A Brief History of Misogyny: the World's Oldest Prejudice

Brief Histories

By: Jack Holland

Narrated by: Cameron Stewart

In this compelling, powerful book, highly respected writer and commentator Jack Holland sets out to answer a daunting question: How do you explain the oppression and brutalization of half the world's population by the other half, throughout history? The result takes the listener on an eye-opening journey through centuries, continents, and civilizations as it looks at both historical and contemporary attitudes to women.

Encompassing the Church, witch hunts, sexual theory, Nazism and pro-life campaigners, we arrive at today's developing world, where women are increasingly and disproportionately at risk because of radicalised religious belief, famine, war and disease. Well-informed and researched, highly readable and thought-provoking, this is no outmoded feminist polemic: It's a refreshingly straightforward investigation into an ancient, pervasive, and enduring injustice. It deals with the fundamentals of human existence - sex, love, violence - that have shaped the lives of humans throughout history.

The answer? It's time to recognize that the treatment of women amounts to nothing less than an abuse of human rights on an unthinkable scale. A Brief History of Misogyny is an important and timely book that will make a long-lasting contribution to the efforts to improve those rights throughout the world.

Jack Holland was a highly respected author and journalist known particularly for his commentary about Northern Irish politics. He grew up in Belfast (where he was taught by Seamus Heaney) and worked with Jeremy Paxman and other outstanding journalists at BBC Belfast during a period of seminal current affairs programming. Jack published four novels and seven works of non-fiction, most of the latter having to do with politics and terrorism in Northern Ireland, including the best-selling Phoenix. Sadly, Jack died of cancer in 2004, just after the manuscript of Misogyny had been delivered and accepted by his US publisher. On his death, his family received letters of respect from statesmen including Ted Kennedy and Hilary Clinton, who had come to rely on his balanced analysis of Irish politics.

©2013 Jack Holland (P)2013 Audible Ltd

Critic reviews

"Jack Holland's Misogyny, an invaluable addition...meticuously researched and briskly related." ( Sunday Times,)

An Excellent History of a Repulsive Subject

First off, this is an important book that everyone -- particularly men -- should read. It does a good job revealing the long, grizzly history of misogyny, a necessary endeavor given how often the purported inferiority of women is taken for granted even in contemporary Western culture. It is often so disturbing that I imagine it would scare a lot of casual sexists into reexamining their views, were it incorporated into, say, a high school curriculum.

There are some shortcomings. For one, any history that begins with the kindling of Western civilization and proceeds to the present in a mere 10 hours is going to be somewhat generalized at times. Some of the bits on Greek and Roman history tends to treat these as somewhat more homogenous than might a book specifically about one of those topics, for instance.

The concluding chapter may be divisive among feminist listeners because it comes down on the side of there being innate differences between men and women, and claims that to deny this is to deny part of women's humanity. Holland's justifications for this view are unsatisfying, and I question the need for such a book to espouse any opinion on this matter -- the thesis feels tacked on to what is otherwise a brilliant work of research and observation.

Excellent narration.

Clear, concise, and unarguable. Bravo.

As a male, and a Caucasian male at that, I have unjustified privilege stolen from women and non-Caucasians over millennia, even though I am not wealthy, and despite my deliberately trying not to exercise this privilege. In this book, the author eloquently makes the case for this historical atrocity, puts it in context, and suggests how we humans might begin making a better world for all of us. Listening to it, I have renewed motivation to do what I can to help, or at least, to avoid setting back the positive start that some have made, including this author.

Pervasive, persistent, pernicious and protean

“No other prejudice has proved so durable or shares those other characteristics to anything like the same extent. No race has suffered such prejudicial treatment over so long a period of time. No group of individuals, however they might be characterized, has been discriminated against on such a global scale. Nor has any prejudice manifested itself under so many different guises…and very few have been this destructive. Yet these very features that should have made misogyny stand out, have rendered it, in a strange way, inconspicuous. In the case of misogyny, we have too often relinquished the struggle to see what is in front of our noses.”

