Browse: Home / Misogyny hurting men
By tigtog on April 2, 2008
Here’s an example of misogyny hurting men — because the ultimate put-down of a man is to equate him to a woman. If we fight [for] the idea that being a woman is not something to be sneered at, we not only raise women, but we deprive bullies of one of the most powerful weapons in their arsenal against men.
Emphasis mine.
From Feministe, where Zuzu discusses how the inevitable masculinity slurs used against Democratic candidates have started to be run against Obama.
Posted in gender & feminism, language, media, Politics, social justice | Tagged bigotry, bullies, bullying, masculinity, misogyny, obama |
Article written by tigtog :: (RSS)
tigtog (aka Viv) is the founder of this blog. She lives in Sydney, Australia: husband, 2 kids, cat, house, garden, just enough wine-racks and (sigh) far too few bookshelves.
This author has written 3303 posts for Hoyden About Town. Read more about tigtog »
Huh???
TigTog quotes ZuZu “the ultimate put-down of a man is to equate him to a woman”
I (and I expect many other males) would think that a false assumption by ZuZu, and consider worse put downs to be
* “baby”, “girlie” or the worst….
* [[name the worst form of criminal pervert]]
Dave Bath’s last blog post..Obesity: House Inquiry Announced
Good point Zuzu and Tigtog
zuzu is right – SarahMC doesn’t get it
UT: ??? I think SarahMC gets Zuzu’s point perfectly:
The tool being used to bully men is to call them women, who are inferior. Women’s inferiority is still the primary message.
as wallflower said at Feministe:
Dave:
I’m not a man, so I don’t know personally, but I see men reacting far more strongly to the common feminised insults such as “girlie”, “pussy”, “bitch”, “woman” than they do to “baby”. Aren’t most of the slurs about being gay to do with being penetrated, therefore taking on the woman’s role?
As to criminal perversions such as paedophilia, how commonly are such slurs hurled at the average bloke compared to the everyday “don’t be such a girl/poof” slurs?
TigTog,
You say “but I see men reacting far more strongly to the common feminised insults such as…”
Maybe my background in a just-gone-co-ed-with-no-male-toilets Women’s college (with a Methodist Ladies College scholarship to boot) socialized me and my mates differently. Women ran the student’s coucil and were our best footy players. Our St Hilda’s war cry was “give us C, A” and so on spelling “Carna Lingers”. (I bet you can’t imagine a group of males yelling that out, but it DID happen regularly) Pretty much the same at Janet Clarke Hall and St. Mary’s which had also just started taking males.
We were even joshed about being things like a “Geelong College Old Boy” and a “St Hildas Old Girl”. It was a bit of a giggle, but not insulting.
And then, maybe all the guys I hang around with are civilized.
Dave Bath’s last blog post..Obesity: House Inquiry Announced
Dave Bath – how is being called “girlie” NOT being “equated with a woman”?
And calling a bloke a c*** will still get you clobbered in many situations.
“girlie” is a diminuitive. I’d argue that the more offensive part of this is the association with immaturity (and the petulance that often goes with it) rather than gender. But that’s my opinion.
I suppose it depends on which attributes of your self you most value (and are therefore your “buttons”), and which are less material. Compassion, intelligence and integrity (and the maturity that lets them be put to best use), are the qualities I value, they are human rather than bestial. Question these in me, and I am deeply troubled. Such qualities have no correlation with gender, or indeed, sexual orientation (although I’m sure a number of less nuanced feminists would argue many males lack compassion).
“girlie” is a diminuitive. I’d argue that the more offensive part of this is the association with immaturity (and the petulance that often goes with it) rather than gender.
Then why isn’t “boyo” an insult?
“girlie” is a diminutive. I’d argue that the more offensive part of this is the association with immaturity (and the petulance that often goes with it) rather than gender.
I disagree that this insult is more about immaturity than about gender. You may personally find it more insulting because of the immaturity aspect, but that doesn’t mean pushing your fear-of-immaturity button is the insulter’s first intention with using “girlie” to get your goat. If it were, why wouldn’t the insulter use “short stack” or “youngin’” or “tot” or “my child” or something that is gender-neutral? Oh, right: because it’s a much more effective double-insult to be call a dude “girlie” because it implies a dude has both youthful immaturity as well as feminine irrationality. The feminine denotation is what makes this insult especially poignant.
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