According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary website, misogyny is defined as:
a hatred of women
While doing research for this diary, I found
this article which tries to explain what misogyny is.
This all made a lot of sense, but I still had not made the connection to the word "hate." Eventually I made the connection when I found this website. The author summed up his reason for creating the site and his dislike of women in one simple sentence: "I hate women because I want their attention and they won’t give me any." So what a misogynist truly loves is the shallow image of women that exists only in one’s mind and is illustrated in society in such things as pornography or mainstream media that espouses that ideal. The hatred is directed at real women, for not living up to a misogynist’s expectations of women being easy to control and for not providing adequate stimulation for men’s interest.
Once I figured this out, many things about misogyny became clear. A misogynistic value system would favor women who put out and are easy to control. Misogynists would talk about women in a dehumanized way, i.e., nice legs, great ass, etc, as if women were nothing more than a collection of body parts. Dating and relationships would become a game of manipulation fraught with various seedy techniques and ploys designed to get women to have sex. Something else I noticed as I browsed the web is that although misogynists try to control women, they are ironically dependent on women for validation in front of other men and society. This dependence is disempowering and only adds to the anger and resentment misogynists feel towards women.
There is also a website called
Misogyny Unlimited, which brags of links that are especially unpopular with women.
Of course, there are those who believe that it is simply the Patriarchy which is to blame. This definition is found here
Patriarchy – Literally means the rule of the father and is generally understood within feminist discourses in a dualistic sense as asserting the domination of all men over all women in equal terms. The theoretical adequacy of patriarchy has been challenged because, for instance, black men to not have control over white wo/men and some women (slave/mistresses) have power over subaltern women and men (slaves).
--Snip--
Historically, patriarchy operates through the disproportionate (sometimes exclusive) conferring of leadership status (and formal titles indicating that status) on men, a tradition characterised by casting all women as naturally unsuited to lead men, no matter what talents and expertise they might possess (unless there are exceptional circumstances resulting from intersections with other social hierarchies conferring high status that gives rare women political authority e.g. the royal lineage of Elizabeth I, or the divine claim to authority of Joan of Arc). This view of women normalises the restriction of women’s opportunities and choices throughout the whole of society via strict gender expectations which constrain individualist expressions.
Some societies are more patriarchal than others, but patriarchal social traditions are universal in human societies, taking the physical strength disparity between the sexes as signs of a general female inferiority, a “natural order” that indicates women are meant to be subordinate.
Upon reading this, it is clear to me that not only do the
Christian white males who make up the powers that be in this entire debacle want a return to 1950's (or earlier) so that they can enjoy their own personal
Mad Men experience, they also want to pretend that they are real Patriarchs and that they are able to control everything and everyone and that they are the closest thing to their God on earth.
This is the reason they are doing everything within their power to ensure that we all know our place and that we are nothing more than baby making machines. If they take away our birth control (and our ability to control our fertility in any way) then we are tied to nature and we are tied to "our place". This is why it is crucial (in their eyes) that we believe them when they tell is that we don't know the difference between sex and rape and that we don't know that we have the power and the ability to say No to their advances. See, if we would just cave and allow them to have their way with us whenever they want, they wouldn't have to hate us and punish us and treat us this way. Again, we go back to slut shaming and blaming the victim and doing other things to ourselves to put the Patriarch wannabes on the pedestal that they so desperately want.
I don't know about anyone else, but I damn sure am going to do everything in my power to ensure that my daughter doesn't have to deal with this any longer, nor any other female. I am damn mad and I am not going to let these Christian white males run my life or anyone else's if I can avoid it.
*Please note, I have italicized the term Christian white male because I know that not all Christian white males are responsible for this, nor do they all have the same hatred of women; however the majority of those responsible do fit into that category.