Misogyny

English and American dictionaries define misogyny as "hatred of women"{{cite book |vauthors=((Brown, L.)) |date=1 January 1993 |title=The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles. Two Volumes Complete |publisher=Oxford University Press}}{{cite book |vauthors=((Company, H. M.)) |date=26 June 2012 |title=The American Heritage Dictionary |publisher=Dell |edition=Fifth}}{{cite book |veditors=((Gove, P. B.)) |date=1 January 1993 |title=Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged |publisher=Merriam-Webster, Inc. |isbn=978-0-87779-201-7}} and as "hatred, dislike, or mistrust of women".{{cite book |date=7 October 1997 |title=Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-0-679-45854-8}}

The American Merriam-Webster Dictionary distinguishes misogyny, "a hatred of women", from sexism, which denotes sex-based discrimination, and "behavior, conditions, or attitudes that foster stereotypes of social roles based on sex."{{Cite web |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/misogyny#note-1 |title=Definition of MISOGYNY |date=11 August 2023 |access-date=12 October 2021 |archive-date=17 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190117042928/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/misogyny#note-1 |url-status=live}}

In 2012, primarily in response to a speech in the Australian Parliament,{{cite news |url=http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/transcript-of-julia-gillards-speech-20121009-27c36.html |title=Transcript of Julia Gillard's speech |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |access-date=15 November 2016 |archive-date=6 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161106085642/http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/transcript-of-julia-gillards-speech-20121009-27c36.html |url-status=live}} the Macquarie Dictionary (which documents Australian English and New Zealand English) expanded its definition to include not only hatred of women but also "entrenched prejudices against women".{{cite news |last=Daley |first=Gemma |title=Macquarie Dictionary has last word on misogyny |url=http://www.afr.com/p/national/macquarie_dictionary_has_last_word_NzrQFdWcPJG6G8qLRRiZtK |date=17 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121019181518/http://www.afr.com/p/national/macquarie_dictionary_has_last_word_NzrQFdWcPJG6G8qLRRiZtK |archive-date=19 October 2012 |url-status=dead}}

Social psychology research{{vague|date=October 2023}} describes overt misogyny as "blatant hostile sexism" that raises resistance in women, as opposed to "manifestations of benevolent sexism" or chivalry that lead women to behave in a manner perpetuating patriarchal arrangements.{{cite journal |first1=Rotem |last1=Kahalon |first2=Orly |last2=Bareket |first3=Andrea C. |last3=Vial |first4=Nora |last4=Sassenhagen |first5=Julia C. |last5=Becker |first6=Nurit |last6=Shnabel |date=2 May 2019 |title=The Madonna-Whore Dichotomy Is Associated With Patriarchy Endorsement: Evidence From Israel, the United States, and Germany |journal=Psychology of Women Quarterly |volume=43 |issue=3 |pages=348–367 |doi=10.1177/0361684319843298 |s2cid=155434624}}

According to sociologist Allan G. Johnson, "misogyny is a cultural attitude of hatred for females because they are female". Johnson argues that:

{{blockquote|Misogyny .... is a central part of sexist prejudice and ideology and, as such, is an important basis for the oppression of females in male-dominated societies. Misogyny is manifested in many different ways, from jokes to pornography to violence to the self-contempt women may be taught to feel toward their own bodies.{{Cite book |title=The Blackwell dictionary of sociology: A user's guide to sociological language |isbn=978-0-631-21681-0 |last1=Johnson |first1=Allan G |year=2000 |publisher=Wiley}}, ("ideology" in all small capitals in original).}}

Sociologist Michael Flood at the University of Wollongong defines misogyny as the hatred of women, and notes:

{{blockquote|Though most common in men, misogyny also exists in and is practiced by women against other women or even themselves. Misogyny functions as an ideology or belief system that has accompanied patriarchal, or male-dominated societies for thousands of years and continues to place women in subordinate positions with limited access to power and decision making. […] Aristotle contended that women exist as natural deformities or imperfect males […] Ever since, women in Western cultures have internalised their role as societal scapegoats, influenced in the twenty-first century by multimedia objectification of women with its culturally sanctioned self-loathing and fixations on plastic surgery, anorexia and bulimia.{{Cite book |title=International encyclopaedia of men and masculinities |isbn=978-0-415-33343-6 |last1=Flood |first1=Michael |date=July 18, 2007 |publisher=Routledge}}}}

Philosopher Kate Manne of Cornell University defines misogyny as the attempt to control and punish women who challenge male dominance.{{cite web |url=https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/12/5/16705284/elizabeth-warren-loss-2020-sexism-misogyny-kate-manne |title=What we get wrong about misogyny |last=Illing |first=Sean |date=7 March 2020 |website=Vox |access-date=16 July 2020 |archive-date=9 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230609191124/https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/12/5/16705284/elizabeth-warren-loss-2020-sexism-misogyny-kate-manne |url-status=live}} Manne finds the traditional "hatred of women" definition of misogyny too simplistic, noting it does not account for how perpetrators of misogynistic violence may love certain women; for example, their mothers.{{rp|52}} Instead, misogyny rewards women who uphold the status quo and punishes those who reject women's subordinate status. Manne distinguishes sexism, which she says seeks to rationalise and justify patriarchy, from misogyny, which she calls the "law enforcement" branch of patriarchy:

{{blockquote|[S]exist ideology will tend to discriminate between men and women, typically by alleging sex differences beyond what is known or could be known, and sometimes counter to our best current scientific evidence. Misogyny will typically differentiate between good women and bad ones, and punishes the latter. […] Sexism wears a lab coat; misogyny goes on witch hunts.{{cite book |last=Manne |first=Kate |author-link=Kate Manne |date=2019 |title=Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny |location=Ithaca, New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-060498-1}}{{rp|79}} }}

Misogynous and misogynistic can both be used as an adjectival form of the word.{{cite web |title=Definition of "misogyny" |url=https://www.dictionary.com/browse/misogyny |website=Dictionary.com |access-date=4 November 2018 |archive-date=25 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181025035008/https://www.dictionary.com/browse/misogyny |url-status=live}} The noun misogynist can be used for a woman-hating person. The counterpart of misogyny is misandry, the hatred or dislike of men. Marc A. Ouellette argues in International Encyclopedia of Men and Masculinities that "misandry lacks the systemic, transhistoric, institutionalized, and legislated antipathy of misogyny".{{cite book |last=Ouellette |first=Marc |title=International Encyclopedia of Men and Masculinities |date=2007 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-1343-1707-3 |editor1=Flood, Michael |editor1-link=Michael Flood |pages=442–443 |chapter=Misandry |display-editors=etal}} Anthropologist David Gilmore argues that misogyny is a "near-universal phenomenon" and that there is no male equivalent.{{cite book |last=Gilmore |first=David G. |title=Misogyny: The Male Malady |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |location=Philadelphia |date=2001 |pages=10–13 |isbn=978-0-8122-0032-4}} The antonym of misogyny, philogyny—love or fondness toward women—{{Cite journal |last=Groes-Green |first=Christian |date=2011 |title=Philogynous Masculinities: Contextualising Alternative Manhood in Mozambique |journal=Men and Masculinities |language=en |volume=15 |issue=2 |pages=91–111 |doi=10.1177/1097184x11427021 |s2cid=145337308}} is not widely used. Words derived from the word misogyny and denoting connected concepts include misogynoir, the intersection of anti-black racism and misogyny faced by Black women; transmisogyny, the intersection of misogyny and transphobia faced by trans women and transfeminine people; and transmisogynoir, the confluence of these faced by black trans women and transfeminine people.{{cite encyclopedia |editor-first=Kevin L. |editor-last=Nadal |title=The SAGE Encyclopedia of Psychology and Gender |year=2017 |entry=Transmisogyny |page=}}{{cite book |editor=Reger, Jo |title=Nevertheless, They Persisted: Feminisms and Continued Resistance in the U.S. Women's Movement |year=2018 |page= |publisher=Taylor & Francis |quote=Julia Serano [...] coined the term 'trans misogyny' to refer to specific discrimination against trans women and trans people who express femininity. [...] 'transmisogynoir' [can] focus on the violence and discrimination experienced by black and potentially other trans women and trans feminine people of color. This concept builds on Moya Bailey's term 'misogynoir,' which specifically names the intersection of 'racism, antiblackness, and misogyny that black women experience'[.]}}

