Misogyny - A Common Malady

As women we’ve been groomed to deem certain feminine characteristics with weakness.

And we grow up thinking “weakness” was what allowed men to dominate and dismiss women. Because of this belief, we fight against it and in the process become more masculine; we take on the roles of the providers, protectors, embracing power, reason and initiative.

I came across this piece in my devotional, and Julie Roys describes it so perfectly, I want to share it with you.

“The word misogyny comes from the Greek misos, meaning “hatred”, and gyne, meaning “woman”. People often use this term quite literally to mean “hatred of women”.

Growing up, we never really considered that women could be misogynists. […] We internalize the misogyny we have received and actually despise and suppress unique feminine aspects in ourselves. We might reject uniquely feminine roles such as motherhood.

Or, we might embrace and value traditionally masculine traits, including power, reason, and initiative, while spurring traditionally feminine ones, such as tenderness, emotion, and intuition. This more subtle form of misogyny manifest as a hatred of the feminine – of what women uniquely contribute and represent. Ironically feminists who are supposed to promote women are some of the worst perpetrators of this type of misogyny.”

Feminism’s is a beast of an ideology. Everything that refers to a woman’s natural instincts, ancestor roles, gender expression, sex and sexuality, the feminists have to get involved. This has to be an issue of division, judgement and “proving” we’re the better sex. And it doesn’t make us more feminine, it further makes us more masculine.

When a movement is created to bring awareness to certain gender inequalities but then goes on to belittle men, defeats the entire purpose of the creation of a movement. Feminism has actually created more division between the sexes; no respect, no support, no love or no appreciation (which is what we really needed).

We are meant to work as a team, both having our own set of qualities.

My mentor always says “equal power but different”, and I could not agree more with this statement.

We were created to compliment each other, not to tear each other down or to prove we are the better gender. The more we re-evaluate our beliefs system as to what it is to be a woman (feminine), and what it is to be a man (masculine).

The better the world will become for it.

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It’s important to look at our own character traits and see if we despise and suppress unique feminine aspects in ourselves. Is there a part in your behavior that have displayed a more subtle form of misogyny?