Misogyny

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Misogyny (/mɪ.ˈsɑ.ʤə.ni/) is hatred or strong prejudice against women. The word comes from the Greek words μίσος (misos, "hatred") + γυνη (gunê, "woman"). Compared with anti-woman sexism or misandry (hatred or fear of, or strong prejudice against men), misogyny is viewed in feminist theory as a political ideology ^{[citation needed]} - similar to racism or anti-Semitism - that justifies and maintains the subordination of women by men.

1 Forms of misogyny
2 Misogyny in philosophy and religion
3 Misogyny in Literature
4 Further reading
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Forms of misogyny

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There are many different forms of misogyny. In its most overt expression, a misogynist will openly hate all women simply because they are female. Some sexual predators may fall into this category.

Other forms of misogyny may be more subtle. Some misogynists may simply be prejudiced against all women, or may hate women who don't fall into one or more acceptable categories. Entire cultures may be said to be misogynist if they treat women in ways that can be seen as harmful. Examples include forcing women to tend to all domestic responsibilities, demanding silence from a woman, or beating a woman. Subscribers to one model, the mother/whore dichotomy, hold that women can only be "mothers" or "whores." Another variant is the virgin/whore dichotomy, in which women who do not adhere to a saintly standard of moral purity are considered "whores."

Frequently the term misogynist is used in a looser sense as a term of derision to describe anyone who holds an unpopular or distasteful view about women as a group. A man who considers himself "a great lover of women," therefore, might somewhat paradoxically be termed a misogynist by those who consider his treatment of women sexist. Archetypes of this type of man might be Giacomo Casanova and Don Juan, who were both reputed for their many libertine affairs with women. While a "seducer" like Casanova or Don Juan might appear outwardly charming and to enjoy the company of women, some may interpret these figures as being disrespectful of women, or as having no interest in them other than as sex objects or objects of romantic interest.

Misogyny is a negative attitude towards women as a group, and as such need not fully determine a misogynist's attitude towards each individual woman. The fact that someone holds misogynist views may not prevent them from having positive relationships with some women. Conversely, simply having negative relationships with some women does not necessarily mean someone holds misogynistic views. The term, like most negative descriptions of attitudes, is used as an epithet and applied to a wide variety of behaviors and attitudes. As with other terms, the more antipathetic one's position is in regards to misogyny, the larger the number of misogynysts and the greater variety of attitudes and behaviors that are "misogynist". This is, of course, the subject of much controversy and debate with opinions ranging widely as to the extent and breadth of misogyny in society.

[edit] Misogyny in philosophy and religion

Some religions and philosophies contain what could be called misogyny.

During the Great Jubilee, Pope John Paul II issued an apology for all the past sins of the Roman Catholic Church, dividing the sins into seven categories. Amongst general sins, sins in service of the truth, sins against Christian unity, sins against Jews, sins against respect of love, peace and culture, and sins against human rights, he also apologized for sins against the dignity of women and minorities.

In the 16th century the Scottish Protestant reformer John Knox wrote a book called The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women in which he argued against the ability of women to govern.

Nietzsche is known for arguing that every higher form of civilisation implied stricter controls on women [Beyond Good and Evil, 7:238]; he frequently insulted women, but is best known for the phrases, "Women are less than shallow", "Woman was God's second blunder," and "Are you going to women? Do not forget the whip!" Napoleon, Schopenhauer, Machiavelli, Aristotle, Tolstoy and Rousseau were also known for making such comments about women. It should also be noted, however, that philosophers such as Plato, John Stuart Mill, Friedrich Engels, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, and Henry George supported feminism.

The philosopher Otto Weininger, in his 1903 book Sex and Character, characterized the "woman" part of each individual as being essentially "nothing", and having no real existence, having no effective consciousness or rationality. Weininger says, "No men who really think deeply about women retain a high opinion of them; men either despise women or they have never thought seriously about them." The author August Strindberg praised Weininger for probably having solved the hardest of all problems, the "woman problem".

[edit] Misogyny in Literature

"The foundations of early Christian misogyny- its guilt about sex, its insistence on female subjection, its dread of female seduction- are all in St. Paul's epistles. They provided a convenient supply of divinely inspired misogynistic texts for any Christian writer who chose to use them; his statements on female subjection were still being quoted in the twentieth century opponents of equality for women" The Troublesome Helpmate: A History of Misogyny in Literature Katherine M. Rogers

"Regarding the passage of the women suffrage amendment in America, Rogers quoted from The Saturday Review, August 28, 1920: " "[It] is man's last stand against the subversion of his rights of virility by a tyranny which, unless we are much mistaken, will prove to be at once humiliating and dangerous. Humiliating, because it is the submission of the superior to the inferior sex. Dangerous, because, if it be pushed beyond a certain point, it will be overthrown by an appeal to physical force." But the hopeful possibility remains " that the men will resort to the weapons with which Nature has furnished them, and that the argument of the black eye, while it may disfigure temporarily the daughters of Eve, will be the only means of recovering the lost Rights of Man." The Troublesome Helpmate: A History of Misogyny in Literature Katherine M. Rogers

No men who really think deeply about women retain a high opinion of them; men either despise women or they have never thought seriously about them. -- Otto Weininger

As children, imbeciles and criminals would be justly prevented from taking any part in public affairs even if they were numerically equal or in the majority; woman must in the same way be kept from having a share in anything which concerns the public welfare. Sex and Character: Otto Weininger

Ursala King in her 1987 article in Comparative Education: "World Religions, Women and Education" states very clearly that women "were always excluded from formal education once sacred knowledge became transmitted in an institutional manner".

[edit] Further reading

Professing Feminism: Cautionary Tales from the Strange World of Women's Studies; Daphne Patai and Noretta Koertge, 1995, ISBN 0465098274
The Lipstick Proviso: Women, Sex & Power in the Real World; Karen Lehrman, 1997, ISBN 0385474814
The Female Thing: Dirt, Sex, Envy, Vulnerability, Laura Kipnis, 2006, ISBN 0375424172
Katharine M. Rogers, The Troublesome Helpmate: A History of Misogyny in Literature (1966)
Mary Ellmann, Thinking About Women (1968)
Molly Haskell, From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies, University of Chicago Press 1987 (First Edition 1974)
Joan Smith, Misogynies (1989, revised 1993)
Gilmore, David D, Misogyny: the Male Malady (2001)
World Health Organisation Multi-country Study on Women's Health and Domestic Violence against Women* (2005)
Fidelis Morgan A Misogynist's Source Book
Jack Holland Misogyny: The World's Oldest Prejudice (2006)
Beverley Clack Misogyny in the Western Philosophical Tradition
Schmuley Boteach Hating Women: America's Hostile Campaign Against the Fairer Sex(2005)
Julia Penelope Speaking Freely: Unlearning the Lies of our Fathers' Tongues. Toronto: Pergamon Press Canada, (1990)