Misogyny likely arose at the same time as patriarchy: three to five thousand years ago at the start of the Bronze Age. The three main monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam promoted patriarchal societal structures, and used misogyny to keep women at a lower status.{{cite journal |last=Mohl |first=Allan S. |date=Summer 2015 |title=Monotheism: Its Influence on Patriarchy and Misogyny |journal=Journal of Psychohistory |volume=43 |number=1 |pages=1–20 |url=https://psychohistory.com/summer-2015-vol-43-issue-1/ |access-date=13 October 2021 |archive-date=27 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211027182109/https://psychohistory.com/summer-2015-vol-43-issue-1/ |url-status=live}} Misogyny gained strength in the Middle Ages, especially in Christian societies.{{cite book |last2=Ferguson |first2=Frances |first1=R. Howard |last1=Bloch |date=1989 |title=Misogyny, Misandry, and Misanthropy |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-06544-4}} In parallel to these, misogyny was also practised in societies such as the Romans, Greeks, and the tribes of the Amazon Basin and Melanesia, who did not follow a monotheistic religion. Nearly every human culture contains evidence of misogyny.{{sfnp|Gilmore|2001|pp=17–35}}

Anthropologist David D. Gilmore argues that misogyny is rooted in men's conflicting feelings: men's existential dependence on women for procreation, and men's fear of women's power over them in their times of male weakness, contrasted against the deep-seated needs of men for the love, care and comfort of women—a need that makes the men feel vulnerable.{{sfnp|Gilmore|2001|pp=1–16}}

Angela Saini notes that a large proportion of women in ancient societies were kidnapped brides from other cultures. Such a woman was often forced to marry a man who had killed her family. Misogynistic suspicion in ancient Greece and elsewhere is to some degree explained by male anxiety that women would some day revolt against their captors.{{cite book |first=Angela |last=Saini |title=The Patriarchs: The Origins of Inequality |publisher=Beacon Press |location=Boston |isbn=978-0-8070-1454-7 |year=2023}}{{rp|139}} Saini argues that patriarchy and gender stereotyping emerged at the same time as the state.{{rp|118–119}}

File:Chrysippos BM 1846.jpg)]]

In his book City of Sokrates: An Introduction to Classical Athens, J.W. Roberts argues that older than tragedy and comedy was a misogynistic tradition in Greek literature, reaching back at least as far as Hesiod.{{Cite book |title=City of Sokrates: An Introduction to Classical Athens |isbn=978-0-203-19479-9 |last1=Roberts |first1=J.W |date=1 June 2002 |publisher=Routledge}} He claims that the term misogyny itself comes directly into English from the Ancient Greek word misogunia ({{lang|grc|μισογυνία}}), which survives in several passages.

The earlier, longer, and more complete passage comes from a moral tract known as On Marriage (c. 150 BC) by the stoic philosopher Antipater of Tarsus.The editio princeps is on page 255 of volume three of Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta (SVF, Old Stoic Fragments), see External links.{{cite book |last1=Deming |first1=Will |title=Paul on Marriage and Celibacy: The Hellenistic Background of 1 Corinthians 7 |date=2004 |publisher=William B. Eerdmans Publishing |location=Grand Rapids, Mich. |isbn=978-0-8028-3989-3 |pages=221–226 |language=en |chapter=Appendix A}} pp. 221–226.

Misogunia appears in the accusative case on page 224 of Deming, as the fifth word in line 33 of his Greek text.

It is split over lines 25–26 in von Arnim. Antipater argues that marriage is the foundation of the state, and considers it to be based on divine (polytheistic) decree. He uses misogunia to describe the sort of writing the tragedian Euripides eschews, stating that he "reject[s] the hatred of women in his writing" (ἀποθέμενος τὴν ἐν τῷ γράφειν μισογυνίαν). He then offers an example of this, quoting from a lost play of Euripides in which the merits of a dutiful wife are praised.38-43, fr. 63, in von Arnim, J. (ed.). Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta. Vol. 3. Leipzig: Teubner, 1903.

According to Tieleman other surviving use of the Ancient Greek word is by Chrysippus, in a fragment from On affections, quoted by Galen in Hippocrates on Affections.SVF 3:103. Misogyny is the first word on the page. Here, misogyny is the first in a short list of three "disaffections"—women (misogunia), wine (misoinia, μισοινία) and humanity (misanthrōpia, μισανθρωπία). Chrysippus' point is more abstract than Antipater's, and Galen quotes the passage as an example of an opinion contrary to his own. What is clear, however, is that he groups hatred of women with hatred of humanity generally, and even hatred of wine. "It was the prevailing medical opinion of his day that wine strengthens body and soul alike."{{cite book |last1=Tieleman |first1=Teun |title=Chrysippus' On Affections: Reconstruction and Interpretations |date=2003 |publisher=Brill |location=Leiden, Netherlands |isbn=978-90-04-12998-6 |page=162 |language=en}} So Chrysippus, like his fellow stoic Antipater, views misogyny negatively, as a disease; a dislike of something that is good. It is this issue of conflicted or alternating emotions that was philosophically contentious to the ancient writers. Ricardo Salles suggests that the general stoic view was that "[a] man may not only alternate between philogyny and misogyny, philanthropy and misanthropy, but be prompted to each by the other."Ricardo Salles, Metaphysics, Soul, and Ethics in Ancient Thought: Themes from the Work of Richard Sorabji, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2005), 485.

In the Routledge philosophy guidebook to Plato and the Republic, Nickolas Pappas describes the "problem of misogyny" and states:

{{blockquote|In the Apology, Socrates calls those who plead for their lives in court "no better than women" (35b)... The Timaeus warns men that if they live immorally they will be reincarnated as women (42b-c; cf. 75d-e). The Republic contains a number of comments in the same spirit (387e, 395d-e, 398e, 431b-c, 469d), evidence of nothing so much as of contempt toward women. Even Socrates' words for his bold new proposal about marriage... suggest that the women are to be "held in common" by men. He never says that the men might be held in common by the women... We also have to acknowledge Socrates' insistence that men surpass women at any task that both sexes attempt (455c, 456a), and his remark in Book 8 that one sign of democracy's moral failure is the sexual equality it promotes (563b).{{Cite book |title=Routledge philosophy guidebook to Plato and the Republic |isbn=978-0-415-29996-1 |last1=Pappas |first1=Nickolas |date=2003-09-09 |publisher=Routledge}}}}

Misogynist is also found in the Greek—misogunēs ({{lang|grc|μισογύνης}})—in Deipnosophistae (above) and in Plutarch's Parallel Lives, where it is used as the title of Heracles in the history of Phocion. It was the title of a play by Menander, which we know of from book seven (concerning Alexandria) of Strabo's 17 volume Geography,Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott, A Greek–English Lexicon (LSJ), revised and augmented by Henry Stuart Jones and Roderick McKenzie, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1940). {{ISBN|978-0-19-864226-8}}Strabo,Geography, Book 7 [Alexandria] Chapter 3. and quotations of Menander by Clement of Alexandria and Stobaeus that relate to marriage.{{cite book |author1=Menander |translator-first=Maurice |translator-last=Balme |title=The Plays and Fragments |date=2002 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-283983-1 |language=en}} A Greek play with a similar name, Misogunos (Μισόγυνος) or Woman-hater, is reported by Marcus Tullius Cicero (in Latin) and attributed to the poet Marcus Atilius.He is supported (or followed) by Theognostus the Grammarian's 9th century Canones, edited by John Antony Cramer, Anecdota Graeca e codd. manuscriptis bibliothecarum Oxoniensium, vol. 2, (Oxford University Press, 1835), p. 88.

File:CiceroBust.jpg]]

Cicero reports that Greek philosophers considered misogyny to be caused by gynophobia, a fear of women.Marcus Tullius Cicero, Tusculanae Quaestiones, Book 4, Chapter 11.

{{blockquote|It is the same with other diseases; as the desire of glory, a passion for women, to which the Greeks give the name of philogyneia: and thus all other diseases and sicknesses are generated. But those feelings which are the contrary of these are supposed to have fear for their foundation, as a hatred of women, such as is displayed in the Woman-hater of Atilius; or the hatred of the whole human species, as Timon is reported to have done, whom they call the Misanthrope. Of the same kind is inhospitality. And all these diseases proceed from a certain dread of such things as they hate and avoid.|Cicero|Tusculanae Quaestiones, 1st century BC.}}

In summary, despite considering women as generally inferior to men, Greek literature considered misogyny to be a disease—an anti-social condition—in that it ran contrary to their perceptions of the value of women as wives and of the family as the foundation of society. These points are widely noted in the secondary literature.

