Mr. Blissed wrote:Misogyny and its derivatives, has at its core one purpose. To devalue, and thereby disempower human beings. In the process hierarchical classes are created and the destruction of the person, or segment of society is rationalized and reinforced. Pit people against one another and you can get away with murder.
What amazes me, is that so many people do not see the core concept. We can all agree that Apartheid is horrendous in practice and concept. Yet, here we are, with some actually debating whether misogyny actually exists.-you bet it does, in both gross and subtle ways.
The real core question is: How can we best use our energies to effectively and with empowerment help bring an end to the division and classification of people? It would be nice to see a day, where the concept of "social classification" is utterly unimaginable.
You see, I don't see any of that as misogyny. People here have a funny way of using words, which reduces them to having no real meaning. A patriarchy can be bad for men, even bad for most men, misogyny can have a more negative effect on men, what most people think of as capitalism can secretly be an inevitable result of the nebulous patriarchy. Seemingly any intellectual contortions are acceptable if it allows one to continue using the feminist buzzwords of misogyny and patriarchy.
Now, I'm not saying misogyny doesn't exist. Maybe on aggregate it doesn't exist, being outweighed by misandry or philogyny, but that's like having a thousand pounds in your hand, negative two thousand in the bank account and saying that your money doesn't exist. I think, however, that misogyny should have a nice solid definition if we're going to be talking about it, and amazingly we still haven't got one after all this time and all these words. But, for example, insulting a man for having long hair isn't an example of it, as far as I'm concerned.
Misogyny should be what it says on the tin, not just a way for people to lay a claim to an issue. Patriarchy is, or would be, I'd say, a political system which benefits men as a class over women as a class, and ideally this should be both intentional and explicit (well, fathers, literally). Misogyny is the hatred of women. When you announce that an issue is down to misogyny, whether you intend to or not, you lay claim to it. You stamp upon it "this is a women's issue" in big red letters. If a man is attacked or insulted for having long hair or for actually being effete, that's labeled as misogynist, as a women's issue, it's like saying there might have been some incidental suffering but it's women who are the real victims. And that's happened again and again on this thread. If women supposedly get paid less, that's misogyny. If men can't find employment, if it's even true (with a snide nudge and wink), well that's down the misogyny too, and hatred of women must be bad for everyone. If women get harassed in the street, that's misogyny, if men get attacked in the street, that's misogyny too, and therefore men's suffering is really all about women. If women get paid less in a job, that's misogyny, if men can't get into "female" professions, if it's even true, that's misogyny too. You claim these issues as feminist issues, try to claim the support for addressing them for your cause. It's insulting, it's patronising.
So I get quite annoyed, hearing about validating and all that sort of stuff, when any problem which doesn't apparently fit the prevailing misogyny narrative is dismissed as possibly a lie, probably not a problem and at most just another aspect of the all-pervasive anti-women nature of society, which happens to have accidentally affected you damn oppressors who normally benefit from it.
Obviously coming here and being told I secretly run the world, and that I shouldn't expect the luxury of complaining as well as secretly ruling the world, and that I'm incapable of listening, and that I share responsibility for all the ills in the world based on the genitals I was born with, all in the last couple of days, that doesn't help. But I suppose to some people that's just the sinister nature of misogyny, it's tricky like that, it might disguise itself as blatant hatred of men embraced by the powerful, but it's secretly hatred of women.
And the comparison to Apartheid is awful, as if women are denied the vote and put in prison for protesting their equality. "APARTHEID, really?"
Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that all was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, and make it possible. -- Lawrence of Arabia
