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Woman-hating: On misogyny, sexism, and hate speech

journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-19, 15:16 authored by Louise Richardson-SelfLouise Richardson-Self
Hate speech is one of the most important conceptual categories in anti-oppression politics today; a great deal of energy and political will is devoted to identifying, characterizing, contesting, and (sometimes) penalizing hate speech. However, despite the increasing inclusion of gender identity as a socially salient trait, antipatriarchal politics has largely been absent within this body of scholarship. Figuring out how to properly situate patriarchy-enforcing speech within the category of hate speech is therefore an important politico-philosophical project. My aim in this article is twofold: first, I argue that sexist speech, though oppressive, is not hate speech. Second, I argue that misogynistic speech is hate speech, even when it is intradivisional (that is, when it targets only subsets of women). This is important because recognizing that the concept hate speech applies to certain forms of patriarchy-enforcing speech is another step in clarifying what is wrong with the practice, and how bad it is in relation to other abuses. Consequently, this article provides a more nuanced account of the kinds of expressions that can and should count as instances of hate speech.

History

Publication title

Hypatia

Volume

33

Pagination

256-272

ISSN

0887-5367

Department/School

School of Humanities

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Inc.

Place of publication

United States

Rights statement

Copyright 2017 Hypatia, Inc.

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

Gender and sexualities

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