Misogyny

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Misogyny (pronounced /mɪˈsɒdʒɪni/) is hostility toward the female gender. Misogyny comes from Greek misogunia (μισογυνία) from misos (μῖσος, hatred) and gynē (γυνή, woman).

Definitions

According to sociologist Allan G. Johnson, "misogyny is a cultural attitude of hatred for females because they are female." Johnson argues that:

"[Misogyny] is a central part of sexist prejudice and ideology and, as such, is an important basis for the oppression of females in male-dominated societies. Misogyny is manifested in many different ways, from jokes to pornography to violence to the self-contempt women may be taught to feel for their own bodies."^[1]

Michael Flood defines misogyny as the hatred of women and notes:

"Though most common in men, misogyny also exists in and is practiced by women against other women or even themselves. Misogyny functions as an ideology or belief system that has accompanied patriarchal, or male-dominated, societies for thousands of years and continues to place women in subordinate positions with limited access to power and decision making. [...] Aristotle contended that women exist as natural deformities or imperfect males [...] Ever since, women in Western cultures have internalised their role as societal scapegoats, influenced in the twenty-first century by multimedia objectification of women with its culturally sanctioned self-loathing and fixations on plastic surgery, anorexia and bulimia."^[2]

Usage

Misogyny is sometimes confused with the similar looking word, misogamy (μισογαμία), which means hatred of marriage, hence the following error.^[3]

Any doubt he may have ever cherished in his misogamic breast concerning a woman's creative capacity.

—Pall Mall Gazette, 7 January 1889

An example of correct use, from the same period is:

He ... walked the banks apart, a thing of misogyny, in a suit of flannel.

—Herman Charles Merivale, Faucit of Balliol, 1882

A clearer example of the sense, also from the same era but using the noun misogynist, is provided by Thackeray.

Confound all women, I say, muttered the young misogynist.

—William Makepeace Thackeray, The Virginians, 1878

Occasionally writers play on the similarity between misogyny and miscegeny (mixed-race marriage).

This psychosocial analysis of the murder of a white civil rights activist by her mulatto lover (Joe Christmas) is replete with themes of fate, free will, sociopathy, family violence, misogyny, miscegeny, and isolation versus community.

—Karl Kirkland, 'On the Value of William Faulkner to Graduate Medical Education', 2001^[4]

Greek literature

Euripides

Misogyny comes into English from the ancient Greek word, misogunia (μισογυνία), which survives in two passages.^[5]

The earlier, longer and more complete passage comes from a stoic philosopher called Antipater of Tarsus in a moral tract known as On Marriage (c. 150 BC).^[6][7]

Antipater argues that marriage is the foundation of the state, and considers it to be based on divine (polytheistic) decree.^[7]

Antipater uses misogunia to describe Euripides' usual writing—tēn misogunian en tō graphein (τὴν μισογυνίαν ἐν τῷ γράφειν "the misogyny in the writing").^[7]

However, he mentions this by way of contrast. He goes on to quote Euripides at some length, writing in praise of wives.^[7] Antipater does not tell us what it is about Euripides' writing that he believes is misogynistic,^[7] he simply expresses his belief that even a man thought to hate women (namely Euripides) praises wives, so concluding his argument for the importance of marriage. He says, "This thing is truly heroic."^[7]

Euripides' reputation as a misogynist is known from another source. Athenaeus, in Deipnosophistae or Banquet of the Learned, has one of the diners quoting Hieronymus of Cardia who confirms the view was widespread, while offering Sophocles' comment on the matter.

Euripides the poet, also, was much addicted to women: at all events Hieronymus in his Historical Commentaries speaks as follows,—"When some one told Sophocles that Euripides was a woman-hater, 'He may be,' said he, 'in his tragedies, but in his bed he is very fond of women.'"

—Athenaeus, Deipnosophists, 2nd/3rd century., ^[8]

Despite Euripides' reputation, Antipater is not the only writer to see appreciation of women in his writing. Katherine Henderson and Barbara McManus consider he "showed more empathy for women than any other ancient writer", citing "relatively modern critics" to support their claim.^[9]

The other surviving use of the original Greek word is by Chrysippus, in a fragment from On affections, quoted by Galen in Hippocrates on Affections.^[10] Here, misogyny is the first in a short list of three "disaffections"—women (misogunian), wine (misoinian, μισοινίαν) and humanity (misanthrōpian, μισανθρωπίαν).

