Goddess of Misandry

Bow down before me, male rapist scum, for I am the goddess of misandry, the man-hater amongst man-haters! I strike fear into the hearts of men and hope, love and adoration into the hearts of women! Well...all the enlightened ones anyway, for I spit on those women who internalise misogyny and don't want to kill half the species based on gender alone. (I also quietly ignore non-binary people, because binary people are great at erasing anyone who doesn't conform to the gender binary.)

And what are my criteria for being the goddess of misandry, anyway? Well...uh...I don't sleep with men just because they tell me to! That counts for something, right?

Okay, bad strawman over, I really don't like this misandry trend.

"But why?" the proud misandrists ask me. "Misandry is just a natural outgrowth of feminism! It's the logical next step!"

Well, no. My first problem with misandry is that I don't think institutionalised misandry is a thing - nor will it be, unless the misandrists institute a matriarchy that oppresses men over centuries, and because self-proclaimed misandrists mostly seem to be hipsters interested in infighting and kitsch rather than the next Valerie Solanas (which is probably just as well, because she led a very complex and tragic life). So to me, calling myself a misandrist is the equivalent of calling myself a pink pizza unicorn, and I just don't see the point.

My second problem with misandry is that self-proclaimed misandrists are more focused on cutesy hipster trash than...well...anything else. Most of their activity consists of taking selfies with their male tears mugs (ewwww, tears are all warm and salty and gross, so I have no idea why people would want to drink a mug full of them) or their misandry merchandise, or being snarky to men on the internet. Some of the really radical ones might get paid to write for Comment is Free or the New Statesman, or make their own misandry art and craft. If I were an artistic man-hater as opposed to an uncreative misanthrope, maybe I'd like the misandry trend more. As it is, I'm an impossibly uncool person living in a very conservative environment, not an impossibly cool hipster with disposable time and income and an impeccable leftist pedigree. So pink hipstery man-hating is really not my thing.

My third problem with misandry ties in with what I've just said: misandrists are detrimental to gender equality. This is not necessarily because men must be protected at all costs (although misandrists, along with unsavoury people like transphobic radical feminists and the PIV-is-rape crowd, make people more reluctant to challenge the patriarchy), but because they're so focused on pink tat that there's very little time or space to do anything else useful - like donate the money they get from selling pink tat to refuges for abuse survivors (which hopefully some do), or volunteer at shelters, or attend rallies, or even educate others about the radical notion that it's not just men that are people. (Not that education is a high priority for most people these days, because it's allegedly not their job...) Trouble is, that work is tough and gruelling at best, and dangerous at worst. In the UK, even trying to put women on banknotes - a campaign that frankly did nothing to dismantle the kyriarchy - still resulted in feminists getting death threats. Trying to do any more results in worse. Even the relatively safe work of critical analysis is tough, and either ignored or makes you a target for bullying, depending on your privileges.

All the same, for anyone who cares about the self-determination of oppressed people, it's important - no, it's vital - and it's work that we should all be pulling together to do.