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Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny Hardcover – 23 October 2017
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- ISBN-100190604980
- ISBN-13978-0190604981
- Edition1st
- PublisherOxford University Press USA
- Publication date23 October 2017
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions21.34 x 3.3 x 14.99 cm
- Print length304 pages
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Review
Manne's elucidation of misogyny's logic is interesting and illuminating ... [her] extensive use of real-world examples to illustrate and argue for her understanding of misogyny is laudable and exemplary of good philosophising. ― Mari Mikkola, Australasian Journal of Philosophy
In Down Girl, Kate Manne does a jaw-droppingly brilliant job of explaining gender and power dynamics which have always been purposefully muddied, but which shape how and to whom sympathy and presumptions of full humanity accrue. Manne's work has been invaluable to me and so many others fighting to make sense of the world and who has power within it. You will understand our current moment far better and more easily after having read Down Girl. Perceptive, bold, stylishly written and bracingly clear eyed, Down Girl is one of the best books I have ever read on gender and power; I will never stop learning from it. ― Rebecca Traister, author of Good and Mad
Down Girl leaves the reader wanting more, and Manne eagerly invites both scholars and her general audience to fill in those gaps. Rich conversations and literatures will surely follow in this book's wake. ― Thomas E. Randall, Hypatia Reviews
Manne's book is a forensic and clever analysis which provides the cogs and wheels of how the system of patriarchal policing works, in our minds, as well as in our world. ... For the ordinary thinker concerned about societal oppression, Down Girl offers a sharply cut prism through which to view our everyday experience. ― Afua Hirsch, Times Literary Supplement
Kate Manne has written a deeply moving and powerful book. It is politically engaged philosophical analysis at its best. ― Sarah Song, University of California, Berkeley
Persuasively defining "misogyny" as hostile, demeaning, shaming, and punitive treatment of women, Down Girl brings out the misogynist logic of contemporary culture with wit and urgency. In this book "misogyny" emerges as the law enforcement branch of patriarchy, and thus as a concept that fully deserves a place alongside "patriarchy" and "sexism" as a fundamental tool for feminist analysis. Combining conceptual clarity with passionate commitment, Down Girl is indispensable reading for anyone who wishes to understand the ugly strand of hostility to women that has surfaced in recent years in our so-called advanced Western societies. ― Toril Moi, Duke University
Despite its somber topic, Kate Manne's Down Girl made me very happy, exhilarated indeed by its insight, analytical clarity, and committed engagement with a major issue of justice. I've been thinking and teaching about sexism and misogyny for a long time, but this book opened up fresh perspectives, for example in its convincing distinction between sexism as a set of beliefs and misogyny as an enforcement strategy. Each thoughtful person will have her own sense of where to locate the root of injustice to women, but Manne's cogent argument that misogyny is primarily about the demand that women give support, service, and care is surely at least one big part of the story of our turbulent times. ― Martha C. Nussbaum, University of Chicago
Kate Manne's brilliant Down Girl is a welcome antidote to the view that philosophy is - or should be - detached and otherworldly. In it, philosophy meets reality and the stakes are nothing less than life and death. Drawing on literature, television, film, social media, current events, and scientific research, Manne's unflinching and bracingly original account defines misogyny in terms of what it does: it polices and punishes women for not fulfilling their time-honored role of catering to men's needs and desires. Among its many other virtues, her analysis explains why, even as women are achieving greater equality, misogyny's stranglehold doesnt show signs of loosening anytime soon. A must-read for all who struggle to make sense of contemporary culture and politics. ― Susan J. Brison, Dartmouth College
Manne's important new book deploys the tools of analytic moral philosophy to construct an arresting account of the logic of misogyny. It is sure to become a key reference point for future discussions of this vital, but hitherto sadly neglected, topic. ― John Tasioulas, King's College London
Manne offers us a deep, insightful, and thought-provoking - if depressing - account of misogyny in America. This is a path-breaking book. It couldn't come at a more auspicious time. ― Ruth Chang, Rutgers University
Manne's Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny is excruciatingly well-timed, providing a theoretical framework for a phenomenon baring itself before us, perverse and pervasive... Down Girl reminds us that while revealing individual misogynists is hard, uprooting misogyny is much harder. ― Carlos Lozada, The Washington Post