Chrysippus' point is more abstract than Antipater's, and Galen quotes the passage as an example of an opinion contrary to his own. What is clear, however, is that he groups hatred of women with hatred of humanity generally, and even hatred of wine. "It was the prevailing medical opinion of his day that wine strengthens body and soul alike."^[11]

So, as with his fellow stoic, Antipater, misogyny is viewed negatively, a disease, a dislike of something that is good. It is this issue of conflicted or alternating emotions that was philosophically contentious to the ancient writers. Ricardo Salles suggests the general stoic view was that, "A man may not only alternate between philogyny and misogyny, philanthropy and misanthropy, but be prompted to each by the other."^[12]

Marcus Tullius Cicero

Misogynist is also found in the Greek—misogunēs (μισογύνης)—in Deipnosophistae (above) and in Plutarch's Parallel Lives, where it is used as the title of Heracles in the history of Phocion.

It was also the title of a play by Menander, which we know of from book seven (concerning Alexandria) of Strabo's 17 volume Geography,^[5][13] and quotations of Menander by Clement of Alexandria and Stobaeus that relate to marriage.^[14]

Menander also wrote a play called Misoumenos (Μισούμενος) or The Man (She) Hated. Another Greek play with a similar name, Misogunos (Μισόγυνος) or Woman-hater, is reported by Cicero (in Latin) and attributed to Atilius.^[15]

Marcus Tullius Cicero reports that Greek philosophers considered misogyny to be caused by gynophobia, a fear of women.^[16] The context is worth quoting in full, because it deals directly with matters already discussed in this article.

It is the same with other diseases; as the desire of glory, a passion for women, to which the Greeks give the name of philogyneia: and thus all other diseases and sicknesses are generated. But those feelings which are the contrary of these are supposed to have fear for their foundation, as a hatred of women, such as is displayed in the Woman-hater of Atilius; or the hatred of the whole human species, as Timon is reported to have done, whom they call the Misanthrope. Of the same kind is inhospitality. And all these diseases proceed from a certain dread of such things as they hate and avoid.

—Cicero, Tusculanae Quaestiones, 1st century BC.^[16]

The more common form of this general word for woman hating is misogunaios (μισογύναιος).^[5]

• There are also some persons easily sated with their connection with the same woman, being at once both mad for women and women haters. — Philo, Of Special Laws, 1st Century.^[17]
• Allied with Venus in honourable positions Saturn makes his subjects haters of women, lovers of antiquity, solitary, unpleasant to meet, unambitious, hating the beautiful, ... — Ptolemy, 'Of the Quality of the Soul', 2nd century.^[18]
• I will prove to you that this wonderful teacher, this woman-hater, is not satisfied with ordinary enjoyments during the night. — Alciphron, 'Thais to Euthyedmus', 2nd century.^[19]

The word is also found in Vettius Valens' Anthology and Damascius' Principles.^[20][21]

In summary, Greek literature considered misogyny to be a disease, an anti-social condition, in that it ran contrary to their perceptions of the value of women as wives, and of the family as the foundation of society. These points are widely noted in the secondary literature.^[7]

Feminist theory

In the late 20th century, feminist theorists alleged that misogyny is both a cause and result of patriarchal social structures.^[22]

Traditional feminist theorists paint many different attitudes as misogyny. According to feminists, in its most overt expression, a misogynist will openly hate all women simply because they are female.

In feminist theory, other forms of misogyny may be less overt. Some alleged misogynists may simply be prejudiced against all women, or may hate women who do not fall into one or more acceptable categories. Subscribers to one model claim that some misogynists think in terms of the mother/whore dichotomy, where they hold that women can only be "mothers" or "whores." Another variant model is the one alleging that certain men think in terms of a virgin/whore dichotomy, in which women who do not adhere to an Abrahamic standard of moral purity are considered "whores".

