Misandry

"Misandry" is formed from the Greek {{tlit|grc|misos}} ({{lang|grc|μῖσος}} 'hatred') and {{tlit|grc|anēr}}, {{tlit|grc|andros}} ({{lang|grc|ἀνήρ}}, gen. {{lang|grc|ἀνδρός}} 'man').{{cite web |title=Definition of misandry in English |url=http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/misandry |publisher=Oxford Dictionaries |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921054052/http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/misandry |archive-date=21 September 2013}} A "misandrist" is a person who hates men.{{sfnp|Riggio|2020|p=446|ps=: "Misandry: hatred of men. A misandrist is a person who hates men. Anti-feminist groups often claim that feminism stems from misandry."}} "Misandrous" or "misandrist" can also be used as adjectives.{{cite encyclopedia |title=misandry |url=https://www.dictionary.com/browse/misandry |access-date=4 November 2018 |encyclopedia=Dictionary.com |archive-date=5 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181105062216/https://www.dictionary.com/browse/misandry |url-status=live}} Use of "misandrist" can be found as far back as an 1871 article in The Spectator magazine.{{cite magazine |title=Blanche Seymour |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2tU9AQAAIAAJ&dq=%22absolute+misandrist%22&pg=PA389 |access-date=9 April 2025 |magazine=The Spectator |volume=44 |issue=2231 |date=1 April 1871 |pages=388–389 |issn=0038-6952 |type=book review |via=Google Books |quote=We cannot, indeed, term her an absolute misandrist, as she fully admits the possibility, in most cases at least, of the reclamation of men from their naturally vicious and selfish state, though at the cost of so much trouble and vexation of spirit to women, that it is not quite clear whether she does not regard their existence as at best a mitigated evil.}}{{Primary source inline|date=April 2025}}

Translation of the French {{lang|fr|misandrie}} to the German {{lang|de|Männerhass}} (Hatred of Men) is recorded in 1803.{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Oekonomische Encyklopädie oder allgemeines System der Staats-, Stadt-, Haus- u. Landwirthschaft: in alphabetischer Ordnung. Von Lebens-Art bis Ledecz: Nebst einer einzigen Fig. Friedrich's des Einzigen, u. 3 Karten |trans-encyclopedia=Economic Encyclopedia or General System of State, City, Domestic, and Agriculture: in alphabetical order. From Lifestyle to Ledecz: With a single illustration of Frederick the Great and three maps |first=Johann Georg |last=Krünitz |publisher=Pauli |date=1803 |volume=90 |page=461 |lang=de |title=Männerhass}}{{Primary source inline|date=April 2025}}

The term misandry originated in the late 19th century. According to information policy scholars Alice Marwick and Robyn Caplan, the term was used as a synonym for feminism from its inception, drawing an equivalence between misandry ('man-hating') and misogyny ('woman-hating').{{cite book |last=Sugiura |first=Lisa |date=2021 |title=The Incel Rebellion: The Rise of the Manosphere and the Virtual War Against Women |publisher=Emerald Publishing Limited |location=Bingley, UK |isbn=978-1-83982-254-4 |pages=102–103 |doi=10.1108/978-1-83982-254-420211008 |doi-access=free |chapter=Legitimising Misogyny}}{{sfnp|Marwick |Caplan|2018|page=548}} Newspapers in the 1890s occasionally referred to feminist "new women" as "man haters", and a 1928 article in Harper's Monthly said that misandry "distorts the more querulous of [modern] feminist arguments."{{sfnp|Marwick|Caplan|2018|pages=548–549}} The term re-emerged in men's rights literature and academic literature on structural sexism in the 1980s. It was in use on Usenet since at least 1989, and on websites and blogs dedicated to men's rights issues in the late 1990s and early 2000s.{{sfnp|Marwick|Caplan|2018|pages=549, 551}}

