The Pandemic of Misogyny
By: Marsha Rusli
Edited by: Fayza Rizkita Kania
Misogyny is a deep rooted problem that has been prevalent in our society for a long time. When you believe women are too emotional to be good leaders or that their main purpose in life is to become a mother, you are feeding into the misogyny in society. You are attacking the freedom of others by bullying them.
Firstly, misogyny is the belief that women are inferior to men in various aspects of life, including intellect, physical ability and emotional capacity. It is prevalent in today’s unequal society where women are skeptical and doubtful while men are deemed more credible. It is often driven by a societal construct that reinforces the idea that women should be submissive, obedient and confined to specific gender roles. It can also start at a young age. For example, when fathers work to provide for their families and mothers are stay at home moms.
Not only does misogyny have negative impacts on women but on men too. Toxic masculinity is when men hold other men accountable for their misogynistic attitudes and behavior. It includes the stereotypes that men do not display emotion and are violent. Toxic masculinity relates with misogyny in a way that they both rely on the narrow set of social behaviors associated with manliness.
You may ask, how did misogyny come to be? Well, Anthropologist David D. Gilmore claims that misogyny arises from men’s conflicting feelings. The fact is that the existence of men depends on women for procreation. Men fear women’s power over them. Men need the love, care and comfort of a woman, a need that may make men feel vulnerable.
Sexism and misogyny harm women in many ways. Discrimination does get under people’s skin. With frequent unfair treatment, many women experience poorer mental health. Research has revealed that experiences of sexism leads to a substandard well being, including post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), binge drinking and smoking.
Other than a deteriorating mental health, misogyny can harm women in their jobs and chances at opportunities. Women may be prevented from obtaining senior positions or diverted away into roles that are more ‘feminine’. This leads to a waste of human resources. Moreover, an employee facing gender discrimination decreases their morale and enthusiasm at their workplace. Due to their lower innovation and creativity, the productivity of the organizations will decrease.
A recent example of misogyny in our society is when a teenage girl was allegedly murdered in a cruel stabbing attack in the streets of Delhi, India. The 16-year-old was on the way to attend a birthday party when she was unfortunately stabbed more than 30 times. According to the police, the alleged accused had been in a relationship with her. He had decided to kill her after she tried to end it.
There have been similar incidents a few months prior to this. These experiences have raised the issue of women’s safety in India by men. This shows how the narrow mind of misogynists often leads to increase in crime rates and rape cases. Males may be scared to be perceived as weak or emotional. This distress is related to male violence against women. When males start to think that they have to be tough and fierce, they start to live up to this false claim to produce violence against women.
Nevertheless, although misogyny is not a crime and people are free to admire, love and hate, it is still a vast problem in society due to the detrimental impacts on both men and women. To fix this issue, it has been suggested that a good place to start is to focus on education about misogyny. It is especially important to help adolescents understand the meaning of misogyny and how it affects people in the community as well as how it can lead to fatal effects upon others.