Everyday Canvas

On Misogyny, TV, and Reading

Prompt: How do you suppose misogyny did and does originate?

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I think misogyny originated, a long time ago, from the false conceptions about women but not from a specific kind of hatred toward all the women who existed or are in existence, as some people believe. The pure hatred, itself, seems to be overly simplistic. If some hatred exists, it is the result of learned behavior. If pure hatred of women really existed, the misogynists would hate their mothers, Mother Mary, Mother Theresa, or Madame Curie, too.

Thus, the false perception or believing in the fairytale of women being subordinate or inferior seems to be the underlying cause. In the old times, since women had the child-bearer-nurturer job in society, they became the property of home alone, and in time, they ended up giving in to the coercive regulations of society, which in the long run, accepted all kinds of attacks, even physical ones like rape or beating of women, as suitable or tolerable.

Unfortunately, women themselves have bought into and intensified this fallacy of patriarchal superiority. Only, some of us old-timers may remember our young years when some of the old-timer ladies of the day told us to behave like a woman and please and serve the man who is the big shot and the provider. I recall such remarks had angered me much more when the misogyny was promoted and accelerated by other older women who should know better. Although not all of the women in the olden times were misogynists. In fact, I know my mother-in-law was quite furious with the idea of the superiority of men.

In our time, one would think misogyny would be erased totally, but this is not so. Some of the old beliefs still give offshoots from their roots in cahoots with tomcatting and macho rubbish. Then, there are the personal-vendetta misogynists who have been wronged-or thought they were wronged-by one woman who project their anger on all women. Yet, what I think is not enough. To figure out all the root causes, actions, and feelings resulting in misogyny would take a serious investigation by the psychologists and social scientists.

The bottom line is, women are human beings, and misogyny dehumanizes not only the women but those who practice it.

PROMPT: Live television, on-demand viewing, or do you just not care?

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I am not a big TV watcher. In fact, although the TV is on non-stop, due to my husband’s dependence on it, I only watch from the sidelines while either doing some chore or when I can’t read or listen to a book. In my entire lifetime, I have enjoyed very few TV shows.

READING

I need to note this here for my own self in case I might need to refer to it later.

I read more than I do anything else. Now that I am retired, more or less, I have more time to read. When Goodreads began bugging me to pledge a number of books to read in a year, I first ignored them; then, this year I gave in. I gave a number off the top of my head for 2018, which was way too low. Then I raised it to 75. Yet, only in January, I read 18 books. At the end of January, I discovered "CLOSED!The Monthly Reading Challenge"  for making monthly pledges. Few days past the middle of February, my pledge was fulfilled, and I am still continuing on with reading.

Thinking further on the subject, I realized I picked up my reading material on the impulse of the moment. True, my reading is still quite eclectic, with poetry books, novels, and non-fiction, but I realized I could widen my vistas by adding choices other than what is in my immediate reach. Thus, I am looking into much older writing like that of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, especially to the works of good writers who never reached a lot of fame and the works of little-known writers from other nations. This idea made me get more excited about reading.

Thus, while doing a Gutenberg search I came across Émile Verhaeren a Belgian Poet I hadn’t heard of at all. Google has his poetry. I also found it in the Internet Archives. So, it is on my to-read list now.

Another thing, with the yearly pledge thing Goodreads runs, wouldn’t it be better if they kept the record of how many books we read as well as the pledges or maybe instead of the pledges?