Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny by Kate Manne

Started: November 2024

Finished: Dec 16, 2024

Genre: nonfiction, philosophy, sociology

This was a philosophy book exploring the logic of misogyny by first clarifying and ameliorating the term to make it more useful, then applies that framework to explain misogynistic phenomena, from mainsplaining and himpathy all the way to family annihilators. This book argued that it is naive to conceptualize misogyny in terms of individual men's bigotries, neuroses, pathologies, intentions, arguing over wether their actions can be explained or not by a true hatred or bigotry toward women, and that it is better understood in terms of the effects on its victims and what kinds of hostilities women are likely to face when they are perceived to defy their functional and relational roles within a deeply entrenched social structure that is internalized by both men and women. Manne often describes the discomfort one might feel at seeing women defy their roles as givers and nurturers as inchoate, highlighting that one need not have an active or conscious hatred for or even dislike against women (though many misogynists do), but naturally feel threatened. A woman experiences misogyny not because she's faced with individual bigotry (which can be argued to be much rarer today than it would have been in, say, the 1950s), but simply because she is a woman in what is still, functionally, a man's world.

I think it was all pretty salient. I do feel like I have a much better grasp on how to approach the topic of misogyny in general. Pretty bleak stuff, though. It makes a lot of things make a lot of sense. I should elaborate but I won't.

The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning by Maggie Nelson

Started: October 2024

Finished: Dec 15, 2024

Genre: Nonfiction, art, cultural criticism

This book was a really great resource for finding out about art that I'd be interested in. This author aimed to explore different types of art that depicts cruelty and violence and tries to draw distinctions between the kind that is valuable and necessary, and the kind that does more harm than good. This interested me as someone who tends to consume a lot of media depicting violence and cruelty as a horror fan. I'll admit I felt somewhat indicted by some of Nelson's criticisms as she is pretty hard on some works that I personally quite enjoy. I'm embracing the discomfort and really sitting with what I think is the most useful takeaway, which is that art's duty is to wisen us up to the myriad ways we are held prisoner (of which depiction of cruelty and violence can be part), as opposed to the art of cruelty which is mainly focused on abject viscera and sensation in a way that takes cruelty and violence for granted in ways that perpetuate and romanticize it, and in the end constitues a cruelty in itself, either to the audience or participants in the making. I pretty much agree and will take that with me as I move forward as an enjoyer of the abject. It'd be cool if I could come back here and talk about like, Terrifier 3 vs a film like City of God (which the author hatedd btw).