WHY DO MEN HATE WOMEN?
'After successfully campaigning to have old school author Jane Austen appear on the UK's ten-pound bill, Caroline Criado-Perez has been swamped with death threats and rape threats on Twitter. She reports seeing "about 50 abusive tweets an hour for about 12 hours," describing the reaction as having "stumbled into a nest of men who coordinate attacks on women." The advocate has responded by retweeting the threats, which include promises of violent action, demeaning remarks, and plans to find her.'
http://gawker.com/man-arrested-over-twitter-rape-threats-to-activist-961266470
A significant portion of men are afraid of women, this fear breeds hatred, and this hatred translates into both threats of violence and acts of violence that knows few bounds. The statistics on domestic violence alone are chilling:-
‘…over two women per week are killed by current or ex-partners …one in four women in the UK will experience domestic violence in their lifetime?’[1]
Violence however does not always take physical form, bullying, coercive and controlling behaviour can be as much a manifestation of this male fear and hatred as kicks and punches.
This violence is not of course new, the subjugation of women is as old as humankind itself. It is worth remembering that less than a hundred years ago women were not only not permitted to vote but were in law seen as little more than the property of the men they married. In great swathes of the World today, from Afghanistan to Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Mali women are still routinely denied the most basic human rights.
Understanding the roots of this misogyny is impossible without examining religion.
“Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.” -I Corinthians xiv.34-5
Given the horror that most religions have of women, it has always been something of a surprise to me as to why women would want to have anything to do with any of the major world religions. All three major monotheism's contain texts which are clearly, a) written by men for men and b) written, for the most part, by men of the most virulently misogynist variety.
The psychology underlying this fear and loathing seems to be connected to a particular revulsion of menstruation and a complex of fear/envy of the process of childbirth. Hence all those ‘spiritual’ births that manage to get around the natural reproductive process. A mythology, as Christopher Hitchens points out in ‘God Is Not Great,’ far from being the exclusive preserve of Christianity is in fact commonplace among religions.
Any male currently
residing on the planet enjoys, to a greater or lesser extent, a more privileged
position than the women with whom he shares his society. In a great many societies
these inequalities and privileges are truly grotesque. They are also invariably
backed by the state with threats of violence. In more 'enlightened' societies male
advantages are no longer enshrined in law but inequalities are woven into society, through
cultural mores and expectations and patterns of employment practice.
Having visited this page I would be grateful for your feedback, either tick one of the boxes below or make a comment via the comments button.
http://gawker.com/man-arrested-over-twitter-rape-threats-to-activist-961266470
A significant portion of men are afraid of women, this fear breeds hatred, and this hatred translates into both threats of violence and acts of violence that knows few bounds. The statistics on domestic violence alone are chilling:-
‘…over two women per week are killed by current or ex-partners …one in four women in the UK will experience domestic violence in their lifetime?’[1]
Violence however does not always take physical form, bullying, coercive and controlling behaviour can be as much a manifestation of this male fear and hatred as kicks and punches.
This violence is not of course new, the subjugation of women is as old as humankind itself. It is worth remembering that less than a hundred years ago women were not only not permitted to vote but were in law seen as little more than the property of the men they married. In great swathes of the World today, from Afghanistan to Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Mali women are still routinely denied the most basic human rights.
Understanding the roots of this misogyny is impossible without examining religion.
“Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.” -I Corinthians xiv.34-5
Given the horror that most religions have of women, it has always been something of a surprise to me as to why women would want to have anything to do with any of the major world religions. All three major monotheism's contain texts which are clearly, a) written by men for men and b) written, for the most part, by men of the most virulently misogynist variety.
The psychology underlying this fear and loathing seems to be connected to a particular revulsion of menstruation and a complex of fear/envy of the process of childbirth. Hence all those ‘spiritual’ births that manage to get around the natural reproductive process. A mythology, as Christopher Hitchens points out in ‘God Is Not Great,’ far from being the exclusive preserve of Christianity is in fact commonplace among religions.
A combination of womb envy
combined with the potency of men’s desire for women, experienced sometimes as
slavish and all encompassing; put simply men sometimes cannot think of anything
else, led to the projection of witch like magical powers onto women, who are
characterised as using their sexual potency to control men.[2]
I think these elements go a long way to explain the cocktail of fear, resentment, jealousy, and
anger that a great many men have always felt about women. The process also became circular, as this
fear and loathing gave rise to the religious doctrine, the religious doctrine
legitimised the feelings described above and very soon there developed an institutionalised campaign of harassment, bullying, intimidation and ultimately violence.
Of course in the more
secular societies of Europe and some other 'western' countries, this religious legitimisation has, certainly as
far as public space is concerned, collapsed. As women have fought for
equality and attacked the patriarchal basis of society the tectonic plates of
gender relations have shifted. Though this of course has produced heightened
levels of fear and insecurity in men, as male dominance has come under attack.
It is interesting to note that hatred of feminism is often couched in the
quasi religious language of the witch-finder general, indeed the word ‘witch’ rubbing shoulders
with age old terminology like whore and bitch.
Any male currently
residing on the planet enjoys, to a greater or lesser extent, a more privileged
position than the women with whom he shares his society. In a great many societies
these inequalities and privileges are truly grotesque. They are also invariably
backed by the state with threats of violence. In more 'enlightened' societies male
advantages are no longer enshrined in law but inequalities are woven into society, through
cultural mores and expectations and patterns of employment practice.
Growing up as a man you
are constantly fed the sometimes subtle, sometimes not so subtle, propaganda of
male superiority. You are given to believe, regardless of the rhetoric of
equality, that positions of power and control ought, by right, to be accorded to you as a man. When these
‘rights,’ assumptions, privileges are questioned, threatened or denied to you
this can feel uncomfortable. One response can be to examine these gender
stereotypes, the absurdity of these ‘rights’ and privileges,- time to take stock and grow up a
little. Another of course is to vent your anger on women with either verbal or
physical violence. This seems to the response of the inadequates who populate the Twitter-sphere.
In a piece this short I
have merely scratched the surface of a problem that infects the whole of the
human race, and the current Twitter saga is only one small symptom of a profoundly
misogynist culture. If humanity is to develop along more civilised lines this
misogyny must be fought. Religious dogmas forged in the bronze age must be
confronted, no matter the multi-cultural sensibilities offended, and the primacy of
universal rights for everyone needs to be constantly re-affirmed. It is also a struggle that
must be engaged by the whole of society, for if it is perceived to be a cause
solely for women little will change.
On a very basic level today it is time that men confronted their own response to events like the
Twitter rape threats, to challenge misogyny when it appears on their own
Facebook or Twitter accounts. A good start would be the naming and shaming of the
cowardly individuals who hide behind the childlike term 'troll.' Men need to start outing
them. Put simply far far too many men have a problem and need to start facing up to it.
[2] Men of course having no
control or responsibility of the consequent sexual actions; the legacy of this
myth can be seen today in the form of the burqa. The burqa performing a dual
task of controlling women whilst removing any responsibilities for their
actions from men, in so doing of course it also slanders men as a whole, though
that is outside the remit of this article. It is argued that some women choose
to wear the burqa, and it is possible to see the attractions, particularly for
some women, of living ones public life
enclosed inside a tent; however it does raise questions of the responsibility
of citizens to engage fully in the societies of which they are a part.
Having visited this page I would be grateful for your feedback, either tick one of the boxes below or make a comment via the comments button.
