Modern Misogyny: Anti-Feminism in a Post-Feminist Era

198 Pages·2014·1.52 MB·English

by  Kristin J. Anderson

MODERN MISOGYNY
MODERN MISOGYNY: ANTI-
FEMINISM IN A POST-FEMINIST
ERA
Kristin J. Anderson
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© Kristin J. Anderson 2015
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Anderson, Kristin J., 1967–
Modern misogyny : anti-feminism in a post-feminist era / Kristin J. Anderson.
 pages cm
Includes index.
ISBN 978–0–19–932817–8
eISBN: 978–0–19–932819–2
1. Misogyny. 2. Feminism. I. Title.
HQ1233.A686 2015
305.42—dc23  2014012169
For Alana and Alyssa
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The (Lack of) Significance of Feminism
1. Consumerism, Individualism, and Anti-Activism
2. Post-feminism Post-9/11
3. Manufacturing Man-Hating Feminism
4. The End of Men and the Boy Crisis
5. Women are Wonderful, but Most Are Disliked
6. Is Feminism Good for Women?
Conclusion
Index
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am grateful to many individuals whose generosity made this work possible.
First, I am inestimably indebted to Christina Accomando for her friendship and
her political and intellectual guidance over the past two and a half decades. I am
a better teacher, writer, and activist because of her patience and persistence (and
numerous alliterative suggestions). Over the past two years, it was a consistent
pleasure to work with Sean K. O’Hare, who read the entire manuscript in its
many versions and provided assistance with organization, editing, substantive
suggestions, and superbly snarky comments in the margins. Over the course of
this research and writing, many colleagues provided invaluable feedback on
drafts of chapters: Christina Accomando, Bonnie Field, Melinda Kanner,
Campbell Leaper, Rachael Robnett, Larissa Smith, and Tammis Thomas, all
helped make this a better book. I thank my students at the University of
Houston-Downtown whose meticulous work on this project was vital: Sagrario
Baca, Kevin Farren, Eynar Hernandez, Lisa Ludtke, Christina Matthews, and
Alicia Young. Finally, I am grateful to the following people for their friendship
and support: Travis Crone, Shauna Curtis, Bonnie Field, Alex Rossman, Larissa
Smith, Cindy Stewart, Fran and Kim Watson, and, most especially, Tammis
Thomas.
INTRODUCTION
THE (LACK OF) SIGNIFICANCE OF FEMINISM
A strange phenomenon has accompanied the unprecedented growth of feminist activism around the
globe: the recurrent pronouncement of feminism’s death. From the 1970s through the new millennium,
journalists, academics, and even some feminist scholars have declared the demise of feminism and
hailed the advent of the post-feminist age...Given the vibrancy and the variety of proliferating forms of
feminist theory and practice, why the premature burial of feminism?
1
–MARY HAWKESWORTH, 2004
Pundits, politicians, and the press have been declaring the demise of feminism
since the birth of the women’s movement. The feminist postmortem has become
so predictable that it even has been dubbed by one feminist critic as False
Feminist Death Syndrome. “This pernicious media-borne virus...has popped up
in print and over the airwaves on and off for decades, poisoning public opinion
against the ‘F-word’ (feminism)2 and contaminating our collective
understanding of the history, ideology and goals of the women’s movement.”3
Some commentators describe the state of feminism as “post-feminist,” that
women have come a long way in recent decades and there really is no need for a
continued feminist movement. We see “post-feminist” alongside equally
questionable claims of Barack Obama’s election as U.S. president as signaling a
“postracial” America. The notion here seems to be that because the country has
made so much progress on racial equality, the election of an African American
president signals our arrival into a society that no longer needs antiracist
activism or structural change. As Rinku Sen argues, “Postracialism grows out of
the trope of colorblindness, but is even more aggressive in resisting racial justice
standards. Like post-feminist, it implies not just a destination—a society that
doesn’t use race to judge people—but asserts that we have arrived at that
place.”4 American women have made so much progress, the post-feminist
argument continues, as evidenced by their numbers in the workforce and in
college graduation, surely we have achieved gender equality.
Modern Misogyny examines contemporary sexism and anti-feminism during
what has been described as a post-feminist era in the United States and other
Western countries. This book critically analyzes the notion that the feminist
movement is unnecessary because the work of feminism is complete. From this
point of view, women, regardless of their race, social class, sexual orientation, or
geography, have achieved equality in most meaningful respects. Feminism is
now merely a history lesson. In fact, the argument goes, women have been so
successful in achieving equality, it is now men who are victims of gender
discrimination. These sentiments make up modern misogyny. Contrary to the
claims of the post-feminist punditry, equality has not been achieved. Instead,
