Editing Misandry (section)

=== Modern literature ===

Sociologist Anthony Synnott argues that there is a tendency in literature to represent men as villains and women as victims and argues that there is a market for "anti-male" novels with no corresponding "anti-female" market, citing ''[[The Women's Room]]'', by [[Marilyn French]], and ''[[The Color Purple]]'', by [[Alice Walker]]. He gives examples of comparisons of men to Nazi prison guards as a common theme in literature.<ref name="Synnott 2016">{{Cite book |last=Synnott |first=Anthony |title=Re-Thinking Men: Heroes, Villains and Victims |date=2016 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=978-1-317-06393-3 |language=en |doi=10.4324/9781315606132}}</ref>{{Rp|156}}

Racialized misandry occurs in both "high" and "low" culture and literature. For instance, [[African-American]] men have often been disparagingly portrayed as either infantile or as eroticized and hyper-masculine, depending on prevailing cultural stereotypes.{{r|Ouellette 2007}}

Julie M. Thompson, a [[feminist]] author, connects misandry with envy of men, in particular "[[penis envy]]", a term coined by [[Sigmund Freud]] in 1908, in his theory of female sexual development.<ref>
Emphasis added. {{cite book |first=Julie M. |last=Thompson |title=Mommy Queerest: Contemporary Rhetorics of Lesbian Maternal Identity |publisher=University of Massachusetts Press |location=Amherst |date=2002 |isbn=978-1-55849-355-1}}</ref> Nancy Kang has discussed "the misandric impulse" in relation to the works of [[Toni Morrison]].<ref>{{cite journal |first=N. |last=Kang |title=To Love and Be Loved: Considering Black Masculinity and the Misandric Impulse in Toni Morrison's 'Beloved' |journal=Callaloo |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=836–854 |date=2003 |doi=10.1353/cal.2003.0092 |jstor=3300729 |s2cid=143786756 |issn=1080-6512}}</ref>

In his book, ''Gender and Judaism: The Transformation of Tradition'', [[Harry Brod]], a Professor of Philosophy and Humanities in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the [[University of Northern Iowa]], writes:<ref>{{cite book |first=Harry |last=Brod |chapter=19. Of Mice and Supermen: Images of Jewish Masculinity |title=Gender and Judaism: The Transformation of Tradition |publisher=New York University Press |editor-first=Tamar |editor-last=Rudavsky |date=1995 |isbn=978-0-8147-7453-3 |pages=279–294}}</ref>

{{blockquote|In the introduction to ''The Great Comic Book Heroes'', Jules Feiffer writes that this is Superman's joke on the rest of us. Clark is Superman's vision of what other men are really like. We are scared, incompetent, and powerless, particularly around women. Though Feiffer took the joke good-naturedly, a more cynical response would see here the Kryptonian's misanthropy, his misandry embodied in Clark and his misogyny in his wish that Lois be enamored of Clark (much like Oberon takes out hostility toward Titania by having her fall in love with an ass in Shakespeare's ''Midsummer-Night's Dream'').}}

In 2020, the explicitly misandric essay ''[[Moi les hommes, je les déteste]]'' (''I Hate Men'') by the French writer [[Pauline Harmange]] caused controversy in France after a government official threatened its publisher with criminal prosecution.<ref name="Flood 2020">{{Cite news |last=Flood |first=Alison |date=8 September 2020 |title=French book I Hate Men sees sales boom after government adviser calls for ban |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/sep/08/french-book-i-hate-men-sees-sales-boom-after-government-adviser-calls-for-ban-pauline-harmange |access-date=10 September 2020 |issn=0261-3077 |archive-date=3 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240803144704/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/sep/08/french-book-i-hate-men-sees-sales-boom-after-government-adviser-calls-for-ban-pauline-harmange |url-status=live}}</ref>