The term misogynist is frequently used in a looser sense as a term of derision to describe anyone who holds a distasteful view about women as a group. Therefore, someone like Schopenhauer who proposes naturalistic reasons for various behaviors common to women is often regarded as a misogynist. As another, particularly striking example, man who is considered by many including himself to be "a great lover of women," is often regarded as being misogynist by feminists who consider this treatment of women to be sexist. Examples of this type of man would be Giacomo Casanova and Don Juan, who were both reputed for their many libertine affairs with women.

In feminist theory, misogyny is a negative attitude towards women as a group, and so need not fully determine a misogynist's attitude towards each individual woman. The fact that someone holds misogynist views may not prevent him or her 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 - often as a personal attack.

As with other terms, the more antipathetic one's position is in regards to misogyny, the larger the number of misogynists and the greater variety of attitudes and behaviors who fall into one's perception of "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.

Feminist theorist Marilyn Frye alleges that misogyny is phallogocentric and homoerotic at its root. In Politics of Reality, Frye analyzes the alleged misogyny characteristic of the fiction and Christian apologetics of C.S. Lewis. Frye argues that such misogyny privileges the masculine as a subject of erotic attention. She compares the alleged misogyny characteristic of Lewis' ideal of gender relations to underground male prostitution rings, which allegedly share the quality of men seeking to dominate subjects seen as less likely to take on submissive roles by a patriarchal society, but in both cases doing so as a theatrical mockery of women.^[23]

Although some authors have argued that misandry- the hatred of men and/or boys- is as morally wrong as misogyny, Michael Flood, an Australian sociologist at the University of Wollongong, has argued that "misandry lacks the systemic, transhistoric, institutionalized, and legislated antipathy of misogyny."^[24]

Mythology

J Holland sees evidence of misogyny in the mythology of the ancient world. In Greek mythology according to Hesiod, the human race had already existed before the creation of women — a peaceful, autonomous existence as a companion to the gods.

When Prometheus decides to steal the secret of fire from the gods, Zeus becomes infuriated and decides to punish humankind with an "evil thing for their delight" — Pandora, the first woman, who carried a jar (usually described — incorrectly — as a box) she was told to never open.

Epimetheus (the brother of Prometheus) is overwhelmed by her beauty, disregards Prometheus' warnings about her, and marries her. Pandora cannot resist peeking into the jar, and by opening it all evil is unleashed into the world — labour, sickness, old age, and death.^[25]

These examples of misogyny in Greek myths contradict the claims made by many that Greek literature looked down upon misogyny. It could mean that the notion of misogyny that was ridiculed by Greek literature is not the same as the modern concept of misogyny.

J. Holland also sees evidence of misogyny in the Christian view on the Fall of Man based on the Book Genesis, which according to Christian interpretation brought tragedy and death into the world by a woman. (See also Original Sin.)

Religion

Eve rides astride the Serpent on a capital in Laach Abbey church, 13th century

Buddhism

In his book The Power of Denial: Buddhism, Purity, and Gender, professor Bernard Faure of Columbia University argued generally that "Buddhism is paradoxically neither as sexist nor as egalitarian as is usually thought." He remarked, "Many feminist scholars have emphasized the misogynistic (or at least androcentric) nature of Buddhism." He emphasised that Buddhism morally exalts its male monks while the mothers and wives of the monks also have important roles. He wrote as well:

"While some scholars see Buddhism as part of a movement of emancipation, others see it as a source of oppression. Perhaps this is only a distinction between optimists and pessimists, if not between idealists and realists... As we begin to realize, the term "Buddhism" does not designate a monolithic entity, but covers a number of doctrines, ideologies, and practices--some of which seem to invite, tolerate, and even cultivate "otherness" on their margins".^[26]

Christianity

Katharine M. Rogers in The Troublesome Helpmate alleges Christianity to be misogynistic, listing specific examples from the New Testament letters of the Christian apostle Paul of Tarsus.

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.^[27]

Alternately, self-described biblical eglitarians such as the late^[28] David M. Scholer, a scholar at Fuller Theological Seminary, have argued that Christian theology emphasised equality between the sexes.^[29][30] He particularly cited the passage:

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. – Galatians 3:28

Islam

The fourth chapter (or sura) of the Qur'an is called Women (An-Nisa). The 34th verse is a key verse in feminist criticism of Islam.^[31] The verse reads: "Men are the maintainers of women because Allah has made some of them to excel others and because they spend out of their property; the good women are therefore obedient, guarding the unseen as Allah has guarded; and (as to) those on whose part you fear desertion, admonish them, and leave them alone in the sleeping-places and beat them; then if they obey you, do not seek a way against them; surely Allah is High, Great."

