The Paradox of the Male in Patriarchal Settings: Reading the Plays of Emeka Nwabueze

As patriarchy solidifies, women have been at the forefront to decry its injustices so that many have thought that men’s silencing is because they benefit from the system of patriarchy. In much of dramatic productions, women have equally been at the forefront of changing the derogatory perceptions about them in patriarchal societies since the rhetoric often portrays them as the vulnerable group. Interestingly, the marginalization of men in patriarchy is often given a lacklustre attention, and the playwright, Emeka Nwabueze, demonstrates in his plays that men are equally victims of patriarchy. Gayatri Spivak’s discourse of epistemic violence and consent oppression on the subaltern are
relevant postcolonial feminist tenets that enable us to contend in this paper that in patriarchal societies, subjugation is not only meted out to women by men, but women are equally benefiting on the system to oppress and silence men. The paper concludes that Spivak’s question whether the subaltern can speak therefore demands that systems – patriarchy like matriarchy should adopt inclusive trends to gender and sex.

Keywords: Matriarchy, Patriarchy, Postcolonial feminism, Subaltern, Violence.