Anthropologist David D. Gilmore coined the term "viriphobia" in 1997, when the term "misandry" was little used and there was no commonly accepted term for hatred of men.{{cite book |last=Gilmore |first=David G. |title=Misogyny: The Male Malady |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |location=Philadelphia |date=2001 |pages=12–13 |isbn=978-0-8122-0032-4}}{{Independent source inline|date=April 2025}} He writes that such terms as "misandry" typically refer not to hatred of men as men, but to hatred of machismo or men's traditional gender role. He argues that misandry is therefore not equivalent to misogyny, which "targets women no matter what they believe or do".{{r|Gilmore p12}} Gilmore says that hatred of men as men is extremely rare in historical records, in sharp contrast to misogyny,{{r|Gilmore p12}}{{Cite magazine |last=Diski |first=Jenny |title=Oh, Andrea Dworkin |url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v23/n17/jenny-diski/oh-andrea-dworkin |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250330113802/https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v23/n17/jenny-diski/oh-andrea-dworkin |archive-date=30 March 2025 |access-date=30 March 2025 |website=London Review of Books|date=6 September 2001 |volume=23 |issue=17 }} which he argues is a "near-universal phenomenon".{{sfnp|Gilmore|2001|p=8}}

Marwick and Caplan argue that usage of the term misandry in the internet age is an outgrowth of misogyny and antifeminism.{{cite journal |last1=Marwick |first1=Alice E. |last2=Caplan |first2=Robyn |date=2018 |title=Drinking male tears: language, the manosphere, and networked harassment |journal=Feminist Media Studies |edition=Online Misogyny |pages=553–554 |doi=10.1080/14680777.2018.1450568 |volume=18 |issue=4 |s2cid=149246142 |issn=1471-5902}}{{Explain|date=October 2024}} The term is commonly used in the manosphere, such as on men's rights discussion forums on websites such as 4chan and Reddit, to counter feminist accusations of misogyny.{{cite book |last=Riggio |first=Heidi R. |title=Sex and Gender: A Biopsychological Approach |date=2020 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=978-1-000-06630-2 |page=432 |chapter=Current Issues and Social Problems |doi=10.4324/9781003041870-13 |quote=[Anti-feminist movements] portray feminism as stemming from a hatred of men and involve a rejection of the idea that sexism exists}}{{cite book |title=Men's Rights, Gender, and Social Media |last=Hodapp |first=Christa |date=2017 |publisher=Lexington Books |location=Lanham, Md. |pages=4–5 |isbn=978-1-4985-2617-3}} The critique and parody of the concept of misandry by feminist bloggers has been reported on in periodicals such as The Guardian, Slate and Time.{{sfnp|Marwick|Caplan|2018|page=553}}

Men's rights activists (MRAs) invoke the idea of misandry in warning against what they see as the advance of a female-dominated society.{{Multiref2 |{{cite book |last1=Masequesmay |first1=Gina |editor1-last=O′Brien |editor1-first=Jodi |title=Encyclopedia of Gender and Society, Volume 2 |date=2008 |publisher=SAGE Publications |location=Thousand Oaks, Calif. |isbn=978-1-4522-6602-2 |page=750 |chapter=Sexism |quote=Proponents for men's rights even conjure the notion of misandry or hatred of men as they fear a new world order or a return to matriarchy, a female-dominated society.}} |{{cite web |last1=Masequesmay |first1=Gina |title=Sexism {{!}} Sexism and the men's movement |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/sexism/Sexism-and-feminism#ref321547 |website=Encyclopaedia Britannica |access-date=22 February 2024 |date=11 June 2014 |archive-date=22 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240222071023/https://www.britannica.com/topic/sexism/Sexism-and-feminism#ref321547 |url-status=live}} }} The idea of feminism as threatening towards men, encapsulated in the term misandry, forms a core part of the vocabulary of the manosphere{{sfnp|Marwick|Caplan|2018|page=544}} and is used within the men's rights movement (MRM) to counter feminist accusations of misogyny.{{r|Hodapp p4}} The idea of feminism as a misandrist movement has been cited as justification for harassment of people espousing feminist ideas, one example being the Gamergate harassment campaign against women in the video games industry.{{sfnp|Marwick|Caplan|2018|pages=544, 547}}

MRAs and other masculinist groups have criticized modern laws concerning divorce, domestic violence, the draft, circumcision (known as genital mutilation by opponents), and treatment of male rape victims as examples of institutional misandry.{{r|Ouellette 2007}} Other proposed examples include social problems that lead to men's shorter lifespans, higher suicide rates, requirements to participate in military drafts, and lack of tax benefits afforded to widowers compared to widows.{{r|Ouellette 2007}}{{cite journal |last1=Schmitz |first1=Rachel |last2=Kazyak |first2=Emily |title=Masculinities in Cyberspace: An Analysis of Portrayals of Manhood in Men's Rights Activist Websites |journal=Social Sciences |date=2016 |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=18 |doi=10.3390/socsci5020018 |doi-access=free |issn=2076-0760}}

Marc A. Ouellette argues in International Encyclopedia of Men and Masculinities that "misandry lacks the systemic, transhistoric, institutionalized, and legislated antipathy of misogyny"; in his view, assuming a parallel between misogyny and misandry overly simplifies relations of gender and power.

