What is Misogyny?
Derived from the Greek word “mīsoguníā” it can be explained as a hatred toward women. This takes many forms such as gender discrimination, sexual harassment, male privilege, belittling of women, patriarchy, violence against women, and sexual objectification. It’s often believed that the roots of misogyny lie in mythology. Men, as companions to the gods, were living in harmony until Prometheus decided to steal fire from the gods, angering Zeus. Zeus took it upon himself to punish mankind by creating Pandora, the first woman who carried with her a box that contained the evils of old age, death, sickness, and labour.
It’s no secret that religion too has a very specific view of women. It ranges from the diversity in Hindu texts that speak of women as the highest goddess and other texts wherein women are restricted to the role of mother, daughter, and wife. In Latin Christianity, there is a belief that being a female is a curse given by God and that females are the Devil’s Gateway. There are even religious texts that have whole chapters dedicated to women such as in Islam with An-Nisa (Women), which gives men rules on how to treat women.
What is Feminism?
A reaction to this oppression was feminism. This can be defined as socio-political movements and ideologies that have the goal of establishing economic, political, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism includes women’s movements campaigning for rights like voting, the ability to work, equal pay, maternity leave, owning property, and getting an education, to name a few. A large part of feminist movements also focuses on the promoting of bodily autonomy as well as the protection of women and girls from crimes like domestic violence, rape, and sexual harassment.
Feminism in Waves
There are four separate waves to the modern feminist movement. These separate waves dealt with varying perspectives on core feminist issues. The women’s suffrage movement was the first wave and focused on women’s right to vote. This type of traditional feminism still looked at gender roles and while fighting for particular rights for women, it still held traditional beliefs within its empowerment structure.
The second wave began in the 1960s and had its roots in the legal and social equality for women, this included legal inequalities, domestic violence, reproductive rights, divorce law, and marital rape. Around three decades later we would see the beginning of the third wave with its focus on sex-positive feminism, vegetarian ecofeminism, postmodern feminism, and most importantly, intersectionality.
The theory is that intersectionality considers all the aspects of humanity, such as race, class, gender, and sexual orientation as these are intertwined pieces of existence that cannot be separated from each other. Rather, the relationship between these various aspects should be considered to give us a full view of understanding human conditions. To really get rid of gender role stereotypes, women of various cultures need to be considered.
Transfeminism looks into the liberation of transwomen. Vegetarian ecofeminism looks at the relationship between women and nature. The belief holds that the domination of women and the domination of nature are connected and must both be abolished to end oppression. Postmodern feminism has two distinct types that make up this genre, namely, liberal feminism, and radical feminism. Liberal feminism focuses on individual women and their ability to empower themselves in fields of academics, and other associated fields so that they’re able to make better decisions, and gain political and legal rights. On the other hand, exists radical feminism that requires the restructuring of society wherein male supremacy is removed from all social and economic contexts.
The fourth wave of feminism surrounds events that began around 2012, with the focus being on sexual harassment, rape culture, body shaming, workplace discrimination, assault on public transport, sexist imagery in media, online misogyny, and other types of harassment associated with social media use. This would lead to movements such as #MeToo.
The Resurgence of Traditional Feminism
With easy access to varying beliefs and ideologies due to social media, our perception of what empowerment looks like has become skewed, if not heavily biased, by algorithms. There has been a resurgence of traditional feminism under the guise of choice feminism. Think of the videos that you’ve seen promoting the stay-at-home girlfriend lifestyle or more and more women complaining that they can’t believe that women fought for their right to work, they’d rather stay home and perform domestic labour. A large part of this perspective is because women are being forced to perform domestic labour in addition to working outside of the home. But that’s a whole different conversation. So, how do women promote misogyny and what does that have to do with traditional feminism?
It’s easy to think that the women who are so fond of male oppression don’t even believe in women’s rights much less in feminism. It’s a bit more insidious than that. Many women face something called internalized misogyny. This is the subconscious projection of sexist ideas onto other women, and sometimes, even on yourself. Some of these ideas include minimizing the value of women, distrust in women, and the belief in gender bias that favours men. They become so rooted in their ideals, religious and social, that they begin to view traditional beliefs as the only true and moral ones. These beliefs can range from ideas about having kids, to taking on domestic roles out of obligation.
It’s pretty hard to escape the casual and careless degradation of women. It’s loudly proclaimed in the media and this makes it really difficult to see how we tear each other down. We all have preconceived notions of what we think women should be and how they should act, these come from societal expectations and gender norms. However, this makes it all the more important to be conscious of the thoughts and ideals that we hold. Women promote misogyny and uphold patriarchy by body shaming, slut-shaming, making it seem as though traditional beliefs are the only correct ideals to hold, as well as excusing the behaviour of men. This includes but is not limited to the idea that “boys will be boys” to excuse sexual harassment and weaponized incompetence as regular “manly” behaviour.
The Effects of Internalized Misogyny
With internalized misogyny there is no active belief that women are inferior, rather it’s a byproduct of the active hate women and girls face in society that makes women shame, undervalue, and doubt themselves and other women. This creates a toxic culture that’s so ingrained that we’re able to belt out Taylor Swift’s ‘Revenge’ without a second thought. Women are taught to compete with each other for men’s attention and this leads to a lack of strong friendships that are unconditional and nurture the need for human connection.
Internalised misogyny also robs women of basic skills like cooking, or finding joy in cooking, by virtue of it being deemed “a woman’s job”. Everything that surrounds the kitchen or the mere thought of preparing food is often derogatory when directed at women and this causes them to recoil. However, when the gender roles attached to these skills are dissolved it quickly becomes a form of empowerment. Honestly, the list of things that have been decimated by internalised misogyny is neverending ranging from the clothes we choose to wear to the colour pink. Internalised misogyny can go as far as mocking men who’ve chosen to break down gender roles, only furthering the idea that misogyny may be the right thing.
The current resurgence of traditional feminism means that you’re facing misogyny in more obvious and infuriating ways, case in point, stay-at-home girlfriends. At the bottom of the fury though there’s fear and anxiety, and so much of it. I feel it too. Are we walking ourselves backwards? Are men not letting up and we’re all just so exhausted that we can only go backwards? What do we do?
How to Stop Contributing to the Vitriol
So how do we combat these ideals? We hold ourselves and those around us accountable. We critically question the beliefs we hold and we listen to those who have different perspectives. Consider why a particular thought was the first one to pop into your head, take a step back and evaluate your situation. Take a moment when you’re feeling inferior or when judging another woman. Don’t judge anyone who’s breaking out of the preconceived notion of the person you believe they should be. Be kind, especially in times like these, and remember that strength lies in education and empathy.
References
[1] Chaudhury, S, Srivastava, K, Bhat, P & Sahu, S 2017, ‘Misogyny, feminism, and sexual harassment’, Industrial Psychiatry Journal, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 111–113, viewed 26 October 2022, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6058438/.
[2] Cherry, N 2018, Internalized Misogyny: What Does It Look like? How Do You Stop it? | UMKC Women’s Center, info.umkc.edu, viewed 2 November 2022, https://info.umkc.edu/womenc/2018/11/16/internalized-misogyny-what-does-it-look-like-how-do-you-stop-it/.
[3] Jani, A 2020, 6 Things Internalised Misogyny Ruined For Women, Feminism In India, viewed 2 November 2022, https://feminisminindia.com/2020/08/31/6-things-internalised-misogyny-ruined-for-women/.