sexism is now packaged in a more palatable but stealthy form. This book
addresses the nature, function, and implications of modern misogyny but also
asserts the benefits of a continued feminist movement.
My academic training is in social psychology, and that lens informs the
approach to critiquing the myths of modern misogyny. My area of specialization
examines subtle, contemporary forms of prejudice and discrimination, and social
psychology is particularly well equipped to examine this sort of bias. On the one
hand, overt, explicit, and extreme forms of prejudice and discrimination still
exist. In fact, the number of hate groups in the United States has increased
steadily since the election of President Barack Obama.5 At the same time, much
contemporary prejudice and discrimination is subtle, covert, implicit, and often
nonconscious. Subtle prejudice, or what I have called “benign” bigotry,6 entails
everyday, seemingly innocent slights, comments, overgeneralizations, othering,
and denigration of marginalized groups. Subtle prejudice is insidious because (1)
it can be nonconscious and unintentional, so the perpetrator may not be aware of
engaging in it, (2) due to its subtlety, the target or victim may not notice it as
prejudice, and (3) it can have the veneer of a “positive” stereotype. Stereotypes
about subordinate groups can appear complimentary (e.g., women are nurturing,
Latinos are family-oriented), but even positive stereotypes are harmful because
they rob the person of individuality, they box people into certain behaviors (and,
sometimes, lower-paid jobs), and the person being judged is not seen in
individual terms but in categorical, less accurate, and more exaggerated terms.
At the cultural level, subtle prejudice permeates all corners of society; like the
air we breathe, it is everywhere and we are often unaware that we inhale it.7 In
studying subtle prejudice directed toward ethnic, religious, and sexual
minorities, I have examined its devastating consequences in employment,
education, and the criminal justice system. In this book, I examine misogyny
from the perspective of the theories and research on subtle prejudice. Many
people believe that women as a group are doing just fine, that feminism has run
its course, and that the new victims of sexism are men. This book will
demonstrate otherwise by illuminating manifestations of modern misogyny that
are harder to see than overt sexism.
Personal anecdotes of discrimination are important in terms of honoring
people’s lived experiences, and they can provide vivid and memorable accounts
of discrimination. However, personal reports of discrimination can be dismissed
by skeptics: Maybe you weren’t qualified for the job, maybe your interview
didn’t go well—why would you assume sexism played a role? Maybe your boss
treats everyone badly? The experimental method is a powerful way to study and
detect subtle yet pervasive forms of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination.
Controlled experiments recreate real-life situations in which discrimination is
evidenced often without the perpetrator’s awareness. For instance, if we create
fictitious résumés with standardized qualifications such as education and
experience, attach a woman’s name to some and a man’s name to others, and ask
people to evaluate the qualifications of otherwise comparable job candidates, we
can demonstrate gender discrimination if the participants evaluate the résumés of
one gender less favorably than the other gender. If the only difference in the
résumé is the name at the top, we must conclude that gender discrimination has
occurred, even if the evaluator has not overtly and consciously articulated
sexism. In this book, I rely on the vast experimental data in social and cognitive
psychology to uncover prejudice and discrimination. At the same time, I use
qualitative data in the form of surveys, focus groups, and interviews from
psychology, education, and the humanities, which allow individuals to share
their experiences, feelings, and attitudes in their own voices.
As a field, psychology focuses on individual thinking and behavior—the
micro elements of human phenomena. Psychologists study how people make
sense of their surroundings, how they think, feel, process information, and
behave. But individuals live in a society in which institutions and larger cultural
trends and tropes shape their thinking and behavior. There are several important
books that address contemporary anti-feminism and sexism that focus on these
larger macro issues such as politics, prisons, schools, and popular culture. I
utilize some of these works here. One aspect of contemporary misogyny that has
been missing from some of the recent work in this area is the link between the
cultural and social with the individual. For instance, neoliberal political trends
became popular in the United States and the United Kingdom in the 1980s and
emphasize individualism, consumerism, and personal responsibility. We see this
same rhetoric in individuals’ descriptions of themselves as they describe having
myriad choices and as being ultimately responsible for their successes and
failures, even those faced with grinding poverty. This book aims to bridge both