Marwick and Caplan have examined the use of the term misandry within the manosphere as a weapon against feminist language and ideas.{{r|Sugiura p102}} They characterize men's rights activists' use of the term{{emdash}}as a gender-reversed counterpart to misogyny{{emdash}}as an appropriation of leftist identity politics.{{sfnp|Marwick|Caplan|2018|page=550}} Marwick and Caplan also argue that coverage of the discourse of misandry by mainstream journalists serves to reinforce the MRM's framing of feminist activism as oppressive toward men, along with its denial of institutionalized sexism against women.{{sfnp|Marwick|Caplan|2018|page=554}}

{{Further|Gendered racism}}

Misandry can be racialized. According to some researchers in Black male studies such as Tommy J. Curry, Black men and boys face anti-Black misandry.{{Cite journal |last=Bryan |first=Nathaniel |date=2021 |title=Remembering Tamir Rice and Other Black Boy Victims: Imagining Black PlayCrit Literacies Inside and Outside Urban Literacy Education |journal=Urban Education |language=en |volume=56 |issue=5 |pages=744–771 |doi=10.1177/0042085920902250 |issn=0042-0859}}{{Cite journal |last=Curry |first=Tommy J. |date=2018 |title=Killing Boogeymen: Phallicism and the Misandric Mischaracterizations of Black Males in Theory |journal=Res Philosophica |language=en |volume=95 |issue=2 |pages=235–272 |doi=10.11612/resphil.1612 |issn=2168-9105}}{{cite journal |last1=Curry |first1=Tommy J. |last2=Curry |first2=Gwenetta D. |title=Taking It to the People: Translating Empirical Findings About Black Men and Black Families Through a Black Public Philosophy |journal=Dewey Studies |date=2018 |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=42–71 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327671476 |format=PDF |via=ResearchGate |issn=2572-4649}}{{Cite journal |last=Johnson |first=T. Hasan |date=2022 |title=Is Anti-Black Misandry the New Racism? |journal=Journal of Black Sexuality and Relationships |language=en |volume=8 |issue=4 |pages=77–107 |doi=10.1353/bsr.2022.0006 |issn=2376-7510}} E. C. Krell, a gender researcher, uses the term racialized transmisandry describing the experience of Black transmasculine people.{{Cite journal |last=Krell |first=Elías Cosenza |date=2017 |title=Is Transmisogyny Killing Trans Women of Color? |journal=TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly |language=en |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=226–242 |doi=10.1215/23289252-3815033 |issn=2328-9252}}{{Cite journal |last1=Martino |first1=Wayne |last2=Omercajic |first2=Kenan |date=2021 |title=A trans pedagogy of refusal : interrogating cisgenderism, the limits of antinormativity and trans necropolitics |journal=Pedagogy, Culture & Society |language=en |volume=29 |issue=5 |pages=679–694 |doi=10.1080/14681366.2021.1912155 |issn=1468-1366 |doi-access=free}}

