I Hate Men
No, I don't actually hate men. That'd be betraying my own kind. But over the past few weeks, I have been reading the appropriately named I Hate Men by Pauline Harmange. It was almost banned in France (the country that it was originally published in) for promoting gender discrimination. I found this one day while looking through the wonderful catalog of the Uni Library, and I knew instantly that this would both be an interesting read and an interesting blog post.
I Hate Men is an essay on why women need to become misandrists (people that hate men) to combat misogyny, and how hating men can offer women sisterhood and resistance against the patriarchy. Harmange also argues that misandry is a justified belief due to the risk of physical harm that women face because of the actions of men (an unfortunately true fact). In contrast to men harming women, misandry is okay because men are not hurt by misandry: it is an "intolerable brutality that adds up to the shocking outrage of precisely zero deaths and zero casualties" (5).
To get the obvious out of the way, I do not agree with most of the ideas presented in this book. I think we can all agree that hating any group of people based on the way that they're born is wrong. Before I started reading, I thought that Harmange would say something along the lines of, "well I don't really hate all men," but she makes it clear several times that she genuinely hates all men, even her husband and male relatives. Hatred typically leads to a dangerous, slippery slope of bad actions. Maybe misandry doesn't have any victims now, but what if Harmange's ideas became popular and we started seeing hate crimes committed against men? Would it still be acceptable then?
But, I can see some of Harmange's points, even if I don't agree with her main idea. For starters, I do think that a lot of men could be more aware of the struggles that women go through. Catcalling, for example, is a pretty widespread problem even though many men think it's okay to catcall women on the street. I also agree that men should call out other men if they're doing something that's misogynistic/harmful to women.
Do I think you should get this book? No, unless you're also a fellow man-hater. The few good things that Harmange argues for aren't that groundbreaking; these are all ideas that you could get from other less hateful books or just common sense. It's also not a very fun read once you get past the controversial appeal of the first few pages. I give this book a 2/10.
Thank you for reading,
Jayden
Hi Jayden! This is a very interesting Blog Post I understand why the title of the book interested you it is quite a blunt statement. I definitely agree that overall misogyny is an issue in our society and I have even read a few feminist books about how to combat the patriarchy and such. However, I agree with you that this book seems a little harsh, people should advocate for equality not more inequality. Great post!!
ReplyDeleteLoved reading this book with you on and off, the whole idea of the book seemed kind of interesting because when you think of feminism, it's equal gender, but this book seems to go to the extreme of flipping the hierarchy to women over men, and to hate all men. Thanks for the story times with me!
ReplyDeleteI remember all those conversations about feminism we had, how do you feel about the points she makes on page 60?
ReplyDeleteAnger leads to fear. Fear leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.
ReplyDeletewhoa whoa whoa this book seems kind of crazy. I think instead of being mean to people we should strive to have a happy society together to end discrimination than creating more hate. Nice post though Jaden!
ReplyDeleteWhat a crazy wacky and wild book. Where in the world did you find this so I can do some research, for a friend.
ReplyDeleteI think you shoud've said instead of "the country that it was originally published in", you should've said "the country in which it was originally published". Other than that, this was a pretty insightful and cognitive read which lead me to a different perspective and reality of relevance in this world of ideas and perspectives of others I didn't know could be found in this one book.
ReplyDeleteWow this book is actually crazy. I totally thought she would clarify later on that she did not hate men, but I guess she just kept confirming her point. On a serious note though, I feel like this is the exact mindset that is hurting the feminist movement (which she might argue is useless). In what world should hate be fought back with more hate? I feel like there is a common misconception that feminism is a hatred for men, which I now know has a term called misandry, and I think that is why many people view feminism as bad. Overall, while I do not believe in censoring books or thoughts, I do feel like this is a very harmful book.
ReplyDeleteI still remember how we all read this book during Monday. Even through the book may be a little...emm..aggresive towards men.....it is still a little fun to read.
ReplyDeleteI remeber you having this book in class and I was actually concerned 😭. Anyways, I still don't understand how the author has a husband if she hates men, and I dont understand how her husband can stand her. This book sounds pretty toxic though.
ReplyDeleteSo this sounds actually insane...? This isn't even feminism, it's just spreading hate. And does she really have a husband? How?? Why?
ReplyDeleteHi Jayden. Wow. That's really a book, to say the least. I think it's what you can expect from French literature though, they are actually insane. In a little more seriousness, I'm really surprised on how this was published and brought to the Uni library!
ReplyDeleteHi Jayden, I remember you showing me this book while we were waiting for the Pre-ACT. I wonder, why didn't she divorce her husband? Also, did the husband divorce her after she published the book?
ReplyDeleteHoly, even tho we read it together, it stills sound so shocking. I remember us trying to search and find the place that said that the author didn't really hated men but we never did. The hole idea of the book is to spread hate in a somewhat negative way, not constructive or useful hate, just hate.
ReplyDeleteHi Jayden, that book is definitely something...it sounds really harsh towards men, which is kind of insane. I think, similar to what Julia said, rather than competing to see who can be more hated, equality would be better. Thank you for this review, though I'm sorry it disappointed you.
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