File:Julia Gillard 2010.jpg]]

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word entered English because of an anonymous proto-feminist play, Swetnam the Woman-Hater, published in 1620 in England.{{cite encyclopaedia |title=misogynist |encyclopaedia=Oxford English Dictionary |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/119828?redirectedFrom=misogynist |access-date=17 July 2020 |archive-date=13 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240513031043/https://www.oed.com/dictionary/misogynist_n |url-status=live}} The play is a criticism of anti-woman writer Joseph Swetnam, who it represents with the pseudonym Misogynos. The character of Misogynos is the origin of the term misogynist in English.{{cite news |last=Aron |first=Nina Renata |date=8 March 2019 |title=What Does Misogyny Look Like? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/08/style/misogyny-women-history-photographs.html |work=The New York Times |access-date=17 July 2020 |archive-date=7 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807231120/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/08/style/misogyny-women-history-photographs.html |url-status=live}}

The term was fairly rare until the mid-1970s. The publication of feminist Andrea Dworkin's 1974 critique Woman Hating popularised the idea. The term misogyny entered the lexicon of second-wave feminism. Dworkin and her contemporaries used the term to include not only a hatred or contempt of women, but the practice of controlling women with violence and punishing women who reject subordination.

Misogyny was discussed worldwide in 2012 because of a viral video of a speech by Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Her parliamentary address is known as the Misogyny Speech. In the speech, Gillard powerfully criticised her opponents for holding her policies to a different standard than those of male politicians, and for speaking about her in crudely sexual terms.{{cite magazine |last=Lester |first=Amelia |date=9 October 2012 |title=Ladylike: Julia Gillard's Misogyny Speech |magazine=The New Yorker |url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/ladylike-julia-gillards-misogyny-speech |access-date=27 July 2020 |archive-date=15 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200615060308/https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/ladylike-julia-gillards-misogyny-speech |url-status=live}} She was criticised for systemic misogyny, because earlier in the day her Labour Party had passed legislation cutting $728 million in welfare benefits to single mothers.{{cite news |last=Passant |first=John |title=How the poor are shunted into deeper poverty just for political capital |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=4 January 2013 |url=https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/how-the-poor-are-shunted-into-deeper-poverty-just-for-political-capital-20130103-2c74b.html |access-date=31 May 2018 |archive-date=16 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180916164132/https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/how-the-poor-are-shunted-into-deeper-poverty-just-for-political-capital-20130103-2c74b.html |url-status=live}}

Gillard's usage of the word "misogyny" promoted re-evaluations of the word's published definitions. The Macquarie Dictionary revised its definition in 2012 to better match the way the word has been used over the prior 30 years.{{cite news |author= |agency=Reuters |date=17 October 2012 |title=Dictionary changes 'misogyny' definition after Australian PM's furious attack on conservative leader |url=https://nationalpost.com/news/dictionary-changes-definition-of-misogyny-after-australian-pms-furious-attack-on-conservative-leader |work=National Post |access-date=17 August 2020 |archive-date=13 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240513031038/https://nationalpost.com/news/dictionary-changes-definition-of-misogyny-after-australian-pms-furious-attack-on-conservative-leader |url-status=live}} The book Down Girl, which reconsidered the definition using the tools of analytic philosophy, was inspired in part by Gillard.{{rp|83}}

{{See also|Feminist theology|Gender and religion}}

File:Pandora - John William Waterhouse.jpg, 1896]]

In Misogyny: The World's Oldest Prejudice, Jack Holland argues that there is evidence of misogyny in the mythology of the ancient world. In Greek mythology according to Hesiod, the human race had already experienced a peaceful, autonomous existence as a companion to the gods before the creation of women. When Prometheus decides to steal the secret of fire from the gods, Zeus becomes infuriated and decides to punish humankind with an "evil thing for their delight". This "evil thing" is Pandora, the first woman, who carried a jar (usually described—incorrectly—as a box) which she was told to never open. Epimetheus (the brother of Prometheus) is overwhelmed by her beauty, disregards Prometheus' warnings about her, and marries her. Pandora cannot resist peeking into the jar, and by opening it she unleashes into the world all evil; labour, sickness, old age, and death.Holland, J: Misogyny: The World's Oldest Prejudice, pp. 12–13. Avalon Publishing Group, 2006.

{{Main|Women in Buddhism}}

In his book The Power of Denial: Buddhism, Purity, and Gender, professor Bernard Faure of Columbia University argued generally that "Buddhism is paradoxically neither as sexist nor as egalitarian as is usually thought." He remarked, "Many feminist scholars have emphasised the misogynistic (or at least androcentric) nature of Buddhism" and stated that Buddhism morally exalts its male monks while the mothers and wives of the monks also have important roles. Additionally, he wrote:

{{blockquote|While some scholars see Buddhism as part of a movement of emancipation, others see it as a source of oppression. Perhaps this is only a distinction between optimists and pessimists, if not between idealists and realists... As we begin to realise, the term "Buddhism" does not designate a monolithic entity, but covers a number of doctrines, ideologies, and practices--some of which seem to invite, tolerate, and even cultivate "otherness" on their margins.{{cite web |url=http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/i7538.html |title=Sample Chapter for Faure, B.: The Power of Denial: Buddhism, Purity, and Gender |publisher=Press.princeton.edu |access-date=2013-10-01 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131005011657/http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/i7538.html |archive-date=2013-10-05}}}}

{{Main|Women in Christianity}}

{{See also|Complementarianism|Christian egalitarianism|1 Timothy 2:12}}

File:Maria laach eva teufel.jpg rides astride the Serpent on a capital in Laach Abbey church, 13th century.]]

Differences in tradition and interpretations of scripture have caused sects of Christianity to differ in their beliefs with regard to their treatment of women.

In The Troublesome Helpmate, Katharine M. Rogers argues that Christianity is misogynistic, and she lists what she says are specific examples of misogyny in the Pauline epistles. She states:

{{blockquote|The foundations of early Christian misogyny—its guilt about sex, its insistence on female subjection, its dread of female seduction—are all in St. Paul's epistles.Rogers, Katharine M. The Troublesome Helpmate: A History of Misogyny in Literature, 1966.}}

In K. K. Ruthven's Feminist Literary Studies: An Introduction, Ruthven makes reference to Rogers' book and argues that the "legacy of Christian misogyny was consolidated by the so-called 'Fathers' of the Church, like Tertullian, who thought a woman was not only 'the gateway of the devil' but also 'a temple built over a sewer'."{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/feministliterary0000ruth_w8e4/page/83/mode/1up?view=theater |url-access=registration |page=83 |title=Feminist literary studies: An introduction |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-39852-7 |last1=Ruthven |first1=K. K |year=1990 }}

Several Christian institutions exclude women. For example, women are excluded from the Mount Athos region of Greece and from the governing hierarchy of the Catholic Church. Some Christian theologians, such as John Knox in his book The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstruous Regiment of Women, have written that women should be excluded from secular government institutions for religious reasons.

File:Personification of the seven deadly sins, Misogyny, Wellcome L0029327.jpg

However, some other scholars have argued that Christianity does not include misogynistic principles, or at least that a proper interpretation of Christianity would not include misogynistic principles. David M. Scholer, a biblical scholar at Fuller Theological Seminary, stated that the verse Galatians 3:28 ("There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus") is "the fundamental Pauline theological basis for the inclusion of women and men as equal and mutual partners in all of the ministries of the church."{{cite web |title=Galatians 3:28 – prooftext or context? |url=http://cbmw.org/staff/ |publisher=The council on biblical manhood and womanhood |access-date=6 January 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150206045217/http://cbmw.org/staff/ |archive-date=6 February 2015}}Hove, Richard. Equality in Christ? Galatians 3:28 and the Gender Dispute (Wheaton: Crossway, 1999), p. 17. In his book Equality in Christ? Galatians 3:28 and the Gender Dispute, Richard Hove argues that—while Galatians 3:28 does mean that one's sex does not affect salvation—"there remains a pattern in which the wife is to emulate the church's submission to ChristThe Holy Bible {{bibleverse||Eph|5:21-33|KJV}} and the husband is to emulate Christ's love for the church."{{Cite book |title=Marriage and family in the biblical world |isbn=978-0-8308-2737-4 |last1=Campbell |first1=Ken M |date=1 October 2003 |publisher=InterVarsity Press}}

In Christian Men Who Hate Women, clinical psychologist Margaret J. Rinck has written that Christian social culture often allows a misogynist "misuse of the biblical ideal of submission". However, she argues that this a distortion of the "healthy relationship of mutual submission" which is actually specified in Christian doctrine, where "[l]ove is based on a deep, mutual respect as the guiding principle behind all decisions, actions, and plans".{{cite book |title=Christian Men Who Hate Women: Healing Hurting Relationships |first=Margaret J. |last=Rinck |publisher=Zondervan |year=1990 |isbn=978-0-310-51751-1 |pages=81–85}} Similarly, Catholic scholar Christopher West argues that "male domination violates God's plan and is the specific result of sin".{{cite book |first=Christopher |last=West |others=with a foreword by George Weigel |title=Theology of the body explained : a commentary on John Paul II's "Gospel of the body" |year=2003 |publisher=Gracewing |location=Leominster, Herefordshire |isbn=978-0-85244-600-3}}

{{Main|Women in Islam}}

{{See also|Namus|Islam and domestic violence}}

The fourth chapter (or sura) of the Quran is called "Women" (an-nisa). The 34th verse is a key verse in feminist criticism of Islam."Verse 34 of Chapter 4 is an oft-cited Verse in the Qur'an used to demonstrate that Islam is structurally patriarchal, and thus Islam internalises male dominance."

