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The QC forum book group - nominations thread

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David_Dovey:

--- Quote from: Jeans on 02 Apr 2010, 13:28 ---My question is, how does sexually abusing someone indicate you hate them?

--- End quote ---

OK so I'm not very good at these kind of things in general so this is probably going to come across as pretty simplistic buuuuuut:

It's more or less accepted fact that raping a person is bar-none the most traumatic thing one human being can do to another human being, right? So I imagine that you'd have to feel a pretty serious antipathy to another person (or as it may be, to their gender or some other component part of that person's identity) to inflict that sort of trauma on them.

Incidentally, as I was typing this and thinking the position through I have come to the conclusion that I'm not entirely sure I agree with what I have said, but it's certainly one way of looking at it?

Be My Head:
This looks interesting...I'll see if I can finish off Snow Crash and read this quickly.

jimbunny:
Well, I forget where I first encountered the idea that hate is not the polar opposite of love (which is actually one of a number of things, depending on whom you ask), but it might prove insightful here. Jens, the way you've phrased the question is a bit difficult for me to follow, but it seems like you're trying to assert the difference in meaning between "sexism" and "gender-hate" (misandry/-ogyny). What hate and love have in common, perhaps, is a quality you might call "relational passion," in which strong feelings are created out of the interaction between two or more people - generated, figuratively speaking, by the third quantity "we." Whereas, with proper bigotry (sexism, racism, etc.), the generator comes from within the self and the emotions center around identity formation - in this case, through opposition. Usually, I think, there is some connection to a power relationship, i.e. the bigot sees him/herself as the rightful (if not acting) superior to the other party, by means of some convenient rationale. In love/hate, the other is known; in bigotry the other is unknown. This makes the existence of "gender-hate" rather impossible to imagine and surely the mark of a delusional character; one could not possibly know and have a relationship with every single person of a particular sex. In common, everyday usage, I'd say that "misandry/-ogyny" was more or less synonymous with "sexism," but I think there is an interesting distinction to be made. 

This may be unnecessarily literary, but the written tradition labeled the "querelles des femmes" (I can't believe there isn't a wikipedia article devoted to it!) thrived for much of the Renaissance. Sometimes an argument between male and female writers on the merits and pitfalls of the female species (but mostly between male and male writers arguing over which aspects they disliked most), it provides, I think, an excellent example of a variety of opinions that are mostly sexist and which range into the misogynistic (and perhaps even the misandric - I'm not that well acquainted).

(Sorry - I get a bit pedantic afterduring a few drinks)

Lines:
Ok, I had to buy a copy because the wait list at the library is really long for this book! So I will start it today.

JD:
I went on to the second one since I finished the first so quick. wooo

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