The clearest definition of Antifeminism that I have found is from Right Wing Women by Andrea Dworkin. I have reproduced the quote below, with a massive and grateful Hat Tip to Twisty for first introducing me to this quote and to Dworkin’s work:
“Antifeminism is a direct expression of misogyny: it is the political defense of woman hating. This is because feminism is the liberation movement of women. Antifeminism, in any of its political colorations, holds that the social and sexual condition of women essentially (one way or another) embodies the nature of women, that the way women are treated in sex and in society is congruent with what women are, that the fundamental relationship between men and women — in sex, in reproduction, in social hierarchy — is both necessary and inevitable. Antifeminism defends the conviction that the male abuse of women, especially in sex, has an implicit logic, one that no program of social justice can or should eliminate; that because the male use of women originates in the distinct and opposite natures of each which converge in what is called “sex,” women are not abused when used as women — but merely used for what they are by men as men.”
Antifeminism is the complete normalization of the abuse and oppression of women. Using various flimsy pretenses, antifeminists argue that abusing women doesn’t count as abuse because women are not human in the same way that men are. That women are fundamentally a different species of animal from men, with thoughts and feelings that are utterly alien to how men think and feel, and thus can and should be treated quite differently from men.
Conveniently, antifeminists posit that this woman-animal was meant to be treated in ways that men would find abhorrent if done to themselves: that women are born to do the dirty, undervalued, and unpaid labor of domesticity and childrearing that men don’t want to do; that women’s minds and bodies are incapable of doing jobs that involve money, strength or power; that women’s bodies are naturally frail and helpless; that a “woman’s nature” drives women to be demure, feminine and subservient to men; that women are born to be dominated by men; that all women instinctively yearn to be fucked, controlled, hurt, abused and raped at a man’s whim.
Even more conveniently, antifeminists follow up their woman-animal model with the notion that men are the natural “compliment” to women, insofar as men are biologically destined to reap all the benefits of exploiting the woman-animal: that only men’s minds are capable of doing all the important (and well-paid) jobs in life; that only men’s bodies are strong enough to defend themselves; that only men are biologically equipped to be in charge, that men are born to dominate and control women, that men are instinctively driven to abuse women; and that men are “hard-wired” to rape.
Antifeminists posit that the rape, abuse, and enslavement of women by men is both inevitable and good because of this “biological difference”. That the rape and abuse of women doesn’t count as anything immoral because men were destined by nature to rape and abuse women, and that women were created to be raped and abused by men. That the abuse of women by men is so natural that it shouldn’t even be called “abuse” nor treated as such. That the abuse of women by men should be perpetuated because the woman-animal exists solely to be man’s perpetual servant, fuck toy, and punching bag.
Antifeminism is the zealous worship of the vile Patriarchal status quo that has created a human rights crisis on a heartbreakingly global scale, and as such antifeminist viewpoints will never be allowed on any of my blogs.
One thought on “What is Antifeminism?”