Ah, Faithful Readers. I feel that this is an important topic for me to address, because though this blog is largely in the genre I'm calling FEMINIST RAGE (yes, the caps are necessary!) I feel that I should say a few things about misandry, as well.
That being said, I am pretty much not a misandrist. Sexism in all its forms pisses me off. The phrase "It's a guy thing" pisses me off as much as "it's a girl thing." It just happens that sexism toward females is more degrading and threatening than that toward males, which is often just insulting and dumb. (NOTE: This is a matter of opinion and experience, not scientific fact. I am aware that there is degrading and threatening sexism toward males, however it is not as ubiquitous.)
I'm not going to say "I love men!" because that sounds so condescending. It sounds condescending when it's a man talking about women, and it sounds condescending when it's a woman talking about men.
I acknowledge that there are physical, physiological, and psychological differences between men and women. I also acknowledge that this does not make one sex "better" than the other. The differences between the sexes are just like the differences between individuals--One may be better than another AT A THING, or even AT MANY THINGS, but it does not make that person BETTER than the other.
I understand that some feminists do hate men. And while I won't say that that's fair or right, some of them have good reasons. When one is treated poorly by one or many members of any group (Be it religious, ethnic, corporate, or gender) for an extended period of time, one begins to mistrust or dislike anyone associated with that group.
Many, though not all, feminists are victims of abuse of any sort, and that brings their attention to the fact that many other women have been subjected to that same abuse. They feel the call to stop it, or fight against it.
Eventually their passion can turn to vitriol as they hear more and more stories of abuse at the hands of men. I don't feel what they feel, but I can sympathize with it. In the same way, I'm certain not all Germans during WWII were bad, but very few people called out against hating Germans as a whole.
No, I'm not saying that sexism is as bad as the Holocaust. Please don't twist my words. It's just an example of widespread hatred that I'm sure many people in that particular group did not deserve. What I'm saying is that it's easy to develop a hatred of someone when all you see is their bad side.
There are, of course, also some excellent and similar reasons for misogyny. It is far from unheard of for women to abuse men verbally, emotionally, mentally, physically, or sexually. It is every bit as terrible for a man to be victimized as it is for a woman. In some ways, it could possibly be considered worse, as there is somehow MORE stigma attached to a man reporting abuse from a woman as there is for the other way around.
My point is: I tackle misogyny because it's much more prominent in my life. I acknowledge that misandry exists. I acknowledge that there may be very good psychological reasons for that, but do not defend it. I do not think it's right. There are also some excellent phychological reasons for misogyny that I acknowledge, but do not defend.
At the end of the day, we are all responsible for our attitudes and the way we treat our fellow humans, and to treat them poorly is beyond defense.
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