In this work, the attempt is made to uncover patriarchal power relations through feminist1 design and at the same time to overcome them artistically. With a power-critical, deconstructive3 perspective, the aim is to decode patriarchal constructions4 in order to reveal the underlying relations of domination and power and thus to gain the possibility of constructing new attributions of meaning. In other words, this thesis asks the question: How can patriarchal relations of domination be decoded (in the sense of deconstructed) and overcome (in the sense of re-constructed) through feminist design – or: What can feminist design learn from patriarchy?

To answer the questions raised, the following approach is taken:
First, in the first chapter, a short introduction and clarification of the terms and concepts5 are given, which are guiding the theoretical work to answer the questions. Thus, critical reference is made to a gender-specific6 citation practice, some innovations for scientific work are introduced (see p.9) – such as the explanation of terms in the footnotes to promote an accessible language -, the term “patriarchy” and its historical context are explained and, finally, reference is made to the philosophy7 of aikido. The conducted performance8 experiments presented in the second chapter constitute the main part of this thesis. They show exemplarily9 how patriarchal mechanisms of power and oppression can be deconstructed and new, non-violent meanings can be constructed through feminist design. The thesis concludes with a summary of the collected findings as well as an outlook on open questions.