Monday 25 June 2012

The History Of The Word 'Misandry'

 




















Well, I've been meaning to write this for awhile - every day I am reminded by spellcheck that 'misandry' is not a proper word I should be using & wouldn't I like to pick another? Or, as the feminists would have it, "There’s No Such Thing as Misandry; its a modern, made-up word that makes you look stupid. and its as misogynist as fuck, so stop using it." (That's an actual, genuine quote, by the way, from the feminist website Femonade, Aug. 30, 2009).

Putting aside the curious logic displayed there - ALL words are made-up after all, they don't just come into being by themselves - the excellent research done by St Estephe over at The Unknown History Of Misandry shows that this is simply not the case: there are examples he provides in English as far back as the 1880s, & one in German from 1803. Here's one from a book review in 1871:
“We cannot, indeed, term her an absolute misandrist, as she fully admits the possibility, in most cases at least, of the reclamation of men from their naturally vicious and selfish state, though at the cost of so much trouble and vexation of spirit to women, that it is not quite clear whether she does not regard their existence as at best a mitigated evil.” [From review of novel “Blanche Seymour” (anonymous), The Spectator, London, Apr. 1, 1871, p. 359] 
It's a long, exhaustive but fascinating read, much like the site itself, & I recommend you go over there & give them both a deeper look. In the meantime I will just post a few of the clippings he has on display:


".... She was, however, a voracious reader and wealthy enough to satisfy her cravings in this direction. On her death her library was found to contain nearly 18,000 volumes — all written by women. This was said at the time to be the most extensive collection of this kind ever formed."  - [“Man Hater's Library.” The Oelwein Daily Register (Io.), May 8, 1912, p. 3]

5 comments:

  1. Wonderful! I am delighted to see this post using material from Unknown History of MISANDRY. The more cooperation there is the sooner truth will prevail. The 49% is beginning to wake up.-- "Herstory" is collapsing! Spread the word.

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  2. Great job. I didn't realize the word was in use that long ago. I've also seen similar criticism of the use of the word Simply because it isn't included in most dictionaries the word doesn't exist and neither does the construct it represents.

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  3. A splendid piece of research. Now the question is how to use it best to contradict false claims about this crucial word wherever they appear in public. Rank ignorance should not go unchallenged. Rank ignorance that is really propaganda deserves to be challenged head on.

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  4. Amazing stuff, thank you so much for doing the research. Will post something about this over at my site soon.
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  5. Amazing stuff, thank you so much for doing the research.
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