As a 14-year-old girl, I am yet to experience the true extent of how vulnerable I am in society as a woman. Of course, I have been exposed to misogyny throughout my life because, as a teenage girl, it is inevitable. At home I’ve been expected to do “traditional female roles” from around 10-years-old such as cooking, taking care of my brother, doing the laundry and vacuuming the floor. Whilst it isn’t anything major and not anything I’m too bothered by (to a certain extent), the implication that it is expected of me while my brothers lounge around makes me realise that misogyny is too normalised. How many times were you called “bossy” as a child? Even as children, why is it that if a boy is assertive, he’s “just being a boy” or “being a leader” but if a girl does it, she’s seen as bossy and rude? Sexism is quite prevalent in sports as well. Many female-dominated sports like ballet, figure skating and gymnastics aren’t taken seriously or not seriously enough because they have more women in those fields. Meanwhile, the number of domestic abuse reports were recorded by Lancaster University to rise by 26% when the English national football team won or drew and increased by 38% when the team lost.
What is misogyny?
Misogyny is the hatred of, contempt for, or deep-seated prejudice against women and girls and it serves as a mechanism that reinforces patriarchal social structures, male entitlement, and gender inequality. Misogyny comes in many forms, whether it is verbal harassment, pay gaps or physical harassment.
Sexual assault is a massive problem and it is becoming normalised because of discussion on social media sites like TikTok and Twitter (or X). In the UK, it has been reported by Rape Crisis England and Wales that around 739,000 women are sexually assaulted every year and 90% of the time it is not a stranger, but somebody the woman knows.
Misogyny in Education
In my opinion, a good education is definitely a privilege. Because of the sacrifices my parents have made for me, I am able to experience some of the best quality teaching available in this country. But of course, that is not the case for every single woman and child in the world.
Around 119-133 million girls do not have access to education. More than 2.2 million women and girls in Afghanistan do not have the rights to an education. In Sudan, 73% of girls do not go to primary school and it will take at least 54 years for every single girl to have access to a primary school education and even then, many girls will not have a form of a secondary education and women make up two thirds of the 739 million adults who are illiterate in the world.
Every day, futures are crushed. While, in the UK, women have a wide selection of futures to choose from, women from areas like Afghanistan, Sudan and Gaza are oppressed and have very limited choice of what they can achieve in their lifetime. Many are married before they turn 18 and every year around 12 million girls are married before their 18th birthday, equivalent to 23 girls every minute. Many of these marriages are driven by gender inequality, lack of education and poverty.
Misogyny from childhood
As children, we’ve all read or at least seen some of the older Disney princess movies and although they are entertaining movies they all have very similar plots; the princess is completely helpless and needs a prince to come and save her. In video games, nine times out of ten, women will be sexualised while men are portrayed as strong, capable characters.
As we get older, our status changes and we’ll be called either ‘Miss’, ‘Ms’ or ‘Mrs’ while male colleagues will only be called Mr. That seems a bit strange to me. Traditionally, it depends on our marital status. Young or unmarried women would be called ‘Miss’ and married women would be ‘Mrs’. Dr Amy Erickson says that “’those who objected to ‘Miss’ and ‘Mrs’ argue that they define a woman by which man she belongs to. If a woman is ‘Miss’, it is her father; if she is addressed as ‘Mrs’, she belongs to her husband.” The same goes for weddings, traditionally your father would walk you down the aisle towards your husband and it’s the same idea where you were your father’s property and now, he passes you onto your husband where you’ll be his property. These little things crack at our image of what a woman looks and acts like. Eventually our image of a woman will be shattered and will never be recovered. Do you really want that?
By Mia Zhang