{{More science citations needed|section|date=August 2023}}

Glick and Fiske developed psychometric constructs to measure the attitudes of individuals towards men in their Ambivalence toward Men Inventory, AMI, which includes a factor Hostility toward Men. These metrics were based on a small group discussion with women which identified factors, these number of questions were then reduced using statistical methods. Hostility toward Men was split into three factors: Resentment of Paternalism, the belief men supported male power; Compensatory Gender Differentiation, the belief that men were supported by women; and Heterosexual Hostility, which looked at beliefs that men were likely to engage in hostile actions.{{Cite journal |last1=Glick |first1=Peter |last2=Fiske |first2=Susan T. |date=2016 |title=The Ambivalence Toward Men Inventory: Differentiating Hostile and Benevolent Beliefs About Men |journal=Psychology of Women Quarterly |language=en |doi=10.1111/j.1471-6402.1999.tb00379.x |s2cid=145242896 |issn=1471-6402 |volume=23 |pages=519–536}} The combined construct, Hostility toward Men, was found to be inversely correlated with measures of gender equality when comparing difference countries{{Cite journal |last=Glick |display-authors=etal |first=P |date=2004 |title=Bad but Bold: Ambivalent Attitudes Toward Men Predict Gender Inequality in 16 Nations |journal=Journal of Personality and Social Psychology |volume=86 |issue=5 |pages=713–728 |doi=10.1037/0022-3514.86.5.713 |pmid=15161396 |issn=1939-1315|hdl=11511/38073 |hdl-access=free }} and in a study with university students, self-describing feminists were found to have a lower score.{{Cite journal |last1=Anderson |first1=Kristin J. |last2=Kanner |first2=Melinda |last3=Elsayegh |first3=Nisreen |date=2009 |title=Are Feminists man Haters? Feminists' and Nonfeminists' Attitudes Toward Men |journal=Psychology of Women Quarterly |volume=33 |issue=2 |pages=216–224 |language=en |doi=10.1111/j.1471-6402.2009.01491.x |s2cid=144704304 |issn=1471-6402}}

In the United States, men tend to receive longer sentences than women for committing the same crimes, although the disparity is more pronounced for minor offenses, and is also dependent on the race of the perpetrator.{{r|Kruis 2024}} Criminologist Nathan A. Kruis of Pennsylvania State University and colleagues write that a body of research suggests the presence of "potential institutional misandry" in the U.S. criminal justice system.{{cite journal |last1=Kruis |first1=Nathan A. |last2=Ménard |first2=Kim S. |last3=Rowland |first3=Nicholas J. |last4=Griffith |first4=Rae |title=Examining Sex- and Sexuality-Based Bias in Punitive Attitudes Toward Offenders Convicted of Intimate Partner Crimes: A Vignette Experiment |journal=Crime & Delinquency |volume=70 |issue=13–14 |pages=3532–3557 |date=2024 |doi=10.1177/00111287241258690 |doi-access=free |issn=1552-387X}}

Classicist Froma Zeitlin writes:

{{blockquote|The most significant point of contact, however, between Eteocles and the suppliant Danaids is, in fact, their extreme positions with regard to the opposite sex: the misogyny of Eteocles' outburst against all women of whatever variety has its counterpart in the seeming misandry of the Danaids, who although opposed to their Egyptian cousins in particular (marriage with them is incestuous, they are violent men) often extend their objections to include the race of males as a whole and view their cause as a passionate contest between the sexes.{{cite book |last1=Zeitlin |first1=Froma I. |editor1-last=Griffith |editor1-first=Mark |editor2-last=Mastronarde |editor2-first=Donald J. |title=Cabinet of the Muses: Essays on Classical and Comparative Literature in Honor of Thomas G. Rosenmeyer |date=1990 |publisher=Scholars Press |location=Atlanta |isbn=978-1-55540-408-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/cabinetofmuseses0000unse/page/103/mode/1up?view=theater |url-access=registration |language=en |chapter=Patterns of Gender in Aeschylean Drama: Seven against Thebes and the Danaid Trilogy |chapter-url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2j81390f |chapter-format=PDF}}}}

Literary critic Harold Bloom argued that even though the word misandry is relatively unheard of in literature, it is not hard to find implicit, even explicit, misandry. In reference to the works of Shakespeare, Bloom argued:{{Cite news |last=Brockman |first=Elin Schoen |date=25 July 1999 |title=In the Battle Of the Sexes, This Word Is a Weapon |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/25/weekinreview/in-the-battle-of-the-sexes-this-word-is-a-weapon.html |access-date=28 February 2024 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=30 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240130223458/https://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/25/weekinreview/in-the-battle-of-the-sexes-this-word-is-a-weapon.html |url-status=live |url-access=limited}} {{blockquote|I cannot think of one instance of misogyny whereas I would argue that misandry is a strong element. Shakespeare makes perfectly clear that women in general have to marry down and that men are narcissistic and not to be trusted and so forth. On the whole, he gives us a darker vision of human males than human females.}}

