Andrew Tate and Andrea Dworkin: The Faces of Sexism

Here, I consider why there are woman-haters and man-haters, how the two are similar, and where both go wrong.

1. Gender Resentment

Many people harbor resentment or disdain towards the opposite sex. There are many women who basically think that men are bad—exploitative oppressors, always on the verge of committing rape and mayhem, chauvinistic, self-centered, etc. On the other hand, there are many men who basically think that women are bad—untrustworthy, gold-diggers, incompetent, mentally unstable, etc. Both groups commonly find the opposite sex to be cold-hearted and exploitative.

Aside: “Men are exploitative” is an example of what they call a “generic” in philosophy of language, a generalization in which the quantifier is unspecified. (Are we talking about all men, some men, most men …?) Other examples include “dogs are smarter than cats” and “mosquitos carry the West Nile virus.” Often, it’s just a statement about averages or majorities, but not always. Only a small percentage of mosquitos actually carry West Nile, yet we can still say “mosquitos carry the virus.”

In our example: perhaps “men are exploitative” means that the frequency of exploitative behavior by men is more than one would expect, or significantly more than that found in women, or something like that.

The callousness that the two sexes complain about tends to take different forms. Women tend to complain that men lie to get sