome, as well as in England, France, and the US (to name a few) women had no legal status and were considered to be "covered" by first their father and then their husband.
"Married women had no rights to their bodies. That meant that not only would a husband have a claim to any wages generated by his wife’s labor or to the fruits of her body (her children), but he also had an absolute right to sexual access. Within marriage, a wife’s consent was implied, so under the law, all sex-related activity, including rape, was legitimate. His total mastery of this fellow human being stopped short, but just short, of death. Of course, a man wasn’t allowed to beat his wife to death, but he could beat her."
In Medieval Europe, women who did construction were considered just slightly more socially acceptable than prostitutes, and eventually, women were banned entirely from doing construction work. In the US, nobody would hire women to do underground coal mining until 1974 when it was deemed illegal to discriminate against them. Within 10 years there were 30,000 American women in coal mining. Today, about 40% of entry level mining jobs around the world are held by women and women participate in all jobs related to mining.
During WWII, Russian women volunteered in the thousands for a special unit where they would fly open crop dusters converted into low-altitude bombers. They had abridged training, had to wear ill-fitting male uniforms, had no navigation instruments, no parachutes, and were subject to extreme levels of cold and danger. These "Night Witches" flew 8-15 sorties per night and terrified the Nazis. Anyone who shot one down was awarded the Iron Cross. Despite their bravery and the hardships they endured, male pilots disrespected and harassed them because they didn't like "little girls" doing "a man's job."
This is pretty much always the problem where women are underrepresented in an industry or an area of work - it's men who have actively kept women out and have harassed and discriminated against them when they do force their way in. We see this not just in mining, but in the oil and gas industry, trucking, construction, plumbing, police work, you name it.
Do you honestly think that women were never present on the battlefield, even in later times when they weren't allowed to be combatants? Over 100 American women disguised themselves as men so they could fight in the Civil War. More than 1,600 nurses were decorated for bravery under fire and meritorious service, and 565 WACs in the Pacific Theater won combat decorations.
Women have a long history as fighters, and hunters, and in some cultures today, are the ones who do the bulk of the heavy work, such as farming and chopping wood, etc.
There is no hardship that is foreign to women and all sorts that they've routinely endured that men rarely do. I mean, honestly - it's ludicrous that you even say that with a straight face. It just shows the depth of your lack of understanding of actual history and not made-up-by-the-manosphere narratives.
You are correct that patriarchy also harms men in a variety of ways, and "the little guy" in particular, but while you're giving lip-service to "not everything is black and white" you might want to actually learn something about the topic you are attempting to discuss, because cherry picking about Mayan infidelity laws doesn't begin to touch on how even today, according to the UN, women around the world are subject to extreme levels of violence and discrimination, simply for being female.
Men perpetrate the vast majority of violence - against women and children but also against each other - acting on mainstream masculine norms of aggression, dominance, and control. Men have fought hard to keep women out of combat, and out of dangerous industries and women have fought just as hard to be allowed to do that work. Masculine norms drive isolation, depression, and the sorts of despair that leads to substance abuse and suicide.
If you actually care about men (and don't just dislike and resent women) then you'll turn your attention to the ways that the social system of patriarchy scews most men over for the benefit of the elites.
Contrary to popular belief, women and children have made up the vast majority of deaths from maritime disasters. Indian women used to throw themselves on the funeral pyres of their husbands up until the 19th century, and after the onset of patriarchy about 5k years ago, chiefs and other important men were often buried with their wives, concubines, and slaves (including some male slaves).
Conversely, in non-patriarchal cultures, such as the Mosua of China or the Minangkabau of Indonesia, women are given a huge amount of social and cultural respect, and mothers, in particular, are revered. Rape does not really exist in these cultures because that’s what cultures that actually value women look like. They don’t prioritize women over men — these cultures believe in a balance between the sexes and it shows.
Edit: read Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez for an in-depth look at all the ways that our cities, our healthcare system, and nearly everything about our culture is designed and built for men and their needs.
The presumption that what is male is universal is a direct consequence of the gender data gap. Whiteness and maleness can only go without saying because most other identities never get said at all. But male universality is also a cause of the gender data gap: because women aren’t seen and aren’t remembered, because male data makes up the majority of what we know, what is male comes to be seen as universal. It leads to the positioning of women, half the global population, as a minority. With a niche identity and a subjective point of view. In such a framing, women are set up to be forgettable. Ignorable. Dispensable–from culture, from history, from data. And so, women become invisible.
— Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez
https://a.co/dmZ51u4