Taj Hashmi discusses misogyny in relation to Muslim culture, and Bangladesh specifically, in the book Popular Islam and Misogyny: A Case Study of Bangladesh.

[T]hanks to the subjective interpretations of the Quran (almost exclusively by men), the preponderance of the misogynic mullahs and the regressive Shariah law in most “Muslim” countries, Islam is synonymously known as a promoter of misogyny in its worst form. Although there is no way of defending the so-called “great” traditions of Islam as libertarian and egalitarian with regard to women, we may draw a line between the Quranic texts and the corpus of avowedly misogynic writing and spoken words by the mullah having very little or no relevance to the Quran.

—^[32]

In a Washington Post article, Asra Q. Nomani discussed An-Nisa, 34 and stated that "Domestic violence is prevalent today in non-Muslim communities as well, but the apparent religious sanction in Islam makes the challenge especially difficult." She further wrote that although "Islamic historians agree that the prophet Muhammad never hit a woman, it is also clear that Muslim communities face a domestic violence problem." Nomani notes that in his book No god but God, University of Southern California professor Reza Aslan wrote that "misogynistic interpretation" has dogged An-Nisa, 34 because Koranic commentary "has been the exclusive domain of Muslim men.^[33] American author and commentator Robert Spencer has described Quran 4:34 as a "notorious verse commanding the beating of disobedient women" in FrontPage Magazine. He has argued that it promotes a demeaning culture of violence against women.^[34]

Philosophy

Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Weininger, Kant, Hume, Wittgenstein, Socrates, Buddha, Plato, Aristotle and Hegel are alleged to be misogynists.

Weininger

The philosopher Otto Weininger freely admits his misogyny in his 1903 book Sex and Character, in which he characterizes the "woman" part of each individual as being essentially "nothing," and having no real existence, having no effective consciousness or rationality.^[35]

Weininger famously 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."

Schopenhauer

The notable philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer has been accused of misogyny for his essay "On Women" (Über die Weiber), in which he expressed his opposition to what he called "Teutonico-Christian stupidity" on female affairs. He claimed that "woman is by nature meant to obey." He also noted that "Men are by nature merely indifferent to one another; but women are by nature enemies."

Nietzsche

The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche is known for arguing that every higher form of civilization implied stricter controls on women (Beyond Good and Evil, 7:238); he frequently insulted women, but is best known for phrases such as "Women are less than shallow," and "Are you going to women? Do not forget the whip!"^[36] However, one must seriously wonder if this was a covert joke by Nietzsche, in reference to the now famous photograph of Lou Salome sitting in a wooden cart holding a whip, with Nietzsche and Paul Ree in the place of cart horses.

Nietzsche's reputation as a misogynist is disputed by some, pointing out that he also made unflattering statements about men, making him a misanthropist rather than a misogynist.

Whether or not this amounts to misogyny, whether his polemic statements against women are meant to be taken literally, and the exact nature of his opinions of women, are controversial.^[37] Nietzsche had advised his readers to 'read him well' (i.e. not necessarily at face value) as to not misunderstand his statements and see the reality and fact of his words.

Wittgenstein

The philosopher Wittgenstein was influenced by Weininger's views on women ^[38] Wittgenstein enthusiastically recommended 'Sex and Character' to his peers and in the face of their criticism pointed out Weininger's greatness ^[39]

Aristotle

Aristotle has also been accused of being a misogynist; He has written that women were inferior to men. For example, to cite Cynthia Freeland's catalogue: "Aristotle says that the courage of a man lies in commanding, a woman's lies in obeying; that "matter yearns for form, as the female for the male and the ugly for the beautiful;" that women have fewer teeth than men; that a female is an incomplete male or "as it were, a deformity": which contributes only matter and not form to the generation of offspring; that in general "a woman is perhaps an inferior being"; that female characters in a tragedy will be inappropriate if they are too brave or too clever"(Freeland 1994: 145-46)^[40]