Sociologist Anthony Synnott argues that there is a tendency in literature to represent men as villains and women as victims and argues that there is a market for "anti-male" novels with no corresponding "anti-female" market, citing The Women's Room, by Marilyn French, and The Color Purple, by Alice Walker. He gives examples of comparisons of men to Nazi prison guards as a common theme in literature.{{Cite book |last=Synnott |first=Anthony |title=Re-Thinking Men: Heroes, Villains and Victims |date=2016 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=978-1-317-06393-3 |language=en |doi=10.4324/9781315606132}}{{Rp|156}}

Racialized misandry occurs in both "high" and "low" culture and literature. For instance, African-American men have often been disparagingly portrayed as either infantile or as eroticized and hyper-masculine, depending on prevailing cultural stereotypes.{{r|Ouellette 2007}}

Julie M. Thompson, a feminist author, connects misandry with envy of men, in particular "penis envy", a term coined by Sigmund Freud in 1908, in his theory of female sexual development.

Emphasis added. {{cite book |first=Julie M. |last=Thompson |title=Mommy Queerest: Contemporary Rhetorics of Lesbian Maternal Identity |publisher=University of Massachusetts Press |location=Amherst |date=2002 |isbn=978-1-55849-355-1}} Nancy Kang has discussed "the misandric impulse" in relation to the works of Toni Morrison.{{cite journal |first=N. |last=Kang |title=To Love and Be Loved: Considering Black Masculinity and the Misandric Impulse in Toni Morrison's 'Beloved' |journal=Callaloo |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=836–854 |date=2003 |doi=10.1353/cal.2003.0092 |jstor=3300729 |s2cid=143786756 |issn=1080-6512}}

In his book, Gender and Judaism: The Transformation of Tradition, Harry Brod, a Professor of Philosophy and Humanities in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of Northern Iowa, writes:{{cite book |first=Harry |last=Brod |chapter=19. Of Mice and Supermen: Images of Jewish Masculinity |title=Gender and Judaism: The Transformation of Tradition |publisher=New York University Press |editor-first=Tamar |editor-last=Rudavsky |date=1995 |isbn=978-0-8147-7453-3 |pages=279–294}}

{{blockquote|In the introduction to The Great Comic Book Heroes, Jules Feiffer writes that this is Superman's joke on the rest of us. Clark is Superman's vision of what other men are really like. We are scared, incompetent, and powerless, particularly around women. Though Feiffer took the joke good-naturedly, a more cynical response would see here the Kryptonian's misanthropy, his misandry embodied in Clark and his misogyny in his wish that Lois be enamored of Clark (much like Oberon takes out hostility toward Titania by having her fall in love with an ass in Shakespeare's Midsummer-Night's Dream).}}

In 2020, the explicitly misandric essay Moi les hommes, je les déteste (I Hate Men) by the French writer Pauline Harmange caused controversy in France after a government official threatened its publisher with criminal prosecution.{{Cite news |last=Flood |first=Alison |date=8 September 2020 |title=French book I Hate Men sees sales boom after government adviser calls for ban |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/sep/08/french-book-i-hate-men-sees-sales-boom-after-government-adviser-calls-for-ban-pauline-harmange |access-date=10 September 2020 |issn=0261-3077 |archive-date=3 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240803144704/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/sep/08/french-book-i-hate-men-sees-sales-boom-after-government-adviser-calls-for-ban-pauline-harmange |url-status=live}}

File:Male_tears_embroidery_02.jpg sold embroidery parodying the concept of misandry.{{Cite web |last=Hess |first=Amanda |date=8 August 2014 |title=The Rise of the Ironic Man-Hater |url=https://slate.com/human-interest/2014/08/ironic-misandry-why-feminists-joke-about-drinking-male-tears-and-banning-all-men.html |access-date=7 January 2025 |website=Slate |language=en |archive-date=5 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220605121801/https://slate.com/human-interest/2014/08/ironic-misandry-why-feminists-joke-about-drinking-male-tears-and-banning-all-men.html |url-status=live}}]]

