Misandry

Misandry (in Swedish "misandri") is categorism against men.

In other words: Misandry is prejudice, bigotry and discrimination against human beings who in one way or another are being categorized as men. This includes...

1. People who are assigned male at birth: Cis women, nonbinary AMAB, and trans women. The latter can also easily slide into Transmisogyny.
2. Men who were assigned female at birth, also known as trans men. This can also easily slide into Transmisandry.
3. Cis women who other people (honestly, dishonestly or symbolically/sarcastically) mistakes for being men. (In other words: Bullying a cis woman for “not being a real woman” is misandrist and/or transphobic as well as being an in-group dehumanization kind of misogynistic.)

Note that in the categorism model, the word “sexism” is gender neutral while misogyny and misandry are the gendered versions of sexism. While this definition of the words is common, it is also common to use a more limited definition which only includes bigotry. Another definition (which is much less reasonable and much less common, but tend to have very vocal adherents) is to limit the definition to only include the most macro level of society as a whole: Thus arguing either that “women are the oppressed category, thus misandry cannot exist” or that “men are the oppressed category, thus misogyny cannot exist”. There are also definitions based on Entitled Supremacism, where lack of deference from women gets misconstructed as being “misandry” or where lack of deference from men gets misconstructed as being “misogyny”. When people claim that “misandry doesn't exist”, they are in many cases talking about one of the bad definitions rather than claiming that prejudice/bigotry/discrimination against men wouldn't exist.

Examples of facets expressed through this focus

• Category Agency: Assuming that all men want the same things, simply for being men. Also, giving individual contemporary men blame for historical developments (or mythological narratives) that happened (or was supposed to happen) before they were even born, based on them having the same gender as the people who were in charge back then. For example, blaming contemporary men for the fact that medieval laws ensured that almost all rulers were male (AKA classical patriarchy).

• Dehumanization: Talking about men as if they were robots or monstrous beasts. Statements such as "To call a man an animal is to flatter him; he's a machine, a walking dildo."

• Demonization: Talking about one gender or another (in this case men) as being immoral, driven by selfishness and dark emotions.

• Infantilization: Constructing men as being less intelligent and rational than women. Often conveniently limited to when he happens to be horny, and combined with Denial of Agency (and to some extent Dehumanization) into the idea that a sexually aroused man can't be responsible for his own actions. Note that while this attitude is clearly misandrist, it is also misogynistic although in different ways.

• Malpractice: Stereotypes about how "a real man can take care of himself" sometimes lead to persons being directly or indirectly denied treatment for being male. Note that the same stereotype may in other cases lead to male persons getting better care - based on the assumption that if he seeks help in spite of being a man, then it must really be serious. Stereotypes are fickle like that.

• Privateermongering: Constructing discrimination, bullying and outright attacks against men of certain skin-colors or against men in general as if it was a valid “preemptive self-defense” based on some idea about said category being violent or otherwise evil.