Dahlia Eissa, "[http://www.wluml.org/node/443#_ftn42 Constructing the Notion of Male Superiority over Women in Islam] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150116153529/http://www.wluml.org/node/443#_ftn42 |date=16 January 2015 }}: The influence of sex and gender stereotyping in the interpretation of the Qur'an and the implications for a modernist exegesis of rights", Occasional Paper 11 in Occasional Papers (Empowerment International, 1999). The verse notes men's God-given advantages over women. They are consequently their protectors and maintainers. Where women are disobedient "admonish them, and leave them alone in the sleeping-places and beat them; then if they obey you, do not seek a way against them..." In his book No god but God, University of Southern California, Professor Reza Aslan wrote that "misogynistic interpretation" has been persistently attached to An-Nisa, 34 because commentary on the Quran "has been the exclusive domain of Muslim men".{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/20/AR2006102001261.html |newspaper=Washington Post |title=Clothes Aren't the Issue |date=22 October 2006 |first=Asra Q. |last=Nomani |access-date=31 October 2017 |archive-date=22 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180922033032/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/20/AR2006102001261_2.html?noredirect=on |url-status=live}}

In his book Popular Islam and Misogyny: A Case Study of Bangladesh, Taj Hashmi discusses misogyny in relation to Muslim culture, writing:

{{blockquote|[T]hanks to the subjective interpretations of the Quran (almost exclusively by men), the preponderance of the misogynic mullahs and the regressive Shariah law in most "Muslim" countries, Islam is synonymously known as a promoter of misogyny in its worst form.... we may draw a line between the Quranic texts and the corpus of avowedly misogynic writing and spoken words by the mullah having very little or no relevance to the Quran.Hashmi, Taj. [http://www.mukto-mona.com/Articles/taj_hashmi/Popular_Islam_and_Misogyn1.pdf Popular Islam and Misogyny: A Case Study of Bangladesh] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203082808/http://www.mukto-mona.com/Articles/taj_hashmi/Popular_Islam_and_Misogyn1.pdf |date=3 February 2014 }}. Retrieved August 11, 2008.}}

The economic and social position of men and women was reflected in blood money to the family of a victim. The financial loss for a woman was pegged at half that of a man.Caner Dagli, 2 The Cow al-Baqarah, Study Quran

{{See also|Women in Sikhism}}

Scholars William M. Reynolds and Julie A. Webber have written that Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh faith tradition, was a "fighter for women's rights" that was "in no way misogynistic" in contrast to some of his contemporaries.{{cite book |page=87 |title=Expanding curriculum theory: dis/positions and lines of flight |author=Julie A. Webber |publisher=Psychology Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-8058-4665-2}} However, unconscious misogynistic attitudes in Sikh men have steadily reduced the power of women in Sikhism, such that the Sikh community has been observed to contain toxic masculinity.{{cite journal |url=https://www.fsrinc.org/article/6979/ |title=Reintegrating the Feminine Voice Inherent in Sikh Scripture |last1=Bal |first1=Jaspreet |last2=Daman |first2=Santbir Singh Sarkar |date=2021 |journal=Feminist Studies in Religion |volume=37 |number=2 |access-date=17 December 2022 |archive-date=17 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221217195122/https://www.fsrinc.org/article/6979/ |url-status=live}}

Numerous influential Western philosophers have expressed ideas that have been characterised as misogynistic, including Aristotle, René Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, David Hume, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, G. W. F. Hegel, Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, Otto Weininger, Oswald Spengler, and John Lucas.{{cite book |last1=Clack |first1=Beverley |title=Misogyny in the Western Philosophical Tradition: A Reader |date=1999 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=978-0-415-92182-4 |pages=95–241 |url=https://archive.org/details/misogynyinwester0000unse/page/95/mode/1up?view=theater |url-access=registration}} Because of the influence of these thinkers, feminist scholars trace misogyny in Western culture to these philosophers and their ideas.{{Citation |last1=Witt |first1=Charlotte |title=Feminist History of Philosophy |date=2017 |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2017/entries/feminism-femhist/ |encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |editor-last=Zalta |editor-first=Edward N. |edition=Spring 2017 |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |access-date=21 August 2018 |last2=Shapiro |first2=Lisa |archive-date=18 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190318074351/https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2017/entries/feminism-femhist/ |url-status=live}}

File:P1070330 Louvre Aristote Ma80bis rwk.JPG, Louvre]]

{{Main|Aristotle's views on women}}

Aristotle believed women were inferior and described them as "deformed males".{{Cite book |edition=Spring 2016 |title=Feminist History of Philosophy |url=http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2016/entries/feminism-femhist/ |date=1 January 2016 |first1=Charlotte |last1=Witt |first2=Lisa |last2=Shapiro |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |editor-first=Edward N. |editor-last=Zalta |access-date=10 February 2016 |archive-date=13 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240513031051/https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2016/entries/feminism-femhist/ |url-status=live}}{{Cite journal |title=Plato and Aristotle on the Nature of Women |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236725862 |journal=Journal of the History of Philosophy |pages=467–478 |volume=21 |issue=4 |doi=10.1353/hph.1983.0090 |first=Nicholas D. |last=Smith |year=1983 |s2cid=170449773 |access-date=10 February 2016 |archive-date=20 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200520190356/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236725862 |url-status=live}} In his work Politics, he states

as regards the sexes, the male is by nature superior and the female inferior, the male ruler and the female subject 4 (1254b13-14).

Another example is Cynthia's catalog in which Cynthia states "Aristotle says that the courage of a man lies in commanding, a woman's lies in obeying; that 'matter yearns for form, as the female for the male and the ugly for the beautiful'; that women have fewer teeth than men; that a female is an incomplete male or 'as it were, a deformity'. Aristotle believed that men and women naturally differed both physically and mentally. He claimed that women are "more mischievous, less simple, more impulsive ... more compassionate[,] ... more easily moved to tears[,] ... more jealous, more querulous, more apt to scold and to strike[,] ... more prone to despondency and less hopeful[,] ... more void of shame or self-respect, more false of speech, more deceptive, of more retentive memory [and] ... also more wakeful; more shrinking [and] more difficult to rouse to action" than men.History of Animals, 608b. 1–14{{full citation needed|date=March 2025}}

Jean-Jacques Rousseau is well known for his views against equal rights for women for example in his treatise Emile, he writes: "Always justify the burdens you impose upon girls but impose them anyway... . They must be thwarted from an early age... . They must be exercised to constraint, so that it costs them nothing to stifle all their fantasies to submit them to the will of others." Other quotes consist of "closed up in their houses", "must receive the decisions of fathers and husbands like that of the church".{{Cite journal |title=Rousseau and Feminist Revision |journal=Eighteenth-Century Life |pages=51–54 |volume=34 |issue=3 |doi=10.1215/00982601-2010-012 |first=C. |last=Blum |year=2010 |s2cid=145091289}}

File:Schopenhauer by Karl Bauer 3.jpg]]

Based on his essay "On Women" (Über die Weiber), Arthur Schopenhauer has been noted as a misogynist by many such as the philosopher, critic, and author Tom Grimwood.{{Cite journal |title=The Limits of Misogyny: Schopenhauer, "On Women" |url=http://philpapers.org/rec/GRITLO |journal=Kritike: An Online Journal of Philosophy |date=1 January 2008 |pages=131–145 |volume=2 |issue=2 |first=Tom |last=Grimwood |doi=10.3860/krit.v2i2.854 |doi-access=free |access-date=16 February 2016 |archive-date=23 February 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160223133244/http://philpapers.org/rec/GRITLO |url-status=live}} In a 2008 article published in the philosophical journal of Kritique, Grimwood argues that Schopenhauer's misogynistic works have largely escaped attention despite being more noticeable than those of other philosophers such as Nietzsche. For example, he noted Schopenhauer's works where the latter had argued women only have "meagre" reason comparable that of "the animal" "who lives in the present". Other works he noted consisted of Schopenhauer's argument that women's only role in nature is to further the species through childbirth and hence is equipped with the power to seduce and "capture" men. He goes on to state that women's cheerfulness is chaotic and disruptive which is why it is crucial to exercise obedience to those with rationality. For her to function beyond her rational subjugator is a threat against men as well as other women, he notes. Schopenhauer also thought women's cheerfulness is an expression of her lack of morality and incapability to understand abstract or objective meaning such as art. This is followed up by his quote "have never been able to produce a single, really great, genuine and original achievement in the fine arts, or bring to anywhere into the world a work of permanent value".