Manne brings a fresh analysis to our assumed understanding of misogyny and the related term sexism. As a feminist and moral philosopher... not a single book or article-length treatment [in the field] had been devoted to unpacking what it is and how it works. Historians, pay attention. Manne has stepped up to fill this gap... Manne as a feminist philosopher breaks new ground in a field that is in need of new perspectives...Having fought for recognition for the legitimacy of their method, feminist philosophers are firmly committed to excavating the political, epistemological, and moral aspects of gender relations. Down Girl should encourage historians who trace changes in the meaning and the context of language to revisit some of the old standby terms of feminism. ― Lilian Calles Barger, Society for US Intellectual History
Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny by feminist philosopher Kate Manne... argues that misogyny pits women against each other: the good wife vs. "feminazis." At a time when high-profile sexual predators have been exposed, I can't imagine a more relevant read. ― Carrie Tirado Bramen, Times Higher Education
Kate Manne's Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny provides an important and compelling analysis of a phenomenon that's everywhere. Out of Manne's thoughtful analysis, of not just much-debated high-profile events but also everyday experiences, emerge insight after insight into the what, why, when, and how of misogyny. Manne also gifts us a marvelous neologism to capture the exculpatory and even empathic attitudes sometimes expressed towards misogynistic men: "himpathy." ― Cordelia Fine, The Big Issue
This new book from Kate Manne, a professor of philosophy at Cornell University, makes a compelling argument for treating misogyny as a culture-wide system, not just a matter of individual bigotry. ― Max Fisher and Amanda Taub, The New York Times' The Interpreter Newsletter
It is difficult to imagine a more timely moment for Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny. Manne is a professor of philosophy at Cornell University, and she uses the abstract tools of her discipline to parse current events. Her guiding question is as troubling as it is straightforward-to quote the comedian John Oliver: "Why is misogyny still a thing?" Within the parameters that Down Girl sets for itself, the account of misogyny it provides is compelling. ― Moira Weigel, The Guardian
Cornell University philosophy professor Kate Manne is on a mission to define "misogyny." While we're culturally familiar with sexism, Manne argues in her forthcoming book Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny that misogyny has been woefully conflated with sexism though they have different uses. Misogyny, in Manne's estimation, is about "controlling, policing, punishing, and exiling the 'bad' women who challenge male dominance." Through the lens of the 2016 election as well as the 2014 Isla Vista killings, the case of serial rapist Daniel Holtzclaw, Rush Limbaugh's "slut" rant against Sandra Fluke, and other news events, Manne outlines the danger of misogyny, and explains how we can collectively resist it. ― Evette Dionne, Bitch Magazine
Down Girl is a must-read and should be in every feminist's library...[L]ong after reading it, I've found myself going back to it, quoting from it and rereading sections. Her analogies used to explain misogyny's many forms, provide much needed clarity; Manne also parses the difference between sexism vs. misogyny. In my opinion Down Girl is destined to become a feminist literary classic alongside the likes of The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf or Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique. ― Jennifer Taylor Skinner, The Electorette podcast
In her new book, Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny, Kate Manne examines an unfortunately ubiquitous reality through an intriguing lens. Manne, who teaches philosophy at Cornell, looks at misogyny from the perspective of power: rather than focus on whether individual men are misogynists or feel deep hatred for women, we would do well to spend more time wrestling with the power structures that not only allow for endless sympathy and space for men's poor behavior, but also-most crucially-help teach men that women are supposed to behave in certain ways. ― Isaac Chotiner, "Punishment is Not Enough," Slate
What We're Reading: A compelling conversation [by Isaac Chotiner, Slate, see above] with Kate Manne, a professor of philosophy at Cornell University and the author of a new book on structural misogyny, may change the way you think about the #MeToo moment. She makes a case for treating the wave of revelations as an opportunity to re-examine a culture-wide system of discrimination, not just individual instances of bigotry and harassment. ― Amanda Taub, The New York Times
What is misogyny? How is it different from sexism? And why does the male-dominated status quo seem to persist? A new book by Cornell philosophy professor Kate Manne has answers. She argues that misogyny is not about male hostility or hatred toward women-instead, it's about controlling and punishing women who challenge male dominance. Misogyny rewards women who reinforce the status quo and punishes those who don't...This book calls attention to the roles we all play in society, roles that we're assigned at birth and rarely question, and how we punish people-especially women-when they defy those roles. ― Sean Illing, Vox
