The feminist mission to destroy the so-called patriarchy and to create a matriarchy instead has officially hit its peak.

Back in 2009, in “The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything,” Maria Shriver wrote:

As we move into this phase we’re calling a woman’s nation, women can turn their pivotal role as wage-earners, as consumers, as bosses, as opinion-shapers, as co-equal partners in whatever we do into a potent force for change. Emergent economic power gives women a new seat at the table — at the head of the table.

In 2012, in response to a question about what would constitute an acceptable number of female Supreme Court justices, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s said, “Now the perception is: yes, women are here to stay. And when I’m sometimes asked when will there be enough and I say, ‘When there are nine,’ people are shocked.”

Of course, creating a matriarchy invariably requires dismantling marriage and families — because in order for women to run the world, they must surrender their desire to run their homes. Being wives and mothers would become a thing of the past.

How do feminists accomplish this lofty goal? Their first line of attack was to demean motherhood by convincing women that smart women have better things to do with their time than take care of babies.

The second line of attack was to insist women never depend on a man and even chuck husbands altogether if they must. Become single mothers and rely on government subsidies instead.

The third line of attack, which is happening as we speak, is the most extreme: take men down altogether.

The American Psychological Association’s (APA) new guidelines that declare traditional masculinity “harmful” should serve as a wake-up call to all Americans. Anti-male propaganda abounds in Hollywood, in the media and in our universities. But this new move by the APA, the largest organization of psychologists in the country, takes it to a whole new level.

The APA has proven more than once that it is not a neutral organization. On the contrary, it is radical. Ryon McDermott, a psychologist who assisted in writing the guidelines, claims gender is “no longer just this male-female binary.”

Columnist Heather Wilhelm adds the following:

Here is a sentence that actually exists on the APA’s website, paired with a summary of the new guidelines. ‘Indeed, when researchers strip away stereotypes and expectation, there isn’t much difference in the basic behaviors of men and women.’ There is no direct or encompassing citation for this impressively sweeping statement, probably because it a) is untrue, b) is unscientific and c) likely makes God laugh.

It is not a coincidence that there are twice as many women as men in the APA. Many of these women (and many of the men) aren’t just psychologists — they’re card-carrying members of the feminist elite. Their entire worldview about men, women, sex, work, marriage and parenting is thus filtered through a left-wing lens.

The APA genuinely believes that American men, as a group, are oppressors of women — and many fools in power believe them. Proctor and Gamble has just released an ad that encourages men to shed their “toxic masculinity.”

This is an egregious display of gender propaganda, and American men shouldn’t stand for it.

They likely will stand for it, unfortunately, as clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson and the dissident feminist Camille Paglia explain in this four-minute video. “There’s no cure for the culture’s ills right now except if men start standing up and demanding they be respected as men,” Paglia tells Peterson.

She’s right: men should start standing up. And some are.

But the majority will not. Indeed, the irony of feminist dogma is that far from being oppressors of women, most men are supporters of women. Men want to please women, not rule over them. So if women and society insist that men shed their masculine ways, well then that is what they will do. Millennials are already doing it.

No, the only possible answer to this madness is for women to fight back against the feminist elite.

“It seems to me it isn’t men who have to stand up and say ‘enough of this,’” Peterson says, “even though that is what they should do. It seems to me it’s sane women who have to stand up against their crazy sisters and say ‘Look, enough of that. Enough of that man-hating, enough pathology, enough bringing disgrace on us as a gender.’”

Amen.

Suzanne Venker is a cultural critic and the author of several nonfiction books, including “The War on Men” and “The Alpha Female’s Guide to Men and Marriage: How Love Works.”

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.