Woman-Hating Through Male Popular Culture: from Nietzsche to Eminem

It is interesting to me how we define and study history and how many many people still worship old philosophers like Aristotle and Nietzsche, regardless of their woman-hating. I feel it is mostly men, usually academics that paint Greek philosophers of the past as saint-like and revolutionary. I wonder if they know what these dudes think about females. I wonder if they even care. I wonder if those philosophers and the words that they wrote influenced current woman hating. I believe much of HIStory and it’s retelling in academia has influenced generations of upper-class and privileged men.

Now, I was not informed of the woman-hating politics of many people growing up, this includes various musician idols I had in high school (Jim Morrison) and philosophers like Aristotle, Nietzsche and so on. These dudes are always painted as saintly; particularly prick musicians from the 60s and 70s, like Jim Morrison or the beastiality loving Led Zeppelin members. So why is this? You never see famous women portrayed this way. Women in philosophy, music and other arts will get to a certain place of fame and then never creep up to the status of famous dudes. This is because society finds men more interesting and finds women in the same old sexist stereotypes (overly emotional, ridiculous, hysterical).

What I wanted to do here was look at the blatant woman hating within male popular culture by using facts found online as well as famous quotations.

Aristotle (regarding generation): “The male stands for the effective and active, and the female for the passive”; “the courage of a man is shown in commanding, of a woman in obeying.”

This way of thinking is still prevelant today; women are still viewed as submissive and passive and men are still viewed as dominant and powerful. Aristotle is given more credit than a lot of thinkers, he brings a purely male experience to the table, a misogynistic one at that.

Hegel: “Women are capable of education, but they are not made for activities which demand a universal faculty such as the more advanced sciences, philosophy and certain forms of artistic production.”

Hegel’s quotation illustrates the perceived role of women in society. This idea that women are “not made for ___” or less likely to be successful in academics has been a longstanding sexist myth. The reason women are not perceived as intelligent as their male counterparts is because of their low-status in society and thus lack of opportunity.

Friedrich Nietzsche: A woman may very well form a friendship with a man, but for this to endure, it must be assisted by a little physical antipathy.

This one was interesting because it gives the impression that friendship with a woman is not the same as it is when men befriend other men. This, as he claims, is because there must be an aversion to women – you cannot fully befriend a woman because she is less than you. Woman is lower in status than men, so if a man wants to befriend a woman, he must assert his distaste of her.

Friedrich Nietzsche: Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent.

This one really speaks for itself. A woman, provided that she gives the man what he wants, can increase his happiness (her happiness is ignored, clearly) but a woman can also make everything worse because of her perceived ‘womanly’ traits.

Friedrich Nietzsche: If a woman possesses manly virtues one should run away from her; and if she does not possess them she runs away from herself.

This one touches on gender and supposed “roles” of women and performing gender stereotypes. The idea of a woman acting “outside” of her role is wrong and she should be prepared for rejection from men. This also is incredibly heterosexist, in that he assumes all women long for and strive towards a man. Of course, in that day and age, being a lesbian was not acceptable; women were nearly forced to fulfill men’s desires.

Friedrich Nietzsche: When a woman turns to scholarship there is usually something wrong with her sexual apparatus

This one says that if a woman looks towards something other than sexual servitude to men, she is sexually disabled and ‘broken’. If a woman does not want to settle, she must be abnormal. It tells us, woman’s purpose is to please man and procreate, if she does not do this, something is very wrong.

Napoleon Bonaparte: Women are nothing but machines for producing children.

Again, women are seen to only have one purpose in life.

Let’s look at more recent male idols:

Norman Mailer: A little bit of rape is good for a man’s soul

I don’t need to even say anything. All I know is I won’t be reading his books ever again.

Eminiem: I don't hate women - they just sometimes make me mad.

This is probably why your music videos are woman-hating propaganda. Plain and simple.

Warren Beaty: Charity is taking an ugly girl to lunch

This quotation supports the popular perception surrounding beauty standards for women. Men decide when a woman looks a certain way, he decides if she’s ugly, pretty, sexy and so on. Her perception of herself is irrelevant.

Sean Connery: I don’t think there is anything wrong with hitting a woman. I don’t, though, recommend hitting a woman in the way you hit a man.

This doesn’t need explanation, does it?

Abbie Hoffman: The only alliance I would make with the Women's Liberation Movement is in bed.

Again, here is a woman’s perceived role as a hole. Woman is sex – she is to be used for sex and only sex. By sex, I mean PIV, a male-centric sex.

Rush Limbaugh: Feminism was established to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream.

Translation: Any woman in politics or activism is only in it because she does not meet male standards of beauty. Only women deemed ugly by men get into politics.

So academic know it all dudes, put that in your pipe and smoke it.