In the fiercely argued and timely study Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny (Oxford), the philosopher Kate Manne makes a consonant argument [with anthropologist Alan Fiske and psychologist Tage Rai] about sexual violence. "The idea of rapists as monsters exonerates by caricature," she writes, urging us to recognize "the banality of misogyny," the disturbing possibility that "people may know full well that those they treat in brutally degrading and inhuman ways are fellow human beings, underneath a more or less thin veneer of false consciousness...There has always been something optimistic about the idea that our worst acts of inhumanity are based on confusion. It suggests that we could make the world better simply by having a clearer grasp of reality... The truth may be harder to accept: that our best and our worst tendencies arise precisely from seeing others as human. ― Paul Bloom, The New Yorker
Kate Manne has written an urgently relevant, brilliant but accessible analysis of how patriarchy functions within our context...Brilliant discussions of "himpathy," victim blaming, and other related subjects follow...Manne's analysis is unflinching and, as things stand right now, there is little room for hope that the big picture is going to improve any time soon. This is very highly recommended reading. Hands down, one of the best books of the year. ― Journeying with Those in Exile
This timely work of practical philosophy argues that misogyny is not defined by any private emotion or motivation-such as hostility or hatred toward women-but rather by a social function-controlling and punishing women who challenge male dominance while rewarding women who reinforce the status quo. ― Adil Ahmad Haque, Just Security
Kate Manne's Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny is the most important book I've read this year... While Manne doesn't solve the problem or give us a neat or hopeful answer, understanding misogyny is an important first step, so we can recognize it and break the silence that enables it. ― Skye Cleary, The Reading Lists
Manne is a superb philosopher. Her feminist critiques are not just compelling but plainly stated. In this study, which I've been eagerly waiting for all year, she analyzes the systematic misogyny and sexism built into our culture and politics. It is a vital work demonstrating just how women are policed and silenced...it is one of the best books I've read this year. ― Misanthropester
A big, ambitious and engrossing book, Down Girl raises the questions we should all be asking...Manne's equanimity and epistemological delicacy further the debate, closing in on predators such as Weinstein and bullies such as Trump with more than good intent. She comes at the problem of misogyny from all angles, tearing it apart. ― The Australian
This is the type of book that should be required reading for everyone. It uses historical and statistical evidence to prove that misogyny has woven its way into the very thread of society. The book illustrates how it's so ingrained in our culture that people of both genders rarely seem aware of it, much less critical of it. Often, it becomes such a norm in our society, that we fail to recognize its extensive effects on our everyday lives. Which is exactly why this book is so needed...if you're looking for a book to start off your year with, "Down Girl" is an awesome choice. It's informative, eye-opening, and necessary. Leave 2017 behind. Take on 2018 head first with a real knowledge of how our world is currently working, and a better understanding of what you can do to change that. ― Lipstick & Politics
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About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Oxford University Press USA; 1st edition (23 October 2017)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 304 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0190604980
- ISBN-13 : 978-0190604981
- Dimensions : 21.34 x 3.3 x 14.99 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: 524,002 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 295 in Gender Studies Textbooks
- 1,513 in Social Philosophy
- 1,633 in Sex Guides
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Kate Manne is an associate professor of philosophy at Cornell University, having previously been a junior fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows from 2011-2013. She works in moral, social, and feminist philosophy. In addition to academic journals, her work has appeared in The New York Times, New York Magazine (The Cut), The Times Literary Supplement, The Huffington Post, CNN, Politico, The Washington Post, and The Boston Review. Her first book, Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny, was awarded the 2019 PROSE Award for Excellence in Philosophy and in the Humanities by the Association of American Publishers; it also won the American Philosophical Association Book Prize in 2019. In 2019, Manne was voted one of the world's top ten thinkers by Prospect Magazine (UK). Her second book, Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women, was named one of the best 15 books of 2020 by The Atlantic, and one of the best 15 feminist books by Esquire. Her third book, Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia, will be out in January 2024. http://www.katemanne.net/
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Top reviews from Australia
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- Reviewed in Australia on 10 December 2024Verified PurchaseImportant discussion.