Schopenhauer condemned what he called "Teutonico-Christian stupidity" on female affairs. He argued that women are "by nature meant to obey" as they are "childish, frivolous, and short sighted". He also argued that women did not possess any real beauty:{{cite book |last1=Durant |first1=Will |title=The Story of Philosophy |date=1983 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |location=New York, N.Y. |isbn=978-0-671-20159-3 |page=257 |url=https://archive.org/details/storyofphilosophdura00dura/page/257/mode/1up?view=theater |url-access=registration}}

{{blockquote|It is only a man whose intellect is clouded by his sexual impulse that could give the name of the fair sex to that under-sized, narrow-shouldered, broad-hipped, and short-legged race; for the whole beauty of the sex is bound up with this impulse. Instead of calling them beautiful there would be more warrant for describing women as the unaesthetic sex.}}

File:Nietzsche.jpg]]

{{Main|Friedrich Nietzsche's views on women}}

In Beyond Good and Evil, Friedrich Nietzsche stated that stricter controls on women was a condition of "every elevation of culture".{{cite book |last=Nietzsche |first=Friedrich |year=1886 |title=Beyond Good and Evil |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4363/4363-h/4363-h.htm |location=Germany |access-date=23 January 2014 |archive-date=16 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131216141708/http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4363/4363-h/4363-h.htm |url-status=live}} In his Thus Spoke Zarathustra, he has a female character say "You are going to women? Do not forget the whip!"{{cite book |last=Burgard |first=Peter J. |title=Nietzsche and the Feminine |date=May 1994 |publisher=University of Virginia Press |location=Charlottesville, VA |isbn=978-0-8139-1495-4 |page=11}} In Twilight of the Idols, Nietzsche writes "Women are considered profound. Why? Because we never fathom their depths. But women aren't even shallow."{{cite book |last=Nietzsche |first=Friedrich |year=1889 |title=Twilight of the Idols |url=http://www.handprint.com/SC/NIE/GotDamer.html |location=Germany |isbn=978-0-14-044514-5 |access-date=23 January 2014 |archive-date=26 April 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070426104633/http://www.handprint.com/SC/NIE/GotDamer.html |url-status=live}} There is controversy over the questions of whether or not this amounts to misogyny, whether his polemic against women is meant to be taken literally, and the exact nature of his opinions of women.Robert C. Holub, Nietzsche and The Women's Question. [https://web.archive.org/web/20060907092224/http://www-learning.berkeley.edu/robertholub/teaching/syllabi/Lecture_Nietzsche_Women.pdf Coursework for Berkeley University.]

Hegel's view of women has been characterised as misogynistic.{{cite book |last=Gallagher |first=Shaun |title=Hegel, history, and interpretation |year=1997 |publisher=SUNY Press |isbn=978-0-7914-3381-2 |page=235}} Passages from Hegel's Elements of the Philosophy of Right illustrate the criticism:{{Cite book |title=Feminist Reflections on the History of Philosophy |isbn=978-1-4020-2488-7 |last1=Alanen |first1=Lilli |last2=Witt |first2=Charlotte |year=2004 |publisher=Springer}}

{{Blockquote|text=Women are capable of education, but they are not made for activities which demand a universal faculty such as the more advanced sciences, philosophy and certain forms of artistic production... Women regulate their actions not by the demands of universality, but by arbitrary inclinations and opinions.}}

Femicide is the name of a hate crime, the intentional killing of women or girls on account of their sex. It is ideological misogynist killing, and in some cases may also be an example of domestic violence.{{cite book |last1=Radford |first1=Jill |last2=Russell |first2=Diana E. H. |date=1992 |title=Femicide: The Politics of Woman Killing |publisher=Twayne |isbn=978-0-8057-9026-9}}

Misogynist terrorism is terrorism intended to punish woman. Since 2018 counter-terrorism professionals such as ICCT and START have tracked misogyny or male supremacy as ideologies that have motivated terrorism. They describe this form of terror as a "rising threat". Among the attacks designated as misogynist terrorism are the 2014 Isla Vista killings and the 2018 Toronto van attack.{{cite journal |url=https://icct.nl/publication/male-supremacist-terrorism-as-a-rising-threat/ |title=Male Supremacist Terrorism as a Rising Threat |first=Alex |last=DiBranco |author-link=Alex DiBranco |date=10 February 2020 |website=International Centre for Counter-Terrorism |publisher=The Hague |access-date=23 July 2020 |archive-date=20 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200420024236/https://icct.nl/publication/male-supremacist-terrorism-as-a-rising-threat/ |url-status=dead}} Some of the attackers have identified with the incel movement, and were motivated to kill by a perception of being entitled to sexual access to women. However, misogyny is common among mass killers, even when it is not the primary motivation.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/10/us/mass-shootings-misogyny-dayton.html |title=A Common Trait Among Mass Killers: Hatred Toward Women |first1=Julie |last1=Bosman |first2=Kate |last2=Taylor |first3=Tim |last3=Arango |author-link3=Tim Arango |date=10 August 2019 |work=The New York Times |access-date=23 July 2020 |archive-date=27 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727002823/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/10/us/mass-shootings-misogyny-dayton.html |url-status=live}}

{{see also-text|Cyberbullying}}

Misogynistic rhetoric is pervasive online and has grown more aggressive over time.{{cite journal |last=Jane |first=Emma Alice |title='Back to the kitchen, cunt': speaking the unspeakable about online misogyny |journal=Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies |volume=28 |issue=4 |year=2014 |pages=558–570 |doi=10.1080/10304312.2014.924479 |s2cid=144492709 |hdl=1959.4/unsworks_81563 |hdl-access=free}}{{cite journal |last=Philipovic |first=Jill |title=Blogging While Female: How Internet Misogyny Parallels Real-World Harassment |journal=Yale Journal of Law and Feminism |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=295–303 |year=2007 |url=https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi |access-date=19 July 2020 |archive-date=26 January 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110126175931/http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi? |url-status=live}} Online misogyny includes both individual attempts to intimidate and denigrate women, denial of gender inequity (neosexism),{{cite journal |last1=Zeinert |first1=Philine |last2=Inie |first2=Nanna |last3=Derczynski |first3=Leon |title=Annotating Online Misogyny |journal=Proceedings of the Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics |date=2021 |url=http://www.derczynski.com/papers/annotating_online_misogyny.pdf |access-date=2 July 2021 |archive-date=2 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210802080925/https://www.derczynski.com/papers/annotating_online_misogyny.pdf |url-status=dead}}{{cite journal |last1=Tougas |first1=Francine |last2=Brown |first2=Rupert |last3=Beaton |first3=Ann M. |last4=Joly |first4=Stéphane |title=Neosexism: Plus Ca Change, Plus C'est Pareil. |journal=Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin |date=1995 |volume=21 |issue=8 |pages=842–849 |doi=10.1177/0146167295218007 |s2cid=144458314}} and also coordinated, collective attempts such as vote brigading and the Gamergate antifeminist harassment campaign.{{cite book |last1=Nieborg |first1=David |last2=Foxman |first2=Maxwell |editor=Vickery J. |editor2=Everbach T. |title=Mediating Misogyny |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |date=14 February 2018 |pages=111–130 |chapter=Mainstreaming Misogyny: The Beginning of the End and the End of the Beginning in Gamergate Coverage |isbn=978-3-319-72916-9 |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-72917-6_6}} In a paper written for the Journal of International Affairs, Kim Barker and Olga Jurasz discuss how online misogyny can lead to women facing obstacles when trying to engage in the public and political spheres of the Internet due to the abusive nature of these spaces. They also suggest regulations and shut downs of online misogyny through both governmental and non-governmental means.{{Cite journal |last1=Barker |first1=Kim |last2=Jurasz |first2=Olga |date=2019 |title=Online Misogyny: A Challenge for Digital Feminism? |journal=Journal of International Affairs |volume=72 |issue=2 |pages=95–113 |via=EBSCO Host}}

File:Anita_Sarkeesian_headshot.jpg was the target of a coordinated misogynistic attack because of her feminist work.]]

