Editing Misogyny (section)

== Feminist theory ==

==="Good" versus "bad" women===

Many feminists have written that the notions of "good" women and "bad" women are imposed upon women in order to control them. Women who are easy to control, or who advocate for their own oppression, may be told they are good. The categories of bad and good also cause fighting among women; [[Helen Lewis (journalist)|Helen Lewis]] identifies this "long tradition of regulating female behaviour by defining women in opposition to one another" as the architecture of misogyny.<ref name="Lewis 2020">{{cite magazine |last=Lewis |first=Helen |date=16 January 2020 |title=Meghan, Kate, and the Architecture of Misogyny |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/01/meghan-markle-kate-middleton-royals-culture-war/604981/ |magazine=The Atlantic |access-date=14 July 2020 |archive-date=20 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230620094044/https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/01/meghan-markle-kate-middleton-royals-culture-war/604981/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:ChimamandaAdichie.jpg|thumb|left|[[Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie]]]]
The ''[[Madonna–whore complex|Madonna–whore]] dichotomy'' or ''virgin/whore dichotomy'' is the perception of women as either good and chaste or as bad and promiscuous. Belief in this [[dichotomy]] leads to misogyny, according to the feminist perspective, because the dichotomy appears to justify policing women's behaviour. Misogynists seek to punish "bad" women for their sexuality.<ref name="The Madonna-Whore Dichotomy Is Asso"/> Author [[Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie]] observes that when women describe being harassed or assaulted (as in the [[#MeToo movement]]) they are viewed as deserving sympathy only if they are "good" women: non-sexual, and perhaps helpless.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Marchese |first=David |date=9 July 2018 |title=Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The novelist on being a "feminist icon," Philip Roth's humanist misogyny, and the sadness in Melania Trump. |url=https://www.vulture.com/2018/07/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-in-conversation.html |magazine=Vulture |publisher=Vox Media |access-date=15 July 2020 |archive-date=17 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200717084849/https://www.vulture.com/2018/07/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-in-conversation.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

In her 1974 book ''[[Woman Hating]]'', [[Andrea Dworkin]] uses traditional [[fairy tales]] to illustrate misogyny. Fairy tales designate certain women as "good", for example [[Sleeping Beauty]] and [[Snow White]], who are inert, passive characters. Dworkin observed that these characters "never think, act, initiate, confront, resist, challenge, feel, care, or question. Sometimes they are forced to do housework." In contrast, the "evil" women who populate fairy tales are queens, witches, and other women with power. Further, men in fairy tales are said to be good kings and good husbands irrespective of their actions. For Dworkin, this illustrates that under misogyny only powerless women are allowed to be seen as good. No similar judgement is applied to men.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dworkin |first=Andria |author-link=Andrea Dworkin |date=1974 |title=Woman Hating |url=https://www.feministes-radicales.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Andrea-DWORKIN-Woman-Hating-A-Radical-Look-at-Sexuality-1974.pdf |location=New York |publisher=Penguin Group |isbn=978-0-525-47423-4 |access-date=14 July 2020 |archive-date=29 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230729122949/https://www.feministes-radicales.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Andrea-DWORKIN-Woman-Hating-A-Radical-Look-at-Sexuality-1974.pdf |url-status=dead}}
* For an interpretation, see: {{cite web |url=https://feminisminindia.com/2019/07/12/woman-hating-andrea-dworkin/ |title=Book Review: Woman Hating By Andrea Dworkin |last=Gupta |first=Shivangi |date=12 July 2019 |website=Feminism in India |publisher=FII Media Private Limited |access-date=14 July 2020 |archive-date=24 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200924022755/https://feminisminindia.com/2019/07/12/woman-hating-andrea-dworkin/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Dworkin_on_After_Dark.JPG|thumb|[[Andrea Dworkin]]]]
In her book ''[[Andrea Dworkin#Right-Wing Women|Right-Wing Women]]'', Dworkin adds that powerful women are tolerated by misogynists provided women use their power to reinforce the power of men and to oppose feminism. Dworkin gives [[Phyllis Schlafly]] and [[Anita Bryant]] as examples of powerful women tolerated by [[Antifeminism|anti-feminists]] only because they advocated for their own oppression. Women may even be worshipped or called superior to men if they are sufficiently "good", meaning obedient or inert.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dworkin |first=Andria |author-link=Andrea Dworkin |date=1983 |title=Right-Wing Women |url=https://archive.org/details/rightwingwomen00dwor/mode/1up?view=theater |location=New York |publisher=Perigee Books |isbn=978-0-399-50671-0 |url-access=registration}}</ref>