Opponents of feminism often argue that feminism is misandrist; citing examples such as opposition to shared parenting by NOW, or opposition to equal rape and domestic violence laws. The validity of these perceptions and of the concept has been claimed{{By whom|date=October 2024}} as promoting a false equivalence between misandry and misogyny. Radical feminism has often been associated with misandry in the public consciousness. However, radical feminist arguments have also been misinterpreted, and individual radical feminists such as Valerie Solanas, best known for her attempted assassination of artist Andy Warhol in 1968, have historically had a higher profile in popular culture than within feminist scholarship.{{Cite book |last1=Pilcher |first1=Jane |title=50 Key Concepts in Gender Studies |last2=Whelehan |first2=Imelda |date=2004 |publisher=SAGE Publications |location=London |isbn=978-1-4129-3207-3 |page=67 |language=en |author-link=Jane Pilcher}}{{Cite journal |last=Payton |first=Joanne |date=2012 |title=Book Review: Anthony Synnott Re-thinking Men: Heroes, Villains and Victims |journal=Sociology |volume=46 |issue=4 |pages=767–8 |doi=10.1177/0038038512444951 |doi-access= |s2cid=146967261 |issn=0038-0385}}{{Failed verification|date=January 2024|reason=Solanas shooting not mentioned by either Pilcher/Whelehan or Payton}}

Historian Alice Echols argues that the misandry displayed by Solanas in her tract the SCUM Manifesto was not typical for radical feminists of the time: "Solanas's unabashed misandry—especially her belief in men's biological inferiority—her endorsement of relationships between 'independent women,' and her dismissal of sex as 'the refuge of the mindless' contravened the sort of radical feminism which prevailed in most women's groups across the country."{{cite book |last=Echols |first=Alice |title=Daring to Be Bad: Radical Feminism in America, 1967–1975 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |location=Minneapolis |date=1989 |pages=104–105 |isbn=978-0-8166-1786-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/daringtobebadrad0000echo/page/104/mode/1up?view=theater |url-access=registration}}

Radical feminist Andrea Dworkin criticized what she called a biological determinist strand that she found "with increasing frequency in feminist circles"; according to Dworkin, this included the view that males are biologically inferior to women and violent by nature, requiring a gendercide to allow for the emergence of a "new Übermensch Womon".{{Cite journal |last=Dworkin |first=Andrea |date=Summer 1978 |title=Biological Superiority: The World's Most Dangerous and Deadly Idea |url=http://heresiesfilmproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/heresies6.pdf |journal=Heresies: A Feminist Publication on Art and Politics |series= |volume=2 |issue=6 |page=46 |issn=0146-3411 }}{{Primary source inline|date=January 2025}}

Melinda Kanner and Kristin J. Anderson argue that "man-hater feminist" represents the popular antifeminist myth which has no any scientific evidences, and it's rather the antifeminists who perhaps hate men.{{cite book |last1=Kanner |first1=Melinda |last2=Anderson |first2=Kristin J. |editor1-last=Paludi |editor1-first=Michele A. |title=Feminism and Women's Rights Worldwide, Volume 1: Heritage, Roles, and Issues |date=2010 |publisher=Praeger |location=Santa Barbara, Calif. |isbn=978-0-313-37597-2 |pages=1–25 |language=en |chapter=The Myth of the Man-Hating Feminist}}{{Explain|date=January 2025}}

Feminist author bell hooks writes that the contemporary feminist movement was from its beginnings portrayed in the mass media as man-hating, even though anti-male factions were a small minority of women's liberation advocates.{{cite book |last1=hooks |first1=bell |title=The Will To Change: Men, Masculinity and Love |date=2005 |publisher=Washington Square Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-7434-5608-1 |pages=108–109 |url=https://archive.org/details/willtochangemen00hook/page/108/mode/1up?ref=ol&view=theater |url-access=registration}}{{cite book |last1=hooks |first1=bell |title=Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics |date=2000 |publisher=South End Press |location=Cambridge, Mass. |isbn=978-0-89608-629-6 |page=69 |url=https://archive.org/details/feminismisforeve00hook/page/69/mode/1up?ref=ol&view=theater |url-access=registration}} Hooks argues that liberal feminists' demonization of men as all-powerful misogynist oppressors was a product of bourgeois white women's envy of the privileges held by upper-class white men, and that such anti-male sentiments "alienated many poor and working class women, particularly non-white women" from the movement.{{cite book |first=bell |last=hooks |title=Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center |publisher=South End Press |location=Boston |date=1984 |pages=67–68 |isbn=978-0-89608-222-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/feministtheoryfr00hook/page/67/mode/1up?ref=ol&view=theater |url-access=registration}} She writes that anti-male factions received outsized attention from the mass media, leading the men's movement to take an anti-female stance which "mirrored the most negative aspects" of the women's movement.

