An
Australian dictionary has changed its definition of misogyny to reflect
the fact that it is now used to mean 'entrenched prejudice against
women', not just hatred of them. Six feminists tell us what the term
means to them
Naomi Wolf: Julia Gillard used the word accurately
I object to more heightened words being appropriated carelessly to
make political points: sexism is not in fact misogyny; someone can like
women quite a lot in person but be very happy to support systematic
discrimination against them (sexism) or to use gender stereotypes
against them (sexism). So I am sorry to see the dictionary conflating
the terms. Sexism is to misogyny what antisemitism is to Jew-hating.
Neither is ever acceptable, but we need precise language to understand
and fight injustice effectively.Having said that, Julia Gillard used "misogyny' perfectly accurately. She said that Tony Abbott described abortion as "the easy way out" and cited his political campaign against Gillard involving posters asking voters to "ditch the witch". The latter, especially, is a time-honoured tradition of true misogyny – stirring up atavistic hatred of the feminine – that goes back to witch-hunts against powerful women in the New World. Her critics, for their part, are asking us to water down our awareness of real woman-hating and accept it as normal in political discourse.
"Misogyny" often surfaces in political struggles over women's role, and you can tell because the control of women becomes personalised, intrusive and often sexualised. Misogyny has the amygdala involved – the part of the brain involved in processing emotional responses – there is contempt and violence in it. A public figure who tolerates the systemic under-prosecuting of rape is guilty of serious and unforgivable sexism; making rape jokes or explaining away the damage of rape in public as Congressman Todd Akin did recently in the US, or legislating, as over a dozen US states are now doing, transvaginal probes that are medically unnecessary, simply to sexually punish women for choosing abortion – well, that is misogyny.
Julie Bindel: Sexists are not always misogynists
When a man claims that women are naturally maternal, or are by
default, bad drivers, he is a sexist. If he was to add that women are
only good for a fuck and should be confined to servicing men and their
children, it is misogyny. Misogynists are always sexist, but sexists are
not always misogynists. For example, if a man says of a woman, "Look at
the state of that fat, ugly cow, I wouldn't touch her with yours," then
he is a misogynist. It would follow that he does not respect women as
equals and is therefore also a sexist.Nina Power: Being misogynist, acting sexist
In a moment of idle curiosity a good few years ago, I wondered
whether there was an antonym for misogyny. I presumed it would be
something like "philogyny" and it was indeed – "fondness towards women".
After the definition, a short note in parenthesis: "usage: rare" (and
today, too, the spellchecker has red-underlined the word. Apparently
liking women has not become any more popular in the computer age!) What a
depressing dictionary note, I thought: we talk about misogyny all the
time, and yet the opposite is nowhere to be found.Misogyny, and philogyny for that matter, seems to imply an essential state of being, perhaps an inability to change an outlook, a claim about what that person is. Sexism, on the other hand, is perhaps more often linked to acts and words – "so this person wrote this tweet that was sexist, but it doesn't mean he hates women", that sort of thing. The interchangeable use of the terms may be in keeping with contemporary usage, but we might want to make a quiet plea to hold open the distinction, if only so the antonym for "hating women" might one day usurp its partner in popularity.
Rahila Gupta: A murky pond in which misogyny flourishes
We all know that sexism is the pond in which misogyny flourishes and
because the water is so murky, you sometimes don't even notice how
healthily it grows. And because it is growing in water, it sometimes
reflects back at you as love instead of hate. To be specific, sexism is
when men let you jump the queue and get on a crowded bus first in Delhi
(to confuse matters further, that's called chivalry) and then the poor
dears, willy nilly, get crushed up against you as their hands
"accidentally" cup your breasts in a frenzy of misogyny.Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett: Something darker and angrier
Sexism is to misogyny what Benny Hill is to Rush Limbaugh. While
sexism demonstrates a disregard and disrespect for women, I always have
associated misogyny with something darker, angrier, and more cynical.
Things like Page 3 often betray a failure to move with the times, a
certain outdated attitude about women's roles that has the potential to
be modernised. But educating someone out of the blinkered hatred of
misogyny is a monumental challenge. To think, as the Republicans do,
that the male half of society should be able to legislate and control
the bodies of the female half, well, that can be nothing but misogyny.Bidisha: Two sexist remarks and one misogynist one
At a major literary festival, before an event about military fiction,
a posh famous English author smirked to me, "What's the difference
between a woman and a piece of toast? You can make soldiers from toast."
That's sexist.When boarding a flight from Geneva to London a man followed his wife on to the plane and said at the top of his voice to her, "The plane went down when you got on it," which prompted gasps from everyone around including the cabin staff, while he smirked and the woman looked like she wanted to drop in to a hole in the ground and die. That's sexist.
On a train from York to London a woman was talking on the phone in the quiet carriage. A couple near me got cross. "I'll go and tell her it's the quiet carriage," said the man to us all nearby. "Ooh, don't," muttered the wife. "OK then, I'll go and punch her," he said. That's misogynist.