Recommend for anyone interested in gender
- Reviewed in Australia on 11 June 2018Verified PurchaseOn my third re-read, such is the nuance and interest within book of Down Girl, The Logic of Misogyny. I haven't even begun to follow through bibliography and index work yet such is the depth of research. If you to understand misogyny better this is the book, misogyny as a tool, words and tools and action. Analytical and deeply insightful. Thankyou Dr. Kate Manne. No pressure but what is your next book?
Top reviews from other countries
- Amazon CustomerReviewed in Canada on 14 March 2019
5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful and necessary
Verified PurchaseKate Manne brings theoretical and analytical thinking to a field that desperately needs it, with a style that is accessible to all. She is an incredible philosopher, scholar and writer.
(She is also a powerful thought leader on Twitter, and her ongoing dialogue there continuously enriches the content of — and my connection with — her work)
- Peter HeroldReviewed in Germany on 1 August 2020
5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading for men
Verified PurchaseKate Manne concludes Down Girl on a pessimistic note: “Even trying [to present misogyny as a disciplining mechanism in our heteropatriarchal society] is liable to make me seem nasty, abrasive, and pushy (dare I say, shrilly) and give rise to the sort of resistance that […] tends to be fatal. Or, if one does manage to sugar-coat it, it becomes self-defeating. So I give up. I wish I could offer a more hopeful message.“
I think Manne’s pessimism is unjustified, though as a cis and read-as-heterosexual man it’s much easier for me to say this than it is for her since I don’t sound (womanly) shrill, untrustworthy and/or unreliable with ideas above my station when I try to explain to other men (and some women) that our women-as-givers, men-as-entitled-receivers worldview is both unjustified and sub-optimal except for a minority (white cishet men and their partners) as well as being deeply discriminatory and plain immoral.
In 8 chapters, which you can read one after another (as I did) or singly after reading the introduction and conclusion for orientation - in both cases print out the table of contents to keep track of where you are (I didn’t do this and sometimes was missing where I was in the overall roadmap) - Manne justifies her concept and analysis of misogyny with both empirical evidence (from poetry for kids and Twitter rants through to killings of women and the cases of Hillary Clinton and Julia Gillard) and (analytic philosophical - but it’s not too hard 😉) investigation of what we can understand under the terms “misogyny“ and “sexism“. Once you’ve got the general idea, you can dive back into the book to find the most suitable arguments and evidence for a given situation. Which I fully intend to do and which all men should do, only men can fix this situation, starting off by recognising it and then choosing the best candidate for a given job or political office having removed the distorting misogynistic glasses.
- Holly WelkerReviewed in the United States on 6 May 2018
5.0 out of 5 stars Misogyny Is a Moral Priority
Verified PurchaseI LOVED this book. It was not an easy or a quick read, but it relied on such interesting narratives and made so many surprising, provocative points that I often stayed up reading well past my bedtime because I truly found it hard to put down.
