How I Am Teaching My Small Daughters To Play Patriarchy Chicken

Article here. Excerpt:

'Then I read this piece in the New Statesman, and I was so happy to hear a name for the philosophy I’ve been passively teaching my daughters, 5 and 2, for the last year. British professor Charlotte Riley plays “Patriarchy Chicken” on her commute to work, holding to her path through streets and tube stations while oncoming men choose to move aside or run into her.

Imagine me, a grown woman, with a jumping 5-year-old on one hand and a rogue 2-year-old pulling on the other. We are broad. We take up space. And now we hold that space, especially in the face of anyone who chugs toward us expecting to have the path cleared for them. So far only one person has run into us, bumping into my daughter’s child-sized shopping cart in the produce section.

My daughter said, “Watch out!” And I jumped to correct her tone, embarrassed that she seemed rude. Then I noticed that the other shopper was annoyed, not about to offer an apology, and I thought, “Why are we the rude ones in this scenario?”'