FEMINISM
The Great Patriarchal Extinction Burst
Is the patriarchy finally crumbling?
I’m really not sure how the term “extinction burst” entered my vocabulary but I found myself recently using it in a discussion around patriarchy and as it left my mouth I had one of those moments when I realised I might actually be on to something.
If you’re a parent you may be familiar with the concept. It’s a term used in psychology to describe, well, a tantrum of sorts. Or, in more accurate terms, the phenomenon of a previously reinforced or learned behaviour that temporarily increases when the reward for the behaviour is removed.
Behavioural specialists would tell us that a burst of the negative behaviour we’re trying to stamp out is a good indication that things are in fact improving; that whatever we’re doing to get our child to sleep, or eat, or stop picking their nose, that seems to be getting worse as a result of our parenting efforts, is, in fact, getting better.
The toddler, when faced with efforts to address their behaviour, you see, is going to push back, hard. Like when you decide to stop eating chocolate then suddenly find yourself eating even more. Like the time a relationship ends and one of you can’t let go so rings out the phone a dozen times willing the other to pick up. Like men…
