Feminism is *not* a Female Issue (Warning: Misogyny and Violence--not the cheeriest Sunday Listen)

[SorellaLaBefana]

Informative half-hour YT discussion between UK psychologist Previn Karian (whose channel it is) and Chrissie Pollard a UK news presenter.

Do think he dwells on and overly generalises the view of men as basically quite savage beings simply waiting in the darkness for a chance to hurt a woman.

However, this can be taken as reaction to the fact most discussions of misogyny focus on general societal factors, whilst ignoring the solid fact that some/many men do feel superior to women simply because they are able to physically dominate them.

“Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.” Margaret Atwood

Female hate crimes, humiliation, harassment, degradation, rape and murder have been celebrated in cultures and religions for centuries as the acceptable norm. The idea that this might be wrong is a modern one. Hence the word: "misogyny"...

This discussion is a necessary starter on the psychological origins of men's hate and fear of women. Until men confront their own darkness and shadow between themselves, there can be no progress in clearing out the roots of misogyny...

I am a feminist in the sense that I believe women to be simply, and wholly, human.

Not an original thought. Indeed, I read a similarly succinct view of feminism in an interview with an author (possibly Margaret Atwood) many years ago. Sadly, The Google doesn’t find that interview for me this morning.

[camartinwv]

1. Oh these poor, terrified men are to be pitied because they have been emasculated. Horse manure.

They are bullies that hate women because they cannot beat and rape them at will.

[ShazzieB]

4. He didn't say one word about men deserving pity. Not ONE.

I assume you did not watch the video, because if you had, you'd know that was not the message at all. Not even close.

[byronius]

2. Very powerful video.

I was raised by a hostile father who demeaned and damaged women while pretending to deify them. His sisters were both psychotherapists that he demeaned privately. He damaged his family terribly (especially my sister) while pretending to be a noble protector of women.

I hope this changes. It’s a core issue, and Trump is the modern standard bearer of its darkness.

[ShazamIam]

3. That is the first time I have thought of men as being psychologically ill, but I do know a few men who were not, are not

abusive to women. I didn't grow up in an environment where men were physically violent to women and I know my parents forbid my brothers from hitting their sisters even as we argued with each other.
The circle of people who made up my parents friend circles did not include men who abused women. I am grateful for that. I do not consider it to be normal behavior.

[ShazzieB]

5. I agree that #notallmen are abusive to women.

The gentleman in the video expressed the belief that misogyny is inborn, due to the way male brains are wired. If he's right, then I think it follows that, like anything that is inborn in us, it's not expressed the same way or to the same degree in every individual. I would see it as a continuum, from some brains lacking this defect to any discernible degree to some being wired to be extremely misogynistic.

Also, I believe the role models boys grow up with have a big impact. The effects of growing up in a violent home have been studied extensively, and if I'm not mistaken, experts generally agree that there's a lot of evidence that boys who grow up seeing male violence toward women as a regular occurrence are statistically more likely to be violent toward women as men, and girls who grow up witnessing that sort of thing are statistically more likely to expect that kind of behavior from men.

Personally, I think he may be on to something, but I wouldn't take it as far as he does. I don't think ALL men have brains that are miswired in a way that makes them inclined to hate and fear women. Some of them? That I could believe. I could also believe that many men have kinks in their wiring to a lesser extent. But I know for a fact that there are men who would never think of being violent toward women, because I've been married to one for over 50 years.