{"id":1140,"date":"2016-12-22T19:53:54","date_gmt":"2016-12-22T23:53:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/annelitwin.com\/?p=1140"},"modified":"2016-12-22T19:53:54","modified_gmt":"2016-12-22T23:53:54","slug":"misogyny-new-word-old-meaning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/uncategorized\/misogyny-new-word-old-meaning\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Misogyny? A New Word with an Old Meaning"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t Image courtesy of pixabay.com.[\/caption]\nI have been designing and facilitating women\u2019s leadership-development programs for more than twenty-five years, and I always include a segment on misogyny.\u00a0 I begin by asking for participants to raise their hands if they have heard the term misogyny<\/em> before\u2014usually no one has, until this year.\u00a0 This fall, when I asked the question, almost every woman in the audience raised her hand and knew the definition:\u00a0 having or showing a hatred or distrust of women.\u00a0 The women in my most recent program were from the whole spectrum of political ideologies, but this year\u2019s election campaign elevated both the term misogyny<\/em> (which is not really a new word but had almost disappeared from use) and awareness of the behaviors associated with it to the level of national discourse.\u00a0 Misogyny has always been with us, but we often didn\u2019t see it, had become numb to it, or did not have a name for it.\u00a0 This election campaign brought misogynistic attitudes and behaviors to the surface and out in the open.\nIt\u2019s also possible that some misogynistic behaviors are increasing because of the campaign rhetoric.\u00a0 As an example, Ginia Bellafante of the New York Times<\/em><\/a> reports that in September of this year, six women, each walking separately in midtown Manhattan in the early evening hours, were approached by young men who tried to light them on fire. Only females were targeted in these attacks.\u00a0 Bellafante suggests that Donald Trump\u2019s campaign inflicted damage on our culture by bringing to the surface male rage.\u00a0 It has always been there, somewhat hidden, but may have been unleashed.\u00a0 She reports that the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups, discovered during the past four years a \u201cdark world of woman hatred\u201d in online forums that denigrate and condemn women as liars, cheaters, whores and social cancers\u201d and advocate their imprisonment and collective rape.\u00a0 Remember the phrases liar<\/em> and lock her up<\/em> during the campaign?\u00a0 These phrases were not created by Donald Trump just for Hillary Clinton.\u00a0 The Southern Poverty Law Center reports that for \u201cthe radical right in recent years, misogyny has become an increasingly common means of articulating broader discontent.\u201d\nThis is quite a serious matter.\u00a0 Here are some other examples of misogyny in the United States today:\n\n\n