The best explanation I've ever encountered for misogyny -- for male violence against women, and really, for male violence in general -- is the book "Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence." In a nutshell, it explains that violence is a part of being a male primate because it has played a role (evolutionarily) in successful reproduction; that is, the male primates most likely to reproduce have tended to be those who are most violent. Since males do not bear children, the only way they can control their own reproduction is to control a female. Well, our primate cousins -- chimps and gorillas in particular -- do just that, and violence is a primary tactic. Fortunately, among all the primates, there is the bonobo. Among bonobos, males and females co-exist peacefully and apparently happily. And, actually, if we consider humans as just another primate, we're doing pretty well ourselves. We've imbued our reproduction with love and family; more and more, men are choosing to be loving husbands and fathers -- partners, if you will, rather than dominators. Yes, we still have a ways to go, but we are moving toward an end to the "battle of the sexes." One can hope, anyway.

*sigh*

He's right, but it is a matter of degree. I'd still rather be here than there.

Thanks for posting this. I went through and read Joss' post, and completely agree with him. Brilliant.

Eve's Seed is a paleo-anthropology book that seeks to address this exact problem. The author's point of view in that book is that it wasn't until we perfected agriculture that women began to be subjugated and treated as "property". Basically, before humans understood that planting seed bore a harvest several months later, they had no idea where babies came from. The author claims that if you go to tribes that don't practice agriculture (the example he used was Australian aborigines), they think that men are basically irrelevant to the reproduction process. Also, it's interesting to note that cultures that practice agriculture have male Gods while cultures that didn't practice agriculture had female Gods.

Once agriculture took root, men began viewing women as property just like their fields. The men planted seed in a fertile field (either soil or woman) that they own, and they control the harvest that comes from it.

The primate violence explanation is intriguing, but it doesn't explain why agriculture seems to be such a key variable in how subjugated women are.

re: "Demonic Males":

I'm really fucking tired of "sociobiology" Just-So stories. I'll be marginally more impressed if someone ever comes up with a similar hand-waved scientific-sounding theory for why humans are so good at coming up with lame, simplistic explanations for why we treat each other like shit.

(I wonder if other primates are as prone to making large suppositions from limited knowledge as humans are, and what the evolutionary benefit of that trait is.)

Really, the most one can say for theories like this is that they might not be entirely wrong. Humans behave like humans, which is to say that we behave in all sorts of ways depending on all sorts of factors, of which genetics is one, though its relative importance is unclear. Well, one could speculate that it all traces back to genetics *eventually*, as genetics probably has at least some influence on our susceptibility to various factors, including social ones. But heck, from genetics you could trace it another step back to chemistry, and then back to fundamental constants, and then ...

Joss is carping about a stereotype. He could just as easily have asked "what's wrong with men". Then he could have used the violent movie behavior in Captivity to illustrate his point.

As for the "demonic males" post - it really does seem genetic. The biggest ape breeds the females. Observe human females. They tend to find big to be very attractive and tend to see short as a mortal sin. They also tend to find overt displays of power and control over resources to be attractive.

Joss is carping about a stereotype. He could just as easily have asked "what's wrong with men". Then he could have used the violent movie behavior in Captivity to illustrate his point.

"Carping about a stereotype" is a neat way to try and reduce a real problem in our (and for that matter, all other) society to something we can shrug off as a minor thing.

Violence against women because they are women, and the general idea that women are socially inferior to men is as pervasive, enduring, and ultimately harmful as racism and religious intolerance, and yet we persist in writing it off as a minor problem. Because it's better here. Especially if "here" is San Francisco, as it is in my case.

The thing is, Joss is drawing attention to the fact that, while women have been getting killed in horror movies since the inception of the slasher film, torture porn has been on the increase lately, and what it says about our society and its views of women is frightening. Between the real-life violence of honor killings, the torture porn horror flicks, and the ANTM murder photo shoot, things are starting to feel just a little more creepy that we've been used to for the XX set in the U.S.

I do think that we underestimate the importance of weather or at least rainfall in how people end up treating each other.

In the Pacific Islands where you have very adaquate rainfall you can have four harvests a year, and they are largely matriarchial and very benign to women and children.

In Iraq and other countries, which spawn latter day terrorists are largely barren with minimal rainfall. There is little growing there but shrub. Goats and sheep are the only animals worth rearing. Extreme poverty is pervasive. What wealth there is belongs to the elite. Political, economic, social and sexual change is not possible through democratic means. Their mineral wealth and the profits from selling to the Western world are not plowed back into irrigation schemes and the sinking of deep artesian wells.

Men are trained to be warriors, as their lands have been invaded for centuries past by those seeking their mineral wealth. To keep men focused and motivated to become and remain dedicated warriors, distractions are kept to a minimum. Artificial amusements, alcohol, or in particular sexual intimacy, and loving tenderness between adolescents are severely constrained.

Any form of sexual intimacy is only available within marriage. Sex outside of marriage is punishable by death for both partners. As many men are unable to afford the costs of marriage until they are middle-aged the incidence of sexual and emotional frustration is high.

Women are curtailed from meeting possible partners by social constraints. Usually parents arrange marriages. Women’s dress has to be non-provocative and any behaviour that might arouse celibate bachelors or married men are strictly forbidden.

Many of these cultures subject their young women to the barbarities of genital mutilation, depriving them and their partners of a satisfying and fulfilling sex life. Intimate acts of sex can be hideously painful, and childbirth agonising and life threatening. Tender interchanges of affection between unmarried couples are impossible. The unavailability of sex workers, homosexual liaisons, all under the threat of a barbaric death leads to an enormous potential for violence.

It is little wonder that these cultures deplore what they see as the depravity of the West. Offended by the provocative manner in which women dress, further enraged by the West trying to pressure Muslim schoolgirls from wearing the hijah. It is little wonder that they regard our culture with such hatred and disdain.

It is hardly surprising that suicide bombers lacking the ability to change the political, economic, social and sexual structure of their society may be drawn to the prospect of spending eternity in the company of 70 virgins. A powerful solution to their miserable lives which is also sanctioned by some of their religious leaders and admired by many in their society.

Oh, if only the lessons of the Bonobos could be taught to these cultures but for that to happen you need to have rain, and sushine mixed. And of course a democratic culture with artisian wells and irrigation installed.

Rayner