The Justification of Misogyny – a Time-Honored Tradition in Patriarchy

It is always curious how various philosophies have been used to justify misogyny.  Biological determinism has long been used by the right wing to justify sexist policies and institutions by claiming that men and women are different based on their biology and their supposedly different brains, therefore stereotypical sex roles are natural and predetermined and are beyond the reach of culture and social conditioning.

These days we have dialectical idealism on the Left being used to justify sexist, regressive, revisionist thinking and the rejection of feminism, especially radical feminism, and the dismissal of the reality of sex-based oppression.  In dialectical idealism, how one imagines oneself is more important than what one actually is, therefore if I think I’m a woman that is more important than if I am actually a woman.  That is, one’s idea trumps reality, and therefore it is assumed that people who think they’re women are more oppressed than actual women. 

This thinking is diametrically opposed to dialectical materialism according to Marxist Zachary George Najarian-Najafi, whose brilliant article, Misogyny is Revisionism Part 1: On the Left’s “Woman” Problem  spells out the 3 insidious lies that the Left has accepted as truth, which are undermining women’s liberation and enabling the continued oppression of patriarchy.  According to Najarian-Najafi, they are: 

  1. Transwomen are women.
  2. Sex work is work.
  3. Feminism is bourgeois.

His first article focuses on the first lie, his second article, Misogyny is Revisionism Part 2: The Masque of the “Red” Pimp, focuses on the second lie, and his third article in this series, Misogyny is Revisionism Part 3: In Defense of Feminism focuses on the third. We couldn’t agree more, and our response to the 3 lies is:

  1. Transwomen are men, not women.
  2. “Sex work” isn’t work, it’s slavery.
  3. Radical feminism isn’t bourgeois, it’s revolutionary.

The ways in which men manipulate the truth and attempt to turn reality on its head are myriad, but the fact remains there is objective reality, and that reality is women are still oppressed as a sex.  Regardless of the ways in which the Left or the Right try to justify or deny it, sex-based oppression exists and will continue until we end patriarchy and male supremacy.