Are Women More Misogynistic Than Men?

What’s the Latest?

In the wake of the Santa Barbara shootings, in which gunman Elliot Rodger video-recorded his own misogynistic outlook on life, a national conversation began about the state of women in society. Following survey data and cultural observation, a surprising aggressor has emerged: women. Just how do women display hatred toward each other? The Washington Post’s Esther Cepeda answers “…we can include ubiquitous women’s magazines and websites that ingrain false notions of physical perfection, hypersexuality and material wealth while peddling alcohol, cigarettes and elixirs of youth.”

What’s the Big Idea?

There are two parallel struggles for women. One is gaining the respect of men; the other, of fellow women. While physical violence is all too often perpetrated by men, an unrealistic portrait of women–as sexual objects whose purpose is to gratify men–becomes the unrealistic standard against which both genders measure women. “If women became safe and respected by all men becoming feminists, then women accepting their own misogyny — whether defined as bias, hatred, cattiness or extreme snark — would seem to hasten a similar state.”