Misogyny: The Male Malady

by David D. Gilmore

"Yes, women are the greatest evil Zeus has made, and men are bound to them hand and foot with impossible knots by God."—Semonides, seventh century B.C. Men put women on a pedestal to worship them from afar—and to take better aim at them for the purpose of derision. Why is this paradoxical response to women so widespread, so far-reaching, so all-pervasive? Misogyny, David D. Gilmore suggests, is best described as a male malady, as it has always been a characteristic shared by human societies throughout the world. The Male Malady is a comprehensive historical and anthropological survey of woman-hating that casts new light on this age-old bias. The turmoil of masculinity and the ugliness of misogyny have been well documented in different cultures, but Gilmore's synoptic approach identifies misogyny in a variety of human experiences outside of sex and marriage and makes a fresh and enlightening contribution toward understanding this phenomenon. Gilmore maintains that misogyny is so widespread and so pervasive among men that it must be at least partly psychogenic in origin, a result of identical experiences in the male developmental cycle, rather than caused by the environment alone. Presenting a wealth of compelling examples—from the jungles of New Guinea to the boardrooms of corporate America—Gilmore shows that misogynistic practices occur in hauntingly identical forms. He asserts that these deep and abiding male anxieties stem from unresolved conflicts between men's intense need for and dependence upon women and their equally intense fear of that dependence. However, misogyny, according to Gilmore, is also often supported and intensified by certain cultural realities, such as patrilineal social organization; kinship ideologies that favor fraternal solidarity over conjugal unity; chronic warfare, feuding, or other forms of intergroup violence; and religious orthodoxy or asceticism. Gilmore is in the end able to offer steps toward the discovery of antidotes to this irrational but global prejudice, providing an opportunity for a lasting cure to misogyny and its manifestations.

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, History, Anthropology, Sociology, Gender

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Kaleb · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first half of the book is Gilmore arguing that misogyny is a feature of all societies. Preindustrial, capitalist, Christian, Buddhism, Middle Ages, and post-Enlightenment, all societies have had an irrational disgust or fear of women. This includes disgust/stigma on menstruation & and the vagina, portraying women as temptresses/dishonest, and viewing women as less intelligent than men.

Some people think misogyny is caused by certain social structures, but Gilmore argues that misogyny is too universal to be caused by any one kind of society. Of course, certain social structures make misogyny worse, but they only exacerbate the misogyny that's already there, they don't create it. For example, tribes in Melanesia and the Amazon normally marry women from competing clans they often go to war with. So whenever there's a war, they view women with distrust, because they believe women will be loyal to the tribe of their birth family, not their husbands. As a result, these societies are probably the most misogynistic in the world.

But, strangely, a lot of these misogynistic societies have a reverence for women, and men who are misogynistic are the same men who depend on women sexually, to raise their children, and to cook for/nurture them. So ( the argument goes) misogyny comes out of this ambivalence towards women. On one hand, men desperately need and depend on women, and on the other hand, they resent and hate this dependence as a threat to their freedom and autonomy.

Another theory is the regression hypothesis. Men have an unconscious desire to go back to infancy, with its complete lack of difficulties and endless resources. At the same time, masculinity means leaving this world behind, so men experience a tension between their desire to grow up and their unconscious desire to go back to infancy.

The other big theory is that men sexually desire women, but all societies place restrictions on male sexuality, and this tension between sexual desire and social restrictions on sex lead to misogyny. Women are hated for being the objects of sexual desire. Finally there are Oedipal theories explaining misogyny, but I don’t really understand those.

Obviously, Gilmore is trained in psychoanalysis and that makes up the bulk of his analysis towards explaining misogyny. I don’t know anything about psychoanalysis, but these theories are interesting, I feel like they could be correct. At the same time, trying to figure out the cause of misogyny seems like a very difficult, complex project, so I don’t imagine he has all the answers in this book.


3.75 bc it got pretty repetitive at times

Quotes

“Analyzed comparatively and in context, misogyny therefore seems more and more a response to man’s limitless responses to his own mixed feelings about woman as lover, wife, and mother rather than a simple negative reaction to the sexual “other” or an attempt to politically dominate women. Misogyny, like most prejudices, is, in the end, a symptom of a wide-ranging inner struggle, an effort to relieve massive self-doubt through scapegoating. ”

[Maher Razouk · Rating 5 out of 5]

لا نبالغ إذا قلنا إن أعظم هوس في التاريخ كان هو هوس الرجل بجسد المرأة. فمنذ أقدم العصور كان الرجال يبالغون في مدح جسد المرأة وتشهد أقدم الأعمال الفنية التمثيلية المعروفة، وهي "فينوس" الأوروبية - وهي عبارة عن تماثيل حجرية صغيرة لنساء شهوانيات بثديين ضخمين متدليين وفرج متضخم بشكل غريب - على قدم هذا الهوس.

ولكن جسد المرأة ليس مجرد شيء جنسي أو نموذج للجمال والخصوبة بل هو أيضاً الموطن الأول للرجل. فالرحم هو الأصل والجسد الأنثوي يأوي الجنين، ويغذي الرضيع، ويأوي الطفل الصغير، ويغذي الشاب، ويواسي الرجل ، ويعزيه في النهاية. إن جسد المرأة لا يعطي الحياة والشكل للرجل طوال حياته فحسب، بل إنه ينتج أيضاً ذريته، أبنائه الذين يحملون اسمه، وينشرون جيناته، ويضمنون له قدراً ضئيلاً من الخلود. إن جسد المرأة هو جسد الأم والحبيبة والزوجة والابنة، والصديقة والمعينة، والمشرفة التي تمنح الرجل أشد مُتعه، وتطفئ شهواته الجامحة، وتشبع أعمق احتياجاته الغريزية.

إن انبهار الرجل بجسد المرأة هو نتاج لعدم توازن مزيج معين من الحالات العاطفية التي تتسم بعدم الاستقرار الديناميكي وعدم القدرة على التوافق. إن هذا الخليط من المشاعر مستقطب إلى درجة متطرفة ودرامية بين الرغبة والنفور، ولا يوجد أي منهما بدون الآخر، فكما يحب الرجل ويرغب، فهو يخاف أيضاً من جسد المرأة ولا يثق فيه لأن مرغوب للغاية وممتع للغاية، فيخشى الرجل بشكل خاص القوة الحاسمة التي يمارسها جسد المرأة عليه، وقدرته الهائلة على إثارة مشاعر لا يمكن السيطرة عليها لدرجة أن إحباطه يَعد بقدر كبير من الألم كما يَعد إشباعه بالمتعة.

جسد المرأة هو أكثر مصادر إحباطات الرجل حزناً. ومن دون أي تقصد ذلك، فإن المرأة هي سبب أعظم خيبات أمله وسبب أسوأ شعور بالخزي والذنب وبالتالي بالنسبة للعديد من الرجال، فإن جسد المرأة لا يلهم الرغبة فحسب، بل ويثير القلق والشك الذاتي والغضب والرعب. وفي بعض حالات الشعوب ما قبل الصناعية، تتجسد هذه المشاعر السلبية تجاه جسد المرأة في الأوهام السحرية، والرهاب، والطقوس الغربية.
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David-D-Gilmor
Misogyny
Translated By #Maher_Razouk

[Adrianna]

Ciekawe, rzuca światło na co po niektóre kwestie. Nie idealna, ale robi bardzo wiele

[Scarlett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I need to research this topic more, but this book was a good starting point.

[Anna Pervukhin Sammons · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book contained some amusing anecdotes about primitive tribes in Papua New Guinea