As is customary, we began the class with Mood Check. We then proceeded to discuss the assigned reading: the introduction to, and the first chapter of Down Girl, by Kate Manne, and “Freedom and Resentment” by Peter Strawson.
We began our conversation by differentiating between and sexism and misogyny – sexism being an ideology or worldview that says that men are superior to women; misogyny being, in its naive form, a hatred of women, simply on the basis of their sex. In its more complex form, misogyny is a mechanism that enforces the norms and attitudes that are laid down by sexism. It is primarily located in the reactive attitudes towards women that both uphold and violate society’s gender norms. For example, one may feel positively toward a woman when she is nurturing, and negatively towards her when she is outspoken and bossy. Manne’s main project in her novel is to redefine misogyny, an effort she defines as the amelorative conception of misogyny, with the primary intention being to find a better way to use the term within society.
Doctor Gallegos then went on to state that the norms that govern gender are about providing certain female and male coded goods, but that, interestingly, none of the female coded goods mentioned by Manne have anything to do with biology. This is important to note because our discussion prior to Dr. Gallegos’ elucidation was centralized on women and their role in childbirth and motherhood, two falsely assumed female coded goods.
An important point was then brought up: Manne, and her audience, must make the assumption that sexism exists, and that it is problematic. We must be committed to overturning sexism, and in doing so, we must further believe that the biological differences that exist between men and women do not pose any challenge to this endeavor.
A philosophical puzzle was then raised: why does society both endorse and dislike sexist attitudes? This puzzle was contextualized with reference to the show, The Office. The Office is riddled with sexist jokes and assumptions that were, and still are, highly praised by both men and women for their comedic effect – why?
In shrouding its sexist remarks with humor, The Office forces its audience to take for granted the notion that sexist ideas are normalized (or else we wouldn’t understand the show’s humor); this raises the question as to whether art mirrors reality or simply enforces societal gender norms.
For the last fifteen minutes of class we discussed the Strawson piece, ‘Freedom and Resentment’. The conversation was kickstarted by Strawson’s assertion that more responsibility is in our reactive attitudes. Reactive attitudes are emotions about expectations of how an interaction should go, as experienced by a participant in the interaction. It was then stated that resentment is the paradigmatic reactive attitude, while other reactive attitudes include forgiveness, mistrust, indignation, disappointment in something, hope in something.
The latter examples demonstrate the call-and-response quality of reactive attitudes, in that when one experiences a reactive attitude, he is expecting that his conversant responds. For example, when one is sulking, they are calling out for someone to ask, “What’s wrong?” Reactive attitudes are furthermore second personal, meaning that they can be directed towards another person. To elucidate, anger towards an object is frustration, but anger towards a person is resentment.
We then went on to discuss the background context of Strawson’s text: moral responsibility and determinism. Strawson states that the practices of moral responsibility are constituted by moral emotions, and that even if causal determinism exists, we are still going to hold people responsible for their actions.
The Bossy-Backlash
In our class discussion, we reviewed Manne’s description of female-coded goods, as well as the characteristics Manne lists out describing the way women are expected act: “loving wives, devoted moms, “cool” girlfriends, loyal secretaries, or good waitresses, to name just a few” (47). On these grounds, we can look at Strawson’s reactive attitudes to see how these attitudes maintain this system of backlash by expecting female-coded goods.
As said above, reactive attitudes are emotions about expectations of how an interaction should go. In our misogynist institutions and systems (as Manne describes), both men and women alike expect women to interact as “loyal secretaries” and “devoted moms,” etc. When women do not fill these expectations, such as refuse to breast-feed their children, they become subjects of feelings of resentment or other reactive attitudes that may come forth: disappointment, irritation, etc.
Other forms of backlash, as Manne describes, can be overt and negative descriptions of the woman’s character. If she acts out of line, her character may be labeled way out of proportion: “She refused to have coffee with me, so she’s a prude.” “She said she would do x for me but she didn’t, so she’s a liar.” Or worse, as Sheryl Sandberg argues, “when a boy asserts himself, society calls him a leader. When a girl does it, she is called bossy.”
Sandberg, the COO of Facebook, argues that calling young girls “bossy” is the beginning: it is a youthful form of backlash (reactive attitude from others expecting them not to assert themselves) that teaches them to feel uncomfortable in taking leadership. “Words like bossy send a message: Don’t speak up or take the lead. By middle school, girls are less interested in leading than boys — a trend that continues into adulthood,” Sandberg explains on her website.
Let us pause for a moment and look at J.K. Rowling’s character Hermione Granger. For young girls, Hermione serves as one of the few characters whom they can look up to as a role model for leadership. She consistently calls the shots, saving both Harry and Ron, and she teaches young girls that it is exciting to love school, study, and speak up in class. All of this, however, does not come without a price for Hermione. For the majority of the series, Ron (and other characters) makes fun of her and dislikes her for being a “know-it-all.” We cannot know for sure why J.K. Rowling chose to let Hermione suffer socially for her own personal achievements (which no other female character in the novel can accomplish), but it does tell us one thing: even for, arguably, the most famous female heroine for young girls of the 2000s, reactive attitudes were a part of the deal of assertion.
From Sandberg’s revolution against the generation of “bossy,” we learn that women experience the backlash of misogyny starting from a very young age. If we were to remove all misogynistic-based reactive attitudes, would that entirely disintegrate the power of misogyny in “policing and enforcing” the patriarchal system Manne describes? As Sandberg outlines, it would certainly be a start by eliminating the term “bossy,” at least so that young girls do not develop a subconscious of insecurity that makes them less enthusiastic to lead. Ultimately, this class discussion outlined the ways in which reactive attitudes and the misogynistic backlash play hand-in-hand, and led us to question where we might be in the stage of misogyny if reactive attitudes and expectations of female-coded goods did not coincide.
Shared by: Jenna and Katherine