Pretty much all of it is a lie. There are slivers of truth embedded in it, so I grab onto them and build my life from there. If enough people did this, we'd change the world — this is actually how large scale change happens.

It's why I don't really get when some radical feminists talk about climbing the ladder in terms of their career, thinking that finances are the epitome of independence. They're not. It's easy to think that, especially since women have depended on men for so long for material resources, that when we are granted the same right to make a living we grab onto it fiercely. But if you're reinforcing the patriarchal narrative of "climbing the ladder", you're not as independent as you think. Not mentally anyway. Ever hear about people who were abused by their parents who have long since moved out and are living "independently" but are still controlled by the trauma they experienced as children? Same thing.

But rather than saying everything is a lie, I'd say everything is driven by lies. There's a male narrative behind it all. So let me continue with the career example. Climbing the ladder is senselessly competitive and hierarchical male bullshit. It's status and profit driven, exploitative, blind, and shallow. The 'sliver of truth' in this principle is the natural act of progressing and improving upon a skill. It's embedded in every single human being on the planet, no institution is needed to train us to think this way or motivate us to do better: we all want and do this naturally. But when you inject certain variables into the system such as inequality, trauma, oppression, control, status, social Darwinism, etc. (which are all male-originated), then the vast majority of people will fall in line with that type of thinking and be motivated by aggressive competition.

Everything is driven by lies: religion (large scale control), science (objectification of our world), philosophy (male therapy), media (male fantasy), medicine (objectification of our bodies), our ideas of success (male competition), politics (male propaganda), economics (exploitation of nature). You name it, there's a male controlling it.

It's not enough to climb the ladder. It's not enough to be financially independent. It's not enough to 'succeed' in a male dominated field, to marry a rare empathic male and have his kids, to consume women-centered media (books, music, TV), etc. It's only enough if we actually build our lives from truth, from our own narrative, independent of men. And then infuse the real world with it, actually making changes. Not hiding from it or succumbing to the depressing narrative.