I was thinking we need a plainer and more powerful word than the clinical and remote misogyny
. It’s all academic and posh with its Greek roots.
I think we’re past the feeble woman hating
of yore too.
How about something like woman crushing
or woman destroying
?
annie's micro(b)log Yes. Strip off the terms that formalize and neutralize the daily acts of terror against women. Call it what it is.
Anna Havron Reading today about Ardern's resignation, and also reading about the latest 'newsworthy' cases of men (in U.S. news) who slaughtered their wives, not long after I heard from some women in my profession who have been harassed out. Yeah. I really don't know what to call that. Which term fits. If there's a way to capture all that multi-formed hatred in one phrase.
annie's micro(b)log @annahavron @miraz at the root it’s fear. Fear of losing control. But the expression is violence in many forms. I’m so fucking sick of it.
Miraz Jordan @annahavron @Annie Indeed: 'multi-formed hatred'. Those hatreds all have one goal though: to extinguish women, metaphorically but also literally.
Anna Havron @Annie Or to reduce us to sexual / reproductive / domestic functions. Machines, of a sort.
annie's micro(b)log @annahavron getting my nails done yesterday, the news is on. Story about a man who murdered his wife. Woman next to me sighs: “It’s always the husband.” Woman on my other side nods.
annie's micro(b)log @annahavron @miraz Yes, both - extinguish us as autonomous individuals, use us as baby-bearing, care-taking machines.
Greg Moore Being a man, I wouldn’t dare to suggest what such a term could be as it should obviously arise from the ones being hurt. I will offer that there is a very different, but no less intensely intertwined, pain that comes from bearing witness to the betrayers of my gender causing such casual atrocities. The only answer I see is to kill the lie that it is somehow nuanced or complex. It is just the dumb fires of bigoted hate and we humans know how to put out fires: whoever is standing closest to it must stomp it out before it spreads.
Jean MacDonald Something that helps people who are oblivious really see what it is, and also make it impossible for them to unsee it. I’m feeling pretty fed up today.
Miraz Jordan @gregmoore Good approach. It starts at the extreme other end as casual unthinking sexism in daily life. In a news item I read the other day about a couple who spotted an unusual (dead) shark the text read something like: Joe's wife Ursula, saw the shark… I don't know why she wasn't just Ursula. Later we could have read: Ursula's husband Joe said…
Jessica Smith I don't have much to add, but I completely agree with this post. There should be a word/term as visceral as their hatred is.
Miraz Jordan @Medievalist Hmmm, but that gets into a whole other can of worms about the ummm philosophical approach called feminism. What we see all the time is anti-woman.
Miraz Jordan @jean Sorry to hear you're fed up! I agree that we need a word or phrase that's confrontational, not all namby-pamby.
Odd-Egil “Oddzthrash” Auran I wonder if “role models” in movies and other media are shaping behavior like that in any way with some people. I remember seeing several James Bond movies as a teenager, and remember not being as appalled then as I am now at the character’s behavior towards women. He was supposed to be the coolest person ever.
Miraz Jordan @odd It's a complex interaction I imagine: what we see and hear shapes us and what we do shapes what's in the movies. Times have changed so much — his behaviour was fairly 'normal' for the time. Our awareness has moved on.
Odd-Egil “Oddzthrash” Auran Yes. Still, most action movies today are about male “heroes” finding kidnapped women/girls, and taking on the perp. Nothing wrong in that, apart from the constant reminder that this is what happens to women/girls “normally”, and that they are helpless beings. What about women being the heroes for a change, or the captives freeing themselves and taking on their captor? I mean, that has happened IRL. (At least the freeing part). I’m sure there are many books about that, so why not movies.
Odd-Egil “Oddzthrash” Auran @Archimage There might be different if they made different action movies. I remember how great (Sci-Fi/Action) it was to see Alien, and Aliens.
S Koren @odd Yup. But “action” movies are a guy thing the same way “Hallmark” movies are a gal thing. Yes, there are exceptions. Action movies are targeted at the demographic that will make the most money.
Odd-Egil “Oddzthrash” Auran @Archimage I wonder if boys/young men still ask girls/young women to go with them to the movies (or the other way around). Is there an expectation that there will be women in need of help on screen? If there is a depiction a feisty woman that solves the problem on screen, will the man feel less of a man? I’m sure you’re right, but I still wish there were more three dimensional and strong female characters on screen.
S Koren @odd they exist. But the viewer wants to see themselves as the hero. Same with books. They tend not to want to identify with a female protagonist if male and vice verse.
Odd-Egil “Oddzthrash” Auran @Archimage When I was a kid and teenager, I wanted male heroes, but as an adult I am mostly tired of that, and would like to see more women heroes / protagonists and more unlikely ones of diverse backgrounds (of all sexes). (Underdogs)
Miraz Jordan @Archimage There are indeed exceptions. Women have long been utterly sick and tired of being depicted as the 'weaker sex' and of the one dimensional view that a person can either have emotions or be active. Women too want to see them(our)selves as having agency. I also believe that many men reject the idea that men are all action and no tender feeling. The movie and TV industry has an enormous amount of catching up to do. Women and men and those who prefer to claim neither title will pay to see great shows that depict people as multidimensional beings with agency, emotions and complex reactions to the world.