Much of the book was validating and affirming rather than challenging; I've spent a lot of years now attempting to explain misogyny to people who aren't really sure it A) exists or B) harms women all ~that~ much if it does exist, so especially in the first third of the book, a primary pleasure was encountering ideas I understood already and seeing Manne express them succinctly and defend them very thoroughly. In particular, I was completely on board with Manne's observation that
//a woman is regarded as ~owing~ her human capacities to particular people, often men or his children within heterosexual relationships that also uphold white supremacy, and who are in turn deemed entitled to her services. This might be envisaged as the de facto legacy of coverture law—a woman’s being ‘spoken for’ by her father, and afterward her husband, then son-in-law, and so on. And it is plausibly part of what makes women more broadly somebody’s ~mother, sister, daughter, grandmother,~ always somebody’s someone, and seldom her own person. But this is not because she’s not held to be a person at all, but rather because her personhood is held to be owed to others, in the form of service labor, love, and loyalty. (173)//
That squares absolutely with explicit statements I encountered especially at church about "the divine role of women." And one reason I like this book is because, without ever acknowledging that such a thing exists, it demolishes the nonsense feminism known as "complementarianism": the idea that men and women have different roles by divine decree and that you can argue for women's full empowerment by saying that they owe the men in their lives all this nurturance and support—that, in fact, real feminism will help women be more nurturing and supportive of dudes. [Seriously. There are women who claim to be feminists who say this stuff.]
What I really had to grapple with was Manne's analysis and rejection of the idea that the problem with misogyny is that men fail to see women as human and that certain harmful behaviors would stop if men could fully recognize women as human:
//a fellow human being is not just an intelligible ~spouse, parent, child, sibling, friend, colleague,~ etc., in relation to you and yours. They are also an intelligible ~rival, enemy, usurper, insubordinate, betrayer,~ etc. Moreover, in being capable of rationality, agency, autonomy, and judgment, they are also someone who could coerce, manipulate, humiliate, and shame you. In being capable of abstract relational thought and congruent moral emotions, they are capable of thinking ill of you and regarding you contemptuously (147)....
We may see others as ~rivals, insubordinates, usurpers, betrayers,~ and ~enemies~ (inter alia), without ever losing sight of these people's full humanity. And we may subsequently be disposed to try to defeat, chastise, trounce, punish, destroy and permanently close the eyes of those we know full well are people like us (158) ....
People may know full well that those they treat in brutally degrading and inhumane ways are fellow human beings, underneath a more or less thin veneer of false consciousness. And yet, under certain social conditions—the surface of which I've just barely scratched in this chapter—they may massacre, torture, and rape them ~en masse~ regardless. (168)//
By the end I was persuaded. I think she's right.
I also really dug the coinages "himpathy" and "herasure."
Manne acknowledges that her polemic isn't likely to succeed in creating a lot of new converts to the cause: she writes that she is not particularly "optimistic about the prospects of getting people to take misogyny seriously—including treating it as a moral priority, when it is—unless they already do so” (280) in part because “Misogyny is a self-masking problem. Trying to draw attention to it is illicit by the lights of the phenomenon itself, since women are supposed to minister to others, rather than solicit moral attention and concern on their own behalf.” (281-82)
But if you already consider misogyny a moral problem, this book is a terrific resource because it lays out the stakes so clearly and articulates strong, coherent responses to common objections to feminist ideology.
- DebsReviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 September 2018
5.0 out of 5 stars It's the COSTS not the MOTIVE.
Verified PurchaseDr. Manne has written a well-researched, reader-friendly book on misogyny, the content of which should be included as core curriculum in middle schools. Dr. Manne addresses several limitations (who can cover everything in one book?) to her thesis such as misogynoir, equal rights for transwomen, etc., but has more than sufficiently researched and defended her argument regarding misogyny. She examines misogyny as the enduring traditions, customs and actions that signal women to “stay in their lane” and not compete for roles, jobs, titles or the economics traditionally retained by men. Identifying misogyny as the COSTS women bear and not the MOTIVES of the men involved was one of the significant takeaways for me.
Like Prof. Manne, I agree dehumanisation (depriving a person of human qualities, instead attributing animal-like qualities to them) is not the main mechanism of misogyny, but it certainly is one practice that will signal misogyny is at work to keep women in their lane (note the terms men use when discussing women’s sexuality, particularly when women’s choices are seen as ‘outside their lane’).
I originally bought this book as the Audible version but added the paper book to mark vital passages for further reference. You won’t be sorry you purchased this book.