The most likely targets for misogynistic attacks by coordinated groups are women who are visible in the public sphere, women who speak out about the threats they receive, and women who are perceived to be associated with feminism or feminist gains. Authors of misogynistic messages are usually anonymous or otherwise difficult to identify. Their rhetoric involves misogynistic epithets and graphic or sexualised imagery. It centres on the women's physical appearance, and prescribes sexual violence as a corrective for the targeted women. Examples of famous people who spoke out about misogynistic attacks are Anita Sarkeesian, Laurie Penny, Caroline Criado Perez, Stella Creasy, and Lindy West.

These attacks do not always remain online only. Swatting was used to bring Gamergate attacks into the physical world.{{cite news |last=Robertson |first=Adi |date=4 January 2015 |title='About 20' police officers sent to Gamergate critic's former home after fake hostage threat |url=https://www.theverge.com/2015/1/4/7490539/fake-hostage-threat-sends-police-to-gamergate-critic-home |work=The Verge |access-date=4 August 2020 |archive-date=25 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151125054744/http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/4/7490539/fake-hostage-threat-sends-police-to-gamergate-critic-home |url-status=live}}

The insults and threats directed at different women tend to be very similar. Jude Doyle, who has been the target of online threats, noted the "overwhelmingly impersonal, repetitive, stereotyped quality" of the abuse, the fact that "all of us are being called the same things, in the same tone".

A 2016 study conducted by the think tank Demos found that the majority of Twitter messages containing the words "whore" or "slut" were advertisements for pornography. Of those that were not, a majority used the terms in a non-aggressive way, such a discussion of slut-shaming. Of those that used the terms "whore" or "slut" in an aggressive, insulting way, about half were women and half were men. Twitter users most frequently targeted by women with aggressive insults were celebrities, such as Beyoncé Knowles.{{Cite web |url=https://demosuk.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Misogyny-online.pdf |title=The use of misogynistic terms on Twitter |access-date=28 May 2020 |archive-date=25 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225212800/https://demosuk.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Misogyny-online.pdf |url-status=live}}

A 2020 study published in the journal New Media & Society also discusses how language on the internet can contribute to online misogyny. The authors specifically criticise Urban Dictionary, claiming the language used in the definitions are misogynistic and anti-feminist, rather than simply being a collaborative dictionary.{{Cite journal |last1=Ging |first1=Debbie |last2=Lynn |first2=Theodore |last3=Rosati |first3=Pierangelo |date=30 August 2019 |title=Neologising misogyny: Urban Dictionary's folksonomies of sexual abuse |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1461444819870306 |journal=New Media & Society |volume=22 |issue=5 |pages=838–856 |doi=10.1177/1461444819870306 |s2cid=203078731 |issn=1461-4448 |access-date=19 November 2020 |archive-date=13 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240513031614/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1461444819870306 |url-status=live|url-access=subscription }}

A 2021 study published at the meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics notes that online misogyny presents differently in different contexts. For example: Spanish online discussions show a stronger presence of dominance; Italian misogyny has a plurality of stereotyping and objectification; English online misogyny most frequently involves discrediting women; and Danish discussions primarily express neo-sexism.

{{Main|Incel}}

Incels, or involuntary celibates, is an online community of men who believe they cannot get into heterosexual relationships. They share a common belief that women pick partners based solely on looks, so due to their unattractiveness, they will be alone forever.{{Cite journal |last=Halpin |first=Michael |date=December 2022 |title=Weaponized Subordination: How Incels Discredit Themselves to Degrade Women |journal=Gender & Society |language=en |volume=36 |issue=6 |pages=813–837 |doi=10.1177/08912432221128545 |s2cid=252740108 |issn=0891-2432 |doi-access=free}} Due to this perception of themselves, incels in turn hate women, and believe that men are systematically discriminated against. Incels have a large network of male-oriented websites dedicated to the cyber hate of women, discrimination, and networking of misogyny.{{Cite journal |last1=Halpin |first1=Michael |last2=Richard |first2=Norann |last3=Preston |first3=Kayla |last4=Gosse |first4=Meghan |last5=Maguire |first5=Finlay |date=2023-06-06 |title=Men who hate women: The misogyny of involuntarily celibate men |journal=New Media & Society |volume=27 |issue=1 |language=en |pages=424–442 |doi=10.1177/14614448231176777 |s2cid=259786368 |issn=1461-4448 |doi-access=free |pmid=39711688 |pmc=11661939}} In the incel form of misogyny, all women are discriminated against, however, women of colour are doubly denigrated by sexism and racism. Incels endorse and participate in sexism, racism, and mass violence.{{Cite journal |last1=Baele |first1=Stephane J. |last2=Brace |first2=Lewys |last3=Coan |first3=Travis G. |date=2021-11-17 |title=From "Incel" to "Saint": Analyzing the violent worldview behind the 2018 Toronto attack |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09546553.2019.1638256 |journal=Terrorism and Political Violence |language=en |volume=33 |issue=8 |pages=1667–1691 |doi=10.1080/09546553.2019.1638256 |s2cid=201361080 |issn=0954-6553 |access-date=15 October 2023 |archive-date=1 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210501014514/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09546553.2019.1638256 |url-status=live|url-access=subscription }} They are not only a threat in online communities, but they also carry their misogyny over to killing sprees, like the 2014 Isla Vista massacre that inspired other incel acts of violence.{{Cite journal |last=Witt |first=Taisto |date=2020-09-02 |title='If i cannot have it, i will do everything i can to destroy it.' the canonization of Elliot Rodger: 'Incel' masculinities, secular sainthood, and justifications of ideological violence |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13504630.2020.1787132 |journal=Social Identities |language=en |volume=26 |issue=5 |pages=675–689 |doi=10.1080/13504630.2020.1787132 |s2cid=222803708 |issn=1350-4630 |access-date=15 October 2023 |archive-date=7 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240307134157/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13504630.2020.1787132 |url-status=live|url-access=subscription }} Incel existence and rhetoric is a good example of misogyny online.

Andrew Anglin uses the white supremacist website The Daily Stormer as a platform to promote misogynistic conspiracy theories, claiming that politically active "[w]hite women across the Western world" are pushing for liberal immigration policies "to ensure an endless supply of Black and Arab men to satisfy their depraved sexual desires."{{cite news |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/alt-right-fueled-toxic-masculinity-vice-versa-ncna989031 |title=The 'alt-right' is fuelled by toxic masculinity — and vice versa |author=Futrelle, David |publisher=NBC News |date=1 April 2019 |access-date=5 November 2020 |archive-date=24 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191124173015/https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/alt-right-fueled-toxic-masculinity-vice-versa-ncna989031 |url-status=live}} In July 2018, Anglin summarised his misogynistic views, writing: "Look, I hate women. I think they deserve to be beaten, raped and locked in cages."{{cite web |url=https://msmagazine.com/2018/07/31/the-alt-rights-woman-problem/ |title=Mapping the Male Supremacy Movement: The Alt-Right's Woman Problem |work=Ms. |author=Reaves, Jessica |date=31 July 2018 |access-date=27 October 2020 |archive-date=26 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230526232745/https://msmagazine.com/2018/07/31/the-alt-rights-woman-problem/ |url-status=live}} The term misogynoir describes misogyny directed towards Black women where prejudice based upon race and gender play reinforcing roles.

{{Main|Internalised sexism}} Women who experience internalised misogyny may express it through minimising the value of women, mistrusting women, and believing gender bias in favour of men.{{cite journal |last1=Szymanski |first1=Dawn M. |last2=Gupta |first2=Arpana |last3=Carr |first3=Erika R. |last4=Stewart |first4=Destin |title=Internalized Misogyny as a Moderator of the Link between Sexist Events and Women's Psychological Distress |journal=Sex Roles |date=2009 |volume=61 |issue=1–2 |pages=101–109 |doi=10.1007/s11199-009-9611-y |issn=0360-0025}} A common manifestation of internalised misogyny is lateral violence.