Sociologist Anthony Synnott argues that certain forms of feminism present misandristic view of gender. He argues that men are presented as having power over others regardless of the actual power they possess{{Rp|161}} and that some feminists define the experience of being male inaccurately through writing on masculinity. He further argues that some forms of feminism create an in-group of women, simplifies the nuances of gender issues, demonizes those who are not feminists and legimitizes victimization by way of retributive justice.{{Rp|162}}

Reviewing Synnott, Roman Kuhar argues that Synnott might not accurately represent the views of feminism, commenting that "whether it re-thinks men in a manner in which men have not been thought of in feminist theory, is another question."{{Cite journal |last=Kuhar |first=Roman |title=Re-Thinking Men: Heroes, Villains and Victims |journal=Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews |date=2011 |volume=40 |issue=1 |pages=95–97 |doi=10.1177/0094306110391764ccc |s2cid=144037921 |issn=0094-3061}}

Sociologist Allan G. Johnson argues in The Gender Knot: Unraveling our Patriarchal Legacy that accusations of man-hating have been used to put down feminists and to shift attention onto men, reinforcing a male-centered culture.{{cite book |page=107 |title=The Gender Knot: Unraveling Our Patriarchal Legacy |edition=revised 2nd |last=Johnson |first=Alan G. |publisher=Temple University Press |location=Philadelphia |date=2005 |isbn=978-1-59213-384-0}} Johnson posits that culture offers no comparable anti-male ideology to misogyny and that "people often confuse men as individuals with men as a dominant and privileged category of people. Given the reality of women's oppression, male privilege, and men's enforcement of both, it's hardly surprising that {{em|every}} woman should have moments where she resents or even hates 'men.{{' "}}{{r|Johnson p107}} [emphasis in original]

A meta-analysis in 2023 published in the journal Psychology of Women Quarterly investigated the stereotype of feminists' attitudes to men and concluded that feminist views of men were no different than that of non-feminists or men towards men, and termed the phenomenon the {{em|misandry myth}}: "We term the focal stereotype the misandry myth in light of the evidence that it is false and widespread, and discuss its implications for the movement."{{cite journal |title=The Misandry Myth: An Inaccurate Stereotype About Feminists' Attitudes Toward Men |date=2023 |last1=Hopkins-Doyle |first1=A. |last2=Petterson |first2=A. L. |last3=Leach |first3=S. |last4=Zibell |first4=H. |last5=Chobthamkit |first5=P. |last6=Binti Abdul Rahim |first6=S. |last7=Blake |first7=J. |last8=Bosco |first8=C. |last9=Cherrie-Rees |first9=K. |last10=Beadle |first10=A. |last11=Cock |first11=V. |last12=Greer |first12=H. |last13=Jankowska |first13=A. |last14=Macdonald |first14=K. |last15=Scott English |first15=A. |last16=Wai Lan YEUNG |first16=V. |last17=Asano |first17=R. |last18=Beattie |first18=P. |last19=Bernardo |first19=A. B. I. |last20=Sutton |first20=R. M. |display-authors=3 |doi=10.1177/03616843231202708 |doi-access=free |journal=Psychology of Women Quarterly |volume=48 |issue=1 |pages=8–37 |issn=1471-6402}}

{{div col|colwidth=20em}}

• Airline seating sex discrimination controversy
• Androcide
• Are All Men Pedophiles?
• Bachelor tax
• Boys are stupid, throw rocks at them! controversy
• Circumcision controversies
• Female chauvinism
• Gynocentrism
• Male expendability
• Men's studies
• Reverse sexism
• Separatist feminism
• Straw feminism
• TERF
• Testosterone poisoning

