I thought this case was interesting. Most judges are male, and they’re making crucial decisions about people’s lives. A percentage of them are going to dislike women, and that’s before we consider women who are different ethnicities, disabled etc.
Misogyny has only recently got attention in the news, despite effecting women their entire lives. How many judges have given unfair verdicts because they don’t like women?
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I think generally speaking the whole of Western society (and many other societies in the world) is sexist and misogynist, it’s not just judges who are not going to be impartial because of their social values, but everyone: employers, police officers, politicians, doctors, journalists, and so on.
All people, including women, have been acculturated to have unjust and essentialising views about women (and men) - people are more likely to be dismissive to women and not take them seriously; more likely to view women as inherently sexual compared to men; more likely to view women as dishonest or manipulative; more likely to commit violence against women as they are viewed as weak and passive; more likely to pay women less than male employees as women are viewed as less intelligent, serious, or loyal; and so on.
It’s not a surprise one in three women in the world have experienced beatings, rape, or other forms of abuse, usually at the hands of someone they know (not from strangers).
I consider this a situation of systemic oppression, and yes - misogynist judges are absolutely part of the problem.
EDIT:
Patriarchy may privilege men in many ways, but it is not just perpetuated by men, nor is it actually a good thing for men. Women participate in their oppression, extreme examples may include GOP U.S. Congress women like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Nancy Mace, or Lauren Boebert - who enable a misogynistic GOP political agenda. But in more mundane ways, women police one another in their femininity and are not different from men in their misogynistic views - I have heard so many stories of women who hate themselves for being women (e.g. JK Rowling).
Meanwhile, men under this state of affairs are viewed as unsafe and suspect, as predators - whether they are actually violent or not. Men should be motivated as anyone else to end the alienation they experience and injustice to both men and women under patriarchy. Too often feminism is thought of in terms of women vs men, as men as the oppressors and women the victims. I think this simplifies the situation in a way that makes potential alliances with men difficult, and makes it harder to acknowledge the way patriarchy actually functions and exists in society.
I do agree that getting men on board is key to ending the patriarchy, but to be honest it really annoys me that we have to make them see how the patriarchy harms them before they’ll give a shit about how it harms us. Society will always cater to men in this way. But we’ll never improve how women are treated without the help and support of men.
I do think some men try to understand, but it’s hard without lived experience - they essentially have to trust others accounts, but the emotional impact is just not the same. But then I don’t think this is special to men - there are women who are victimized and despite having those experiences they reject feminism and embrace those oppressive attitudes.
And this issue of empathy and lived experience is true of so many other forms of oppression - it’s hard to know what it’s like to be Black in America if you’re perceived as white. It’s hard to know what it’s like to be poor or living in a third world country if you have economic privilege. I might read about the history of slavery and accounts about police brutality, but that doesn’t give me the same experience and emotional understanding as lived experience does.
I might visit a third world country and meet kids who are growing up in a place that has no schools, has no colleges, has no jobs or opportunities - kids who watch the same TV shows as you, and who dress like you, but are working as cheap manual labor on farms owned by major U.S. ag companies and have no future outside that. What would make middle class Americans recognize and understand that oppression and align with them?
In my experience, emotional appeals can help. TikTok videos showing the genocide of Palestinians radicalized a lot of middle class Americans. But it’s a lot easier to radicalize people when you have videos of those kinds of acts - it’s harder to capture all the ways oppression changes you. Even so, discussions about microaggressions and implicit bias have entered the mainstream discussion, just not always with the desired impact of raising consciousness. Alliances have to be formed sometimes with compromise and mutual cooperation and understanding, and that can be difficult between a privileged group and an oppressed group, especially when men are typically viewed as the oppressors.
I agree. Men have mothers, wives, sisters, colleagues who are women… I meet precious few that seem to get it, or even TRY to.
I found your comment really interesting, unfortunately you’re right and it’s systemic. The history we’re taught, tv shows that are written, social services etc… it’s all misogynistic, and not inclusive of minority groups. Patriarchy hurts a lot of people, just look at male suicide rates… it hurts the children we raise by effecting women’s parenting capabilities. It’s incredibly destructive to everyone, and its not just men v women
