Comments on misogyny and homophobia

Danger lurks in the two-valued orientation. I learned that long ago in a class on general semantics, and I still believe it. Individuals and groups find it much easier to excuse their own cruel practices when their worldview is one of “us” versus “them”. “You’re one of us, or you’re the enemy” appeals to the dogmatic and the simple-minded.

While researching my newly published historical novel, WOMEN OF MAGDALENE, I focused on the misogyny rampant in the 19th century medical establishment and the sexism and racism present in the post-Civil War South. Recently, I added to my understanding of those subjects by reading Jack Holland’s brilliant book, MISOGYNY: THE WORLD’S OLDEST PREJUDICE. Holland presents a sweeping survey of the history of man’s contempt for woman and an insightful analysis of the prejudice’s complex origins and manifestations in society, religion, professions, and politics.

Holland reminds readers of Aristotelian ideas that became the foundation of much misogynistic thought: that women were incomplete men (fetal failures) and that a man’s sperm contained everything necessary to create a new human being except the environment for growth provided by the female receptacle, the womb. In ancient times, men lived in blissful harmony, close to the gods or God, until the curious Pandoras and Eves entered the world—or entered mythology—and brought men down to earth, with lust and pain, birth and death.

When I hear the vitriol that misogynists have and do direct at women echoed in that which homophobes direct at homosexuals, I see a pattern in oppression. Those who set themselves as the standard against which all others are measured find it easy enough to label the others as inferior, perhaps as subhuman. Sometimes the standard bearers brand the others as sinful, sometimes as criminal, sometimes as diseased. In any case, one group tells the other: “Don’t be who you are; be who we decide you should be.”

The dangers of “this or that”, “for or against” persist. When a single powerful group tries to define what is normal or acceptable behavior for others (for example, for women, gays, members of other races or ethnic groups), those in power just might get the definition wrong. As philosophy professor Garret Merriam notes: “the modern worldview in which women are equal to men, and homosexuals are equal to heterosexuals, is a profound threat to the traditional Western view of social norms . . . that has not gone unanswered by the conservative forces in society.” The fair-minded Jack Holland has answered those forces back: “equality is not derived from any theory of human nature but rather from concepts of justice, equality and the integrity of the individual based on philosophical and political principles that we have evolved since the Enlightenment.”

Rosemary Poole-Carter, author of WOMEN OF MAGDALENE, ISBN-13:978-1-60164-014-7