Misogyny: the hatred of women.
The word sounds as twisted as its definition.
Mi-soj-uh-nee.
It took me a long time to learn how to pronounce that word.
And it has taken me even longer to realize how pervasive misogyny is throughout the world. From ancient times to today.
The Greek philospher, Aristotle, wrote that a female is an incomplete male, or "as it were, a deformity."
Through my research, writing, and editing for Safe World for Women, a global women’s rights and advocacy organization which campaigns for the rights of women and girls, I find endless evidence of abuses and injustices against women and girls.
Why?
Why is there such a strong tradition of preferring sons over daughters in many parts of the world? Many researchers in the field of gender discrimination would tell you it's economic: that sons usually are the breadwinners and thus, care-takers of their parents in old-age. That daughters are considered an economic burden by their families.
Or that sons are needed to carry on the family name and are the rightful offspring who deserve to inherit property and finances.
That may be true, in practical terms. But is there a deeper reason for such gender discrimination? It's easy to say economics is the reason.
Let's get down to the nitty gritty: people still do not like or trust women. They may even hate women.
Enough to kill them if the women's families can't fulfill their greedy desires for more dowry, sometimes within days of their wedding. Enough to drive them to commit suicide because the women would rather die than live with daily abuse...because they did not produce a son. Or enough because a daughter was raped, and has thus brought dishonor to the family, so a male member of the family must get rid of her.
Or simply, that they are women.
It doesn't matter what socio-economic background women come from--all are vulnerable. In fact, if women come from affluent backgrounds in some heavily male-preference societies like India, China, and South Korea, the access to technology to determine sex of the fetus can cause more abuse for women.
Pressure to abort female fetuses, denial of medical care or help if the mother chooses to maintain her pregnancy, verbal and physical abuse. No regard for the woman, not least of all her reproductive health.
Verbal and physical abuse.
Hatred manifested.
Toward women.
Why women?
Misogyny?
Or just because we are easy targets: usually physically smaller, and often with fewer resources?
Nearly everyday I read stories about horrible abuse of women: 20-40,000 girls trafficked from Nigeria to Mali; women with their children fleeing for their lives from Somalia--often losing their children, their dignity, or their heads, for "disobeying" the warlord of the day; women and girls from Mexico forced into prostitution--in the United States; thousands of women raped in the Democratic Republic of Congo for more than a decade to the present day.
And no one is stopping this unmitigated hate.
We have international laws, national laws, and state laws which have been put on the books with good intentions. Countless NGO's that work tirelessly to bring relief and hope to those dispossessed and robbed of their dignity.
And yet women are still maltreated in every corner of the world: China, India, Somalia, Mexico. The United States.
What? The USA?
Yes. How can anyone deny there is misogyny in the USA when there is sex trafficking of American teens nationwide, when three women a day die from domestic abuse, when a woman is raped every 90 seconds, when female political candidates of every stripe are crucified and mocked for the most trivial details?
How can anyone deny there is misogyny in the USA when women's reproductive health rights are constantly attacked by those who wish to control them through public policy--or within the medical community, via excess C-sections and unnecessary castrations (hysterectomies) for non life-threatening conditions.
You can give all the excuses in the world for the widespread maltreatment of half of humanity: economic necessity, medical expertise, cultural traditions, war-induced post-traumatic stress syndrome, drug and alcohol abuse...there's probably a bit of truth in all of them.
But dig a little deeper.
Why does the world dislike women so much?
Misogyny is the hatred of women. Hatred is rooted in ignorance.
That is not someplace I ever want to be rooted in.
My heart literally aches when I hear of ANY kind of abuse toward ANY woman or group of women, anywhere in the world.
Ignorance is not bliss when one in three women worldwide experience violence at some point in their lives. When unmitigated hatred runs rampant and steals the dignity and lives of millions of women.
Why should you care?
Because I am speaking of half of humanity. Hatred is a scary and dark emotion that spreads like wildfire, left unchecked.
In the west, we can more easily speak up and call out offenders when they degrade women, or bring them to justice if they have harmed or killed women.
In other parts of the world, where women have many fewer rights due to cultural traditions, despite laws being on the books, I feel that those of us who live in much more fortunate circumstances and who are able and willing to do so, must advocate and raise awareness on their behalf.
And keep on working until justice has been won.
Which may not happen in our lifetimes.
But it is worth fighting for.
I don't want hate and darkness in the world. I want love and lightness.
Call that corny if you will, but I am going to stand up for women's rights and well-being to my last breath.
I am not interested in cutting women down to anything less than the human beings we are.
I am interested in making misogyny a thing of the past.
If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. ~Mother Teresa