{{div col end}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite journal |last1=Bailée |first1=Susan |date=2001 |title=Misandry in the Classroom |journal=The Hudson Review |volume=54 |issue=1 |pages=148–54 |doi=10.2307/3852834 |jstor=3852834 |last2=Sommers |first2=Christina Hoff |ref=none |issn=2325-5935}}
• {{cite book |author-link=Roy Baumeister |first=Roy F. |last=Baumeister |title=Is There Anything Good About Men? How Cultures Flourish By Exploiting Men |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |date=2010 |isbn=978-0-19-537410-0}}
• {{cite book |author-link=David Benatar |first=David |last=Benatar |title=The Second Sexism: Discrimination Against Men and Boys |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |location=Malden, Mass. |date=2012 |isbn=978-0-470-67446-8}}
• {{cite news |last1=Gibbons |first1=Fiachra |title=Lay off men, Lessing tells feminists |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/aug/14/edinburghfestival2001.edinburghbookfestival2001 |work=The Guardian |date=14 August 2001}}
• {{cite web |last=Leader |first=Richard |url=http://adonismirror.com/10152006_leader_misandry_and_misanthropy.htm |title=Misandry: From the Dictionary of Fools |date=2007 |work=Adonis Mirror |ref=none}}
• {{cite book |last1=Levine |first1=Judith |author1-link=Judith Levine |title=My Enemy, My Love: Man-hating and Ambivalence in Women's Lives |date=1992 |edition=1st |publisher=Doubleday |location=New York |isbn=978-0-385-41079-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/myenemymyloveman00levirich/page/n6/mode/1up?view=theater |url-access=registration}}
• {{cite book |first=J.R. |last=MacNamara |title=Media and Male Identity: The Making and Remaking of Men |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=New York |date=2006 |isbn=978-0-230-62567-9 |doi=10.1057/9780230625679}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Nathanson |first1=Paul |last2=Young |first2=Katherine K. |title=Coming of Age As a Villain: What Every Boy Needs to Know in A Misandric World |journal=Thymos: Journal of Boyhood Studies |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=155–177 |date=2009 |doi=10.3149/thy.0301.155 |issn=1872-4329}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Nathanson |first1=Paul |last2=Young |first2=Katherine K. |title=Misandry and Emptiness: Masculine Identity in a Toxic Cultural Environment |journal=New Male Studies |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=4–18 |date=2012 |issn=1839-7816 |url=https://newmalestudies.com/OJS/index.php/nms/article/view/14/13 |format=PDF}}
• {{cite news |last1=Perlman |first1=Merrill |title=Sex-isms: Gender politics and their words |url=http://www.cjr.org/language_corner/language_corner_092313.php?page=all |work=Columbia Journalism Review |date=23 September 2013}}
• {{cite journal |first=Darren |last=Rosenblum |title=Beyond Victimisation and Misandry |journal=International Journal of Law in Context |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=114–6 |date=2010 |doi=10.1017/S1744552309990383 |s2cid=143835898 |issn=1744-5531}}
• {{cite book |last=Schwartz |first=Howard |title=The Revolt of the Primitive: An Inquiry into the Roots of Political Correctness |edition=Revised |date=2003 |publisher=Transaction Publishers |location=New Brunswick, N.J. |isbn=978-0-7658-0537-9 |doi=10.4324/9781315134574 |ref=none}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=William A. |last2=Yosso |first2=Tara J. |last3=Solorzano |first3=Daniel G. |title=Racial Primes and Black Misandry on Historically White Campuses: Toward Critical Race Accountability in Educational Administration |journal=Educational Administration Quarterly |volume=43 |issue=5 |pages=559–585 |date=2007 |doi=10.1177/0013161X07307793 |s2cid=145753160 |issn=1552-3519}}
• {{cite book |author-link=Esther Vilar |title-link=The Manipulated Man |first=Esther |last=Vilar |title=The Manipulated Man |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |location=New York |date=1972 |isbn=978-0-374-20202-6}}
• {{cite web |last=Wilson |first=Robert Anton |author-link=Robert Anton Wilson |url=http://www.backlash.com/content/gender/1996/4-apr96/wilson04.html |title=Androphobia: The only respectable bigotry |date=April 1996 |work=The Backlash! |publisher=Shameless Men Press |ref=none}}
• {{cite book |author1=Young, Katherine K. |author-link=Katherine K. Young |author2=Nathanson, Paul |title=Sanctifying Misandry: Goddess Ideology and the Fall of Man |date=2010 |publisher=McGill–Queen's University Press |location=Montreal |isbn=978-0-7735-8544-7 |ref=none}}

{{refend}}

{{Wikiquote}}

{{Wiktionary|Thesaurus:misandrist}}

• {{Commons category-inline}}

{{Sexual abuse}}

{{Sexual identities}}

{{Discrimination}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Gender-related prejudices

Category:Prejudice and discrimination by type