Misogyny has taken shape as sexual harassment.{{cite journal |first1=Kalpana |last1=Srivastava |first2=Suprakash |last2=Chaudhury |first3=P. S. |last3=Bhat |first4=Samiksha |last4=Sahu |date=2017 |title=Misogyny, feminism, and sexual harassment |journal=Indian Journal of Psychiatry |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=111–113 |doi=10.4103/ipj.ipj_32_18 |pmid=30089955 |pmc=6058438 |doi-access=free}}

Misogynist attitudes lead to the physical, sexual, and emotional abuse of gender nonconforming boys in childhood.{{cite journal |last=Brooks |first=Franklin L. |date=11 October 2008 |title=Beneath Contempt: The Mistreatment of Non-Traditional/Gender Atypical Boys |journal=Journal of Gay & Lesbian Social Services |volume=12 |issue=1–2 |pages=107–115 |doi=10.1300/J041v12n01_06 |s2cid=147560883}}

Many feminists have written that the notions of "good" women and "bad" women are imposed upon women in order to control them. Women who are easy to control, or who advocate for their own oppression, may be told they are good. The categories of bad and good also cause fighting among women; Helen Lewis identifies this "long tradition of regulating female behaviour by defining women in opposition to one another" as the architecture of misogyny.{{cite magazine |last=Lewis |first=Helen |date=16 January 2020 |title=Meghan, Kate, and the Architecture of Misogyny |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/01/meghan-markle-kate-middleton-royals-culture-war/604981/ |magazine=The Atlantic |access-date=14 July 2020 |archive-date=20 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230620094044/https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/01/meghan-markle-kate-middleton-royals-culture-war/604981/ |url-status=live}}

File:ChimamandaAdichie.jpg]]

The Madonna–whore dichotomy or virgin/whore dichotomy is the perception of women as either good and chaste or as bad and promiscuous. Belief in this dichotomy leads to misogyny, according to the feminist perspective, because the dichotomy appears to justify policing women's behaviour. Misogynists seek to punish "bad" women for their sexuality. Author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie observes that when women describe being harassed or assaulted (as in the #MeToo movement) they are viewed as deserving sympathy only if they are "good" women: non-sexual, and perhaps helpless.{{cite magazine |last=Marchese |first=David |date=9 July 2018 |title=Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The novelist on being a "feminist icon," Philip Roth's humanist misogyny, and the sadness in Melania Trump. |url=https://www.vulture.com/2018/07/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-in-conversation.html |magazine=Vulture |publisher=Vox Media |access-date=15 July 2020 |archive-date=17 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200717084849/https://www.vulture.com/2018/07/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-in-conversation.html |url-status=live}}

In her 1974 book Woman Hating, Andrea Dworkin uses traditional fairy tales to illustrate misogyny. Fairy tales designate certain women as "good", for example Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, who are inert, passive characters. Dworkin observed that these characters "never think, act, initiate, confront, resist, challenge, feel, care, or question. Sometimes they are forced to do housework." In contrast, the "evil" women who populate fairy tales are queens, witches, and other women with power. Further, men in fairy tales are said to be good kings and good husbands irrespective of their actions. For Dworkin, this illustrates that under misogyny only powerless women are allowed to be seen as good. No similar judgement is applied to men.{{cite book |last=Dworkin |first=Andria |author-link=Andrea Dworkin |date=1974 |title=Woman Hating |url=https://www.feministes-radicales.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Andrea-DWORKIN-Woman-Hating-A-Radical-Look-at-Sexuality-1974.pdf |location=New York |publisher=Penguin Group |isbn=978-0-525-47423-4 |access-date=14 July 2020 |archive-date=29 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230729122949/https://www.feministes-radicales.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Andrea-DWORKIN-Woman-Hating-A-Radical-Look-at-Sexuality-1974.pdf |url-status=dead}}

• For an interpretation, see: {{cite web |url=https://feminisminindia.com/2019/07/12/woman-hating-andrea-dworkin/ |title=Book Review: Woman Hating By Andrea Dworkin |last=Gupta |first=Shivangi |date=12 July 2019 |website=Feminism in India |publisher=FII Media Private Limited |access-date=14 July 2020 |archive-date=24 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200924022755/https://feminisminindia.com/2019/07/12/woman-hating-andrea-dworkin/ |url-status=live}}

File:Dworkin_on_After_Dark.JPG]]

In her book Right-Wing Women, Dworkin adds that powerful women are tolerated by misogynists provided women use their power to reinforce the power of men and to oppose feminism. Dworkin gives Phyllis Schlafly and Anita Bryant as examples of powerful women tolerated by anti-feminists only because they advocated for their own oppression. Women may even be worshipped or called superior to men if they are sufficiently "good", meaning obedient or inert.{{cite book |last=Dworkin |first=Andria |author-link=Andrea Dworkin |date=1983 |title=Right-Wing Women |url=https://archive.org/details/rightwingwomen00dwor/mode/1up?view=theater |location=New York |publisher=Perigee Books |isbn=978-0-399-50671-0 |url-access=registration}}

Philosopher Kate Manne argues that the word "misogyny" as used by modern feminists denotes not a generalised hatred of women, but instead the system of distinguishing good from bad women. Misogyny is like a police force, Manne writes, that rewards or punishes women based on these judgements.{{rp|79}}

In the late 20th century, second-wave feminist theorists argued that misogyny is both a cause and a result of patriarchal social structures.E.g., Kate Millet's Sexual Politics, adapted from her doctoral dissertation is normally cited as the originator of this viewpoint; though Katharine M Rogers had also published similar ideas previously.

Economist Deniz Kandiyoti has written that colonisers of the Middle East, Africa, and Asia kept conquered armies of men under control by offering them complete power over women. She calls this the "patriarchal bargain". Men who were interested in accepting the bargain were promoted to leadership by colonial powers, causing the colonised societies to become more misogynistic.{{cite magazine |last=Fisher |first=Max |date=25 April 2012 |title=The Real Roots of Sexism in the Middle East (It's Not Islam, Race, or 'Hate') |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/04/the-real-roots-of-sexism-in-the-middle-east-its-not-islam-race-or-hate/256362/ |magazine=The Atlantic |access-date=14 July 2020 |archive-date=30 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230730082003/https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/04/the-real-roots-of-sexism-in-the-middle-east-its-not-islam-race-or-hate/256362/ |url-status=live}}

Julia Serano defines misogyny as not only hatred of women per se, but the "tendency to dismiss and deride femaleness and femininity." In this view, misogyny also causes homophobia against gay men because gay men are stereotyped as feminine and weak; misogyny likewise causes anxiety among straight men that they will be seen as unmanly.{{cite magazine |last=Berlatsky |first=Noah |date=June 5, 2014 |title=Can Men Really Be Feminists? |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/06/men-can-be-feminists-too/372234/ |magazine=The Atlantic |access-date=July 14, 2020 |archive-date=30 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230730082004/https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/06/men-can-be-feminists-too/372234/ |url-status=live}} Serano's book Whipping Girl argues that most anti-trans sentiment directed at trans women should be understood as misogyny. By embracing femininity, the book argues, trans women cast doubt on the superiority of masculinity.{{cite book |last=Serano |first=Julia |author-link=Julia Serano |date=2007 |title=Whipping Girl |location=Berkeley |publisher=Seal Press |page=15 |isbn=978-1-58005-154-5}}

File:Jean-Léon Gérôme, Pygmalion and Galatea, ca. 1890.jpg, Pygmalion and Galatea, c. 1890]]

Culture rewards traits that are considered masculine and devalues traits that seem feminine, according to Tracy M. Hallstead at Quinnipiac University. From childhood, boys and men are told to "man up" to appear tough by distancing themselves from feminine things. Boys learn that it is shameful to be seen as emotional, dependent, or vulnerable. Men raised in this way may disown femininity and may even learn to despise it. In this view, misogyny is directed not only at women, but at any feminine qualities that men see within themselves.{{cite book |last=Hallstead |first=Tracy M. |date=2013 |title=Pygmalion's Chisel: For Women Who Are "Never Good Enough" |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |pages=16–18 |isbn=978-1-4438-4884-8}}

This contempt for the feminine causes men feel that they must assert their dominance over women by controlling them, Hallstead writes. She illustrates this with the ancient story of Pygmalion, a sculptor who hated "the faults beyond measure which nature has given to women."{{cite book |last=Hamilton |first=Edith |author-link=Edith Hamilton |date=June 1953 |title=Mythology |url=https://4.files.edl.io/2de7/05/18/18/235210-d49a73bb-318a-4250-81b6-cf80f1741ada.pdf |location=Calcutta |publisher=Tridibesh Basu |page=108 |access-date=13 June 2021 |archive-date=9 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230309015332/https://4.files.edl.io/2de7/05/18/18/235210-d49a73bb-318a-4250-81b6-cf80f1741ada.pdf |url-status=live}} Pygmalion creates a sculpture of a woman that magically comes alive. Pygmalion is very gratified by the complete control he has over the woman, Galatea, because this control re-enforces his masculinity. He considers Galatea the perfect woman, in spite of his contempt for women, because of his absolute power over her.

