Talk:misogyny

RFV

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Rfv-sense: prejudice against women. The other definition is hatred or contempt for women. Recently added and tagged, but not listed. Mglovesfun (talk) 22:45, 21 October 2012 (UTC)

The spark for its addition was the addition to a similar sense to an Australian dictionary. However, I expect almost all modern uses of the word are of this "prejudice" sense, and I have therefore RFVed the literal sense, because I think it is the doubtful one. - -sche (discuss) 22:59, 21 October 2012 (UTC)

I suppose it depends on how the prejudice is motivated. It could also be jealousy of women. That's more a matter of psychology though. —CodeCat 23:10, 21 October 2012 (UTC)

Let's be clear about the difference: it's possible to have no hatred toward women, but to be prejudiced against them. An example would be the "chivalrous gentleman" who puts women on a pedestal and truly believes that they're wonderful people, but also believes that they don't have what it takes to be decision-makers or authority figures. The other extreme is someone who thinks women are just as likely to be competent and authoritative, but hates them all anyway. I wouldn't consider the first to be a misogynist, though their mindset can be just as damaging as out-and-out contempt in practice.

For me, a misogynist is someone who hates, not just someone whose prejudices have a negative effect. Perhaps the usage has shifted without my noticing it- so an rfv is appropriate- but I won't believe that without evidence. Chuck Entz (talk) 23:21, 21 October 2012 (UTC)

I've added two citations which explicitly describe misogyny as a prejudice, vs one citation which speaks of loathing. The shift from the literal/etymological meaning of "hatred (miso-) of women" to "prejudice" is like the shift of "homophobia" from "fear (phobia) of homosexuals" to "prejudice against homosexuals". - -sche (discuss) 23:54, 21 October 2012 (UTC)

Actually, after looking at our entry on [[homophobia]], my sneaking suspicion grows that this word may have only one sense: "Hatred of, contempt for or prejudice against women." - -sche (discuss) 00:02, 22 October 2012 (UTC)

Yep, the best way to treat this is to combine the senses. Ƿidsiþ 10:23, 23 October 2012 (UTC)

I agree, and have done so. ~ Röbin Liönheart (talk) 21:19, 23 October 2012 (UTC)

and the combined sense is sufficiently cited, so I've taken the liberty of detagging it. I've also combined the senses of [[misandry]]. - -sche (discuss) 22:20, 23 October 2012 (UTC)