Philosopher [[Kate Manne]] argues that the word "misogyny" as used by modern feminists denotes not a generalised hatred of women, but instead the system of distinguishing good from bad women. Misogyny is like a police force, Manne writes, that rewards or punishes women based on these judgements.<ref name="Manne2019" />{{rp|79}}

===Patriarchal bargain===

In the late 20th century, [[second-wave feminism|second-wave feminist]] theorists argued that misogyny is both a cause and a result of [[Patriarchy|patriarchal]] [[social structure]]s.<ref>E.g., Kate Millet's ''Sexual Politics'', adapted from her doctoral dissertation is normally cited as the originator of this viewpoint; though Katharine M Rogers had also published similar ideas previously.</ref>

Economist [[Deniz Kandiyoti]] has written that [[colonialism|colonisers]] of the Middle East, Africa, and Asia kept conquered armies of men under control by offering them complete power over women. She calls this the "patriarchal bargain". Men who were interested in accepting the bargain were promoted to leadership by colonial powers, causing the colonised societies to become more misogynistic.<ref name="Fisher 2012">{{cite magazine |last=Fisher |first=Max |date=25 April 2012 |title=The Real Roots of Sexism in the Middle East (It's Not Islam, Race, or 'Hate') |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/04/the-real-roots-of-sexism-in-the-middle-east-its-not-islam-race-or-hate/256362/ |magazine=The Atlantic |access-date=14 July 2020 |archive-date=30 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230730082003/https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/04/the-real-roots-of-sexism-in-the-middle-east-its-not-islam-race-or-hate/256362/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

===Contempt for the feminine===
[[Julia Serano]] defines misogyny as not only hatred of women per se, but the "tendency to dismiss and deride femaleness and femininity." In this view, misogyny also causes [[homophobia]] against gay men because gay men are stereotyped as feminine and weak; misogyny likewise causes anxiety among straight men that they will be seen as unmanly.<ref name="Berlatsky 2014">{{cite magazine |last=Berlatsky |first=Noah |date=June 5, 2014 |title=Can Men Really Be Feminists? |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/06/men-can-be-feminists-too/372234/ |magazine=The Atlantic |access-date=July 14, 2020 |archive-date=30 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230730082004/https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/06/men-can-be-feminists-too/372234/ |url-status=live}}</ref> Serano's book ''[[Whipping Girl]]'' argues that most anti-trans sentiment directed at [[trans women]] should be understood as misogyny. By embracing femininity, the book argues, trans women cast doubt on the superiority of masculinity.<ref>{{cite book |last=Serano |first=Julia |author-link=Julia Serano |date=2007 |title=Whipping Girl |location=Berkeley |publisher=Seal Press |page=15 |isbn=978-1-58005-154-5}}</ref>

[[File:Jean-Léon Gérôme, Pygmalion and Galatea, ca. 1890.jpg|thumb|right|[[Jean-Léon Gérôme]], ''Pygmalion and Galatea'', c. 1890]]
Culture rewards traits that are considered masculine and devalues traits that seem feminine, according to Tracy M. Hallstead at [[Quinnipiac University]]. From childhood, boys and men are told to "man up" to appear tough by distancing themselves from feminine things. Boys learn that it is shameful to be seen as emotional, dependent, or vulnerable. Men raised in this way may disown femininity and may even learn to despise it. In this view, misogyny is directed not only at women, but at any feminine qualities that men see within themselves.<ref name="Hallstead2013">{{cite book |last=Hallstead |first=Tracy M. |date=2013 |title=Pygmalion's Chisel: For Women Who Are "Never Good Enough" |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |pages=16–18 |isbn=978-1-4438-4884-8}}</ref>

This contempt for the feminine causes men feel that they must assert their dominance over women by controlling them, Hallstead writes. She illustrates this with the ancient story of [[Pygmalion (mythology)|Pygmalion]], a sculptor who hated "the faults beyond measure which nature has given to women."<ref>{{cite book |last=Hamilton |first=Edith |author-link=Edith Hamilton |date=June 1953 |title=Mythology |url=https://4.files.edl.io/2de7/05/18/18/235210-d49a73bb-318a-4250-81b6-cf80f1741ada.pdf |location=Calcutta |publisher=Tridibesh Basu |page=108 |access-date=13 June 2021 |archive-date=9 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230309015332/https://4.files.edl.io/2de7/05/18/18/235210-d49a73bb-318a-4250-81b6-cf80f1741ada.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref> Pygmalion creates a sculpture of a woman that magically comes alive. Pygmalion is very gratified by the complete control he has over the woman, [[Galatea (mythology)|Galatea]], because this control re-enforces his masculinity. He considers Galatea the perfect woman, in spite of his contempt for women, because of his absolute power over her.<ref name="Hallstead2013" />