In recent years, there has been increasing discussion in England and Wales of misogyny being added to the list of aggravating factors that are commonly referred to by the media as "hate crimes". Aggravating factors in criminal sentencing currently include hostility to a victim due to characteristics such as sexuality, race or disability.{{cite web |url=https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/explanatory-material/item/aggravating-and-mitigating-factors/ |title=Aggravating and mitigating factors |publisher=Sentencing Council |access-date=2 November 2018 |archive-date=14 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180814170501/https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/explanatory-material/item/aggravating-and-mitigating-factors/ |url-status=live}}

In 2016, Nottinghamshire Police began a pilot project to record misogynistic behaviour as either hate crime or hate incidents, depending on whether the action was a criminal offence.{{cite news |last=Brooks |first=Libby |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/09/uk-police-chiefs-urged-to-adopt-harassment-of-women-as-hate |title=UK police chiefs urged to adopt harassment of women as hate crime |work=The Guardian |date=9 July 2018 |access-date=2 November 2018 |archive-date=13 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240513031600/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/09/uk-police-chiefs-urged-to-adopt-harassment-of-women-as-hate |url-status=live}} Over two years (April 2016-March 2018) there were 174 reports made, of which 73 were classified as crimes and 101 as incidents.{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-44740362 |title=Misogyny hate crime in Nottinghamshire gives 'shocking' results |work=BBC News |date=9 July 2018 |access-date=2 November 2018 |archive-date=27 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180927085840/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-44740362 |url-status=live}}

In September 2018, it was announced that the Law Commission would conduct a review into whether misogynistic conduct, as well as hostility due to ageism, misandry or towards groups such as goths, should be treated as a hate crime.{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-45423789 |title=Misogyny could become hate crime as legal review is announced |work=BBC News |date=6 September 2018 |access-date=2 November 2018 |archive-date=9 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181009090032/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-45423789 |url-status=live}}{{cite news |last=Grierson |first=Jamie |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/oct/16/review-of-uk-hate-law-to-consider-misogyny-and-ageism |title=Review of UK hate crime law to consider misogyny and ageism |work=The Guardian |date=16 October 2018 |access-date=2 November 2018 |archive-date=13 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240513031555/https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/oct/16/review-of-uk-hate-law-to-consider-misogyny-and-ageism |url-status=live}}

In October 2018, two senior police officers, Sara Thornton, chair of the National Police Chiefs' Council, and Cressida Dick, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, stated that police forces should focus on more serious crimes such as burglary and violent offences, and not on recording incidents which are not crimes.{{cite news |last=Tobin |first=Olivia |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/met-police-chief-cressida-dick-backs-top-cop-sara-thornton-on-tackling-burglars-and-violence-not-a3978526.html |title=Met chief Cressida Dick backs senior police officer Sara Thornton on tackling burglars and violence ahead of hate crimes |work=Evening Standard |date=2 November 2018 |access-date=2 November 2018 |archive-date=19 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181119093445/https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/met-police-chief-cressida-dick-backs-top-cop-sara-thornton-on-tackling-burglars-and-violence-not-a3978526.html |url-status=live}} Thornton said that "treating misogyny as a hate crime is a concern for some well-organised campaigning organisations", but that police forces "do not have the resources to do everything".{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46053069 |title=Focus on violent crime not misogyny, says police chief |work=BBC News |date=1 November 2018 |access-date=2 November 2018 |archive-date=2 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181102205217/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46053069 |url-status=live}}

In September 2020 the Law Commission proposed that sex or gender be added to the list of protected characteristics.{{cite web |url=https://www.lawcom.gov.uk/reforms-to-hate-crime-laws-to-make-them-fairer-and-to-protect-women-for-the-first-time/ |title=Reforms to hate crime laws to make them fairer, and to protect women for the first time |website=www.lawcom.gov.uk |date=23 September 2020 |access-date=23 September 2020 |archive-date=6 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201006160528/https://www.lawcom.gov.uk/reforms-to-hate-crime-laws-to-make-them-fairer-and-to-protect-women-for-the-first-time/ |url-status=live}} At the time of the Law Commission's proposals seven police forces in England and Wales classed misogyny as a hate crime, but that definition had not been adopted across the board. The commission plans to make its official recommendations to the government in 2021.{{cite news |last=Scott |first=Jennifer |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-54254541 |title=Misogyny: Women 'should be protected' under hate crime laws |work=BBC News |date=23 September 2020 |access-date=23 September 2020 |archive-date=23 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200923052131/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-54254541 |url-status=live}}

A Home Office spokesperson in October 2021 stated that police forces had been requested to record any crime the victim understood was driven by hostility to their sex.{{Cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/oct/08/tory-peers-to-defy-boris-johnson-with-push-to-make-misogyny-a-hate-crime |title=Tory peers to defy Boris Johnson with push to make misogyny a hate crime |website=The Guardian |date=8 October 2021 |access-date=12 October 2021 |archive-date=13 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240513031601/https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/oct/08/tory-peers-to-defy-boris-johnson-with-push-to-make-misogyny-a-hate-crime |url-status=live}}

{{div col|colwidth=22em}}

• Androcentrism
• Exploitation of women in mass media
• Gender in horror films
• Gender studies
• Misogyny and mass media
• Misogyny in rap music
• Misogyny in sports
• Male chauvinism
• The Bro Code: How Contemporary Culture Creates Sexist Men
• Wife selling
• Women's rights

{{div col end}}

{{Reflist}}

• Boteach, Shmuley. Hating Women: America's Hostile Campaign Against the Fairer Sex. 2005.
• Brownmiller, Susan. Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1975.
• Dijkstra, Bram. Idols of Perversity: Fantasies of Feminine Evil. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.
• Chodorow, Nancy. The Reproduction of Mothering: Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender. Berkeley: University of California, Berkeley, 1978.
• Ellmann, Mary. Thinking About Women. 1968.
• Forward, Susan, and Joan Torres. Men Who Hate Women and the Women Who Love Them: When Loving Hurts and You Don't Know Why. Bantam Books, 1986. {{ISBN|978-0-553-28037-1}}
• Haskell, Molly. From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies. 1974. University of Chicago Press, 1987.
• Kipnis, Laura. The Female Thing: Dirt, Sex, Envy, Vulnerability. 2006. {{ISBN|978-0-375-42417-5}}
• Klein, Melanie. The Collected Writings of Melanie Klein. 4 volumes. London: Hogarth Press, 1975.
• Lewis, Helen. Difficult Women: A History Of Feminism In 11 Fights. Jonathan Cape, 2020.
• Marshall, Gordon. 'Misogyny'. In Oxford Dictionary of Sociology. Oxford University Press, 1998.
• Millett, Kate. Sexual Politics. New York: Doubleday, 1970.
• Morgan, Fidelis. A Misogynist's Source Book.
• Patai, Daphne, and Noretta Koertge. Professing Feminism: Cautionary Tales from the Strange World of Women's Studies. 1995. {{ISBN|978-0-465-09827-9}}
• Penelope, Julia. Speaking Freely: Unlearning the Lies of our Fathers' Tongues. Toronto: Pergamon Press Canada, 1990.
• Smith, Joan. Misogynies. 1989. Revised 1993.
• World Health Organisation Multi-country Study on Women's Health and Domestic Violence against Women* 2005.

{{Wiktionary}}

{{Wikiquote}}

{{Commons category}}

• [http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft809nb586/ Misogyny, Misandry, and Misanthropy]

{{Discrimination}}

{{Domestic violence}}

{{Sexual abuse}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Gender-related prejudices

Category:Sexism

Category:Feminist terminology

Category:Prejudice and discrimination by type