Jack Holland provides an interesting look at how classical Greek thought dehumanized women and perpetuated misogynist beliefs through its inclusion into all facets of Western civilization—from natural philosophy to religious texts to scientific and societal advancements, etc, to the point that misogyny is so pervasive it’s accepted as normal even in it’s most extreme forms. The book explores misogyny through the lens of dualism where “men [are] the thesis and women the antithesis”, with the premise being that possibly men and women had a more balanced relationship and interacted/saw one another as pieces of a whole, which eventually changed, notably around 800BC in the Eastern Mediterranean. During this time, written creation stories, using man’s innate fear of “otherness”, blamed the harshness, unpredictably and general unknowingness of man’s existence on women—those mystifying creatures who, while being generally weaker and smaller than men still held so much power in their necessity for man’s survival, and for some, the gratification of physical needs.

“…tracing the history of any hatred is a complex matter. At the root of any particular form of hatred…one usually finds a conflict. But on the depressing list of hatreds...none other than misogyny involves the profound need and desires that most men have for women and most women for men. Hatred coexists with desire in a peculiar way…this is what makes misogyny so complex. It involves a man’s conflict with himself. Indeed, for the most part, it’s not even recognized.”

Holland follows how dualism, with woman being the destroyer of man and purveyor all of the worlds ills was incorporated into the classical life and thought of men whose words helped shape so much of modern Western societies.

“The history of misogyny is indeed the story of a hatred unique as it is enduring, uniting Aristotle with Jack the Ripper, King Lear with James Bond.”

Holland also highlights that misogyny is so ingrained and almost mundane in the world that people not only shrug or overlook the contempt of women inherent in commonly used slurs and slang or in a rape culture where women are blamed and punished, but in extreme violence against women as well.

“…Gary Rideway… repeated “guilty” over and over again to charges of strangling 48 young women…had the victims of his murderous rampage been Jews or African Americans, there would have been a national alarm sounded and acres of print covered with soul-searching questions about the state of race relations in the United States... Yet the actions of a Ridgeway or a Jack the Ripper are usually left to a psychiatrist to explain. Their urge to kill women is seen as an aberration when in truth it is simply an intensification of a commonplace prejudice. The spectrum of misogyny which runs from the contempt of “cunt”…to the murderous rage of a serial killer…”

Since the book is so Western-centric, there isn’t much regarding misogyny in non-Western thought outside of how Western culture may have enhanced or even radicalized it in some African and Middle eastern countries or when used as a random example of misogyny. How misogyny may have become so prevalent in Asian, island or other cultures outside of the generalized fear/abhorrence of “the other” is not explored at all. However, this is still a thoughtful and informative book about the world’s oldest prejudice.

“It has survived in one form or another over immense periods of time, emerging seemingly unchanged from the cataclysms that had engulfed empires and cultures and swept away their other modes of thought and feeling. It persists after philosophical and scientific revolutions have seemingly transformed permanently how we look at the world…It comes back to haunt our ideals of equality…”

Further reading required

An extremely enlightening overview of misogyny. The book requires more of a primer in history/philosophy than I had.... but I still found this very beneficial.

Must Read!

This is a must read book for women, considering the integration of misogyny in our cultures.

fantastic historical accounting

great listen. the orator is perfect for this book and the subject matter was perfectly written.

Every human should read this book...

...or listen to it (age appropriateness notwithstanding). Are you a male or female or some combination thereof or do you someone who is? Then this history cannot be left unheard and unaddressed.
You may agree, disagree, or have no opinion on issues that make up what is misogyny- but do not live in ignorance. Educate yourself. Elevate your position and that which you believe defends it and learn all sides of the issues. Be kind to one another.

A HISTORY of misogyny

This work, while well researched and excellently narrated, focuses on a historical narrative of the intellectual justification of misogyny, rather than providing an analysis of its root causes. A great "read" nonetheless.

Seek justice and love mercy

This work was simply fantastic. I don't understand how I could have possibly stumbled upon this book without it being first recommended to me. This book should be more widely circulated and I would recommend this book to almost anyone.

I will likely listen to this book again in the not distant future. As a male, American, conservative-leaning evangelical Christian, I would implore anyone like me to go ahead and buy this book.

Fascinating read

Reading this book make one realize how far we went in lights of women rights. Still long way to go but seeing the progress so far, is encouraging.

I liked how this book was written and it was easy to listen to.