Kant

Kant was convinced that there was merit to the view that white men are fools for first making great concessions to their wives, and afterward complaining on being driven mad by them.^[41]

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy states, as of August 2010, that "Kant's writings, like Aristotle's, provide the ideal target for feminist criticism because they contain both overt statements of sexism and racism, and a theoretical framework that can be interpreted along gender lines."^[42]

Socrates

Socrates maintained that the courage of a man was shown in commanding, while that of a woman was shown in obeying.^[43]

Hegel

Hegel's sexism is seen in the following passage from his The Philosophy of Right:

Women can, of course, be educated, but their minds are not adapted to the higher sciences, philosophy, or certain of the arts. Women may have happy inspirations, taste, elegance, but they have not the ideal. The difference between man and woman is the same as between animal and plant. The animal corresponds more closely to the character of the man, the plant to that of the woman. In woman there is a more peaceful unfolding of nature, a process, whose principle is the less clearly determined unity of feeling. If woman were to control the government, the state would be in danger, for they do not act according to the dictates of universality, but are in influenced by accidental inclinations and opinions. The education of woman goes on one only knows how, in the atmosphere of picture thinking, as it were, more through life than through the acquisition of knowledge. Man attains his position only through stress of thought and much specialized effort.

See also

• Chauvinism
• Honor killing
• Misogyny in hip hop culture
• Object relations theory
• Philogyny
• Violence against women

Notes and references

Bibliography

Dictionary of sociology articles

• Marshall, Gordon. 'Misogyny'. In Oxford Dictionary of Sociology. Oxford University Press, 1998.
• Johnson, Allan G. 'Misogyny'. In Blackwell Dictionary of Sociology: A User's Guide to Sociological Language. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2000.

Core references

• Brownmiller, Susan. Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1975.
• Dijkstra, Bram. Idols of Perversity: Fantacies of Feminine Evil. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.
• Chodorow, Nancy. The Reproduction of Mothering: Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender. University of California, Berkeley, 1978.
• Dworkin, Andrea. Woman Hating. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1974.
• Griffin, Susan. . :,.
• Klein, Melanie. The Collected Writings of Melanie Klein. 4 volumes. London: Hogarth Press, 1975.
• Millett, Kate. Sexual Politics. New York: Doubleday, 1970.
• Rich, Adrienne. :,.

Katharine M Rogers

• Rogers, Katharine M. The Troublesome Helpmate: A History of Misogyny in Literature. 1966.

Miscellaneous literature

• Boteach, Shmuley. Hating Women: America's Hostile Campaign Against the Fairer Sex. 2005.
• Clack, Beverley. Misogyny in the Western Philosophical Tradition.
• Ellmann, Mary. Thinking About Women. 1968.
• Ferguson, Frances and R. Howard Bloch. Misogyny, Misandry, and Misanthropy. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989. ISBN 978-0-520-06544-4
• Forward, Susan, and Joan Torres. Men Who Hate Women and the Women Who Love Them: When Loving Hurts and You Don't Know Why. Bantam Books, 1986. ISBN 0-553-28037-6
• Gilmore, David D. Misogyny: the Male Malady. 2001.
• Haskell, Molly. From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies. 1974. University of Chicago Press, 1987.
• Holland, Jack. Misogyny: The World's Oldest Prejudice. 2006.
• Kipnis, Laura. The Female Thing: Dirt, Sex, Envy, Vulnerability. 2006. ISBN 0-375-42417-2
• Morgan, Fidelis. A Misogynist's Source Book.
• Patai, Daphne, and Noretta Koertge. Professing Feminism: Cautionary Tales from the Strange World of Women's Studies. 1995. ISBN 0-465-09827-4
• Penelope, Julia. Speaking Freely: Unlearning the Lies of our Fathers' Tongues. Toronto: Pergamon Press Canada, 1990.
• Smith, Joan. Misogynies. 1989. Revised 1993.
• World Health Organization Multi-country Study on Women's Health and Domestic Violence against Women* 2005.

External links

• Misogyny, Misandry, and Misanthropy

German

• Hans Friedrich August von Arnim. Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta (SVF, Old Stoic Fragments), 1903.

Greek

• Volume 3.