Misogyny

Misogyny (in Swedish “misogyni”) is categorism against women.

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

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

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 Expression

• Allegedly Self-Evident Incompetence: A new engineer is hired at a company where almost all engineers are male. When the new engineer turns out to be female, several co-workers takes for granted that she's obviously incompetent – and thus act as if there's no reason to give her any fair chance to prove herself. They never admit, perhaps not even to themselves, that her gender is the factor which make them regard her as self-evidently incompetent.

• Category agency: Assuming that all women want the same things, simply for being women. Also, giving individual contemporary women 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 a significant character in that particular story. For example, blaming contemporary women for the story of Eve giving a certain apple to Adam.

• Category original sin: Arguing that all women are more sinful and less valuable than any man, based on a notion that Eve would have been more to blame than Adam for the two of them eating the forbidden fruit.

• Conspirationalism: When a man reads a comic book, it's because he likes that comic book. And when he goes to a comic book convention, it's because he likes to hang out with people there, check out some new comics, and support the comic book industry. But when a woman reads a comic book or goes to a comic book convention, it must be a part of some sinister plot to "infiltrate" geek subculture.

• Dehumanization: Talking about human traits such as logic and reason as if they were exclusively male traits, as if women were pet animals rather than fellow human beings.

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

• Kyriarchy: (Note: This entry is from the old version of the categorism model, will be reformated later) The intersection between the facet kyriarchy and the focus misogyny is commonly known as "patriarchy", and here called by that name. (Note that while some people instead use the word in different ways, such as being a catch all term for all forms of structural misogyny, the word is here used simply as the intersexction between kyriarchy and misogyny.)
  • Individual level and group level: While patriarchy itself is too abstract for these levels, patriarchal structures, discourses, dogmas and so on can empower facets such as male supremacism and infantilization of women at the individual and group levels.
  • Systemic level: In a society where people systematically encounter almost exclusively men in positions of validated/unquestioned authority, their minds are likely to associate maleness with power and femaleness with lack of power.
  • Structural level: A society can have many kinds of structures holding women back. Such as social norms that blame women for having children or for not having children, disqualifying them from careers on the basis of having children or for perhaps maybe having children at some point in the future. Or for being "abnormal" by not having children or for not staying home with them.
  • Discursive level: Constructing the language so that it constructs women/femininity as being inferior and constructs the same behavior as being cool when a man does it but shameful when a woman does it. For example, constructing the same behavior as a boy being "assertive" and a girl being "bossy".
  • Dogmatic level: Religious theology or political ideology positioning women as being inherently inferior and/or inherently assigned to a subordinate position.
  • Legal level: Most countries used to have laws that enshrined male dominance, such as allowing only men to vote or to run for office. Some countries still have some such rules.
  • International treaties level: If two or more nations have ever entered a treaty where they promised each other to hold women back and help each other to ensure male dominance, please send information about it!

• Malpractice: Bias against women combined with the fact that so much of medical research is done on male test subjects only often lead to women getting misdiagnosed or not diagnosed at all, while also receiving less care even of they get the right diagnosis.

• Privateermongering: Constructing men and boys as incapable of containing their lust around “certain kinds of women” or even around women in general”.

• Stigmatization of women (and Normalization of Violence against them, as well as Denial of Agency against men): The idea that a man would somehow be unable to control himself when he's sexually attracted to a woman, thus making male-on-female rape the woman's responsibility. Note that while this attitude is extremely misogynistic as well as very misandrist as well, it is so in very different ways.

Misogyny in example texts

• A frivolous arrest: The woman is most likely targeted for (although not only for) her gender. The copcaller as well as the cops are somewhat likely to have negative stereotypes about women in general.