The anti-male chauvinism
You would think that humankind has evolved into a new understanding about the role that women play in society – they are not just mothers, cooks and cleaners at home for the amusement of their husbands.
Leandi Cameron
leandic@caxton.co.za
This also pertains to their role regarding important issues, but unfortunately it seems women still suffer under the misguided woes of misogyny.
This is a delicate subject matter that has sparked the rise of feminism and various other societies dedicated specifically to the needs of women. Every day women are subjected to misogyny, sometimes not even realising it and that they have a say in the matter.
It is a fact that women are paid less than men in the business world and, when a promotion comes up, the man will most probably scoop the cushy seat.
This is by no means a slam at the male gender, as that would be doing exactly what men have been doing to women for centuries, but rather a call for attention on a social illness that still goes unseen in our society.
Misogyny comes from Greek misogunia from misos (hatred) and gyne (woman).
Misogyny in literature dates back as far as documentation allows, first being coined in the 17th century.
However, misogyny isn’t just about the hatred of women, but the insubordination, mistreatment and maligning of women.
Misogyny was introduced to language by Joseph Swetnam, in 1615, in a blatant attack on women, in a book titled The Arraignment of Lewde, idle, froward, and unconstant women: Or, The vanitie of them, choose you whether.
Thomas Edison uttered the words: “Direct thought is not an attribute of femininity. In this, women are now centuries behind man”; the Buddha said: “The mind of woman is easily misled. She yields to her desires and surrenders to jealousy more easily than a man. Therefore it is difficult for a woman to follow the Noble Path”.
Napoleon spewed: “Women are nothing but machines for producing children”; and Aristotle unthinkably announced: “The male is by nature superior, and the female inferior; and the one rules, and the other is ruled.”
These are mere examples. Even in art women were forgotten. Name one woman who was world-acclaimed since the 15th century and celebrated as a master of the craft?
But we all know who Leonardo da Vinci, Salvador Dali, Jean Michel Basquiat, Pablo Picasso, Henry Matisse, Rembrandt van Rijn, Vincent van Gogh and Rafael, to name a few, are.
What has raised my interest in this subject matter is the recent long thought out plan by a 22-year-old student, Elliot Rodgers, in California, US, who went on a killing-spree, killing seven (including himself) and injuring 13 others.
Rodgers sent a 141-page chronicle, called My Twisted World: The Story of Elliot Rodger, to about 30 people, at least 13 minutes before he started his shooting rampage.
This was no ordinary killing spree, but one motivated by a pure hate for women.
Rodger spent his time playing World of Warcraft online, and watching television series such as Game of Thrones.
In his memoir, from page 81, he wrote: “I was desperate to have the life I know I deserve; a life of being wanted by attractive girls, a life of sex and love. Other men are able to have such a life… so why not me? I deserve it! I am magnificent, no matter how much the world treated me otherwise. I am destined for great things.”
On page 82 he wrote: “It was society’s fault for rejecting me. It was women’s fault for refusing to have sex with me.”
He continued on page 117: “I concluded that women are flawed. There is something mentally wrong with the way their brains are wired, as if they haven’t evolved from animal-like thinking. They are incapable of reason or thinking rationally. They are like animals, completely controlled by their primal, depraved emotions and impulses. That is why they are attracted to barbaric, animal-like men. They are beasts themselves. Beasts should not be able to have rights in a civilized society.”
And so he continues in his writing, which further declines into an abyss of hatred towards women.
But this troubled young man is only one part of a degradation of society, back to the middle ages, of how women were treated, but by disguising it as “entertainment” or “religion”.
Television shows love to use the shock value where women is concerned to attract viewership, such as Game of Thrones, attracting a lot of attention towards the depiction of women.
This is not about this medieval-style show, where such things were rife, but in terms of the modern viewer’s experience. Scenes within shows such as this are seen as not only sexist, but misogynist – many of these scenes do not even appear within the books by the same name, and many conclude that this is mere exploitation.
Women are sadly still being treated differently, in many religions, societies and cultures.
In order to aid society in changing its perceptive regarding women, you get short films such as Oppressed Majority, directed by Eléonore Pourriat. It was made to help show men what being a woman feels like.
But what makes this film so profound, is how it graphically changes the roles of men into women and women into men, using scenes from reality to make its statement of how men would feel if they were women.
In the film, song lyrics ring true: “Like a boy I’ve got long hair, I wear a leather jacket, a locket and a wide belt, like a boy, like a boy, I’m obstinate I’m hotheaded, watch out, like a boy, and yet, I’m just a girl, and when you take me in your arms, oppressed majority, I’m just a little girl, I’m lost when you’re not around.”
To watch this eye-opening video (note, adults only), Click Here. – @BoksburgNews
Well done Leandi as always for writing this wonderful balanced piece, which is an eye opener for us. I do not have solutions on how we can reach a state where we treat women as our equals. As a start, can we stop teaching our girls to be subservient and teach our boys when they are young to do chores and stop referring to girls as cherries. It is time that some men redeem themselves from their chauvinistic tendencies and treat our women well.