Modern Misogyny in Literature

Bad habits are passed down, or learned by watching our elders. A habit does not have to be something like smoking or jay walking. A bad habit can be a way of thinking also. One bad habit our society has passed down for centuries is the thought that men are better than women and that women have a lesser place/value in this world. We see it in the media, in paychecks, and in jobs across the world. We even see it in literature. In Shakespeare’s Othello and J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace both men become violently obsessed with the women because they are both inherently misogynistic.

Before delving into the worlds of Othello and David Laurie, we have to define misogyny first. The most basic definition of misogyny, found in Merriam Webster’s dictionary, is a hated for women. There is another definition, though, one that fits the discussion better. Christine E. Hutchins, from On the Issues Magazine, defines it an unnatural/unjust subordination of one part of the population [women] by another [men]. Hutchins builds off the simple definition to make a definition that fits into everyday society. Today, we do not see many men that hate women; some yes but none who vocally denounce them and make their opinions known to the public. But we do see men who view women as inferior. All men, almost all, have it in the back of their subconscious mind that they are better than women; better in the sense that they are stronger, smarter, less emotional, etc. This thinking is a watered down version of the misogyny that used to go on in earlier, less educated times. It is a thinking that has been passed down from generation to generation of men and even women. Two examples of misogyny are Othello and David Laurie. They show how misogyny has grown yet stayed t...

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...sogynist thinking by viewing his wife as his property to do with what he pleases and David views women as only sexual objects but then comes to the revelations that women are actual human beings. These works show that misogyny is not going away because Othello from late sixteenth century Venice and David from post-apartheid South Africa have the same view of women and lived centuries apart. So if it took all these centuries to only teach our sons that women are inferior, and not evil, then how long will it take for men to not be taught this at all? How long will media and publications support this view and fills children’s heads with stay at home moms who can make the best pot roast and all male superheroes who save the day? Maybe by reading works like Othello and Disgrace it can show boys and girls how not to treat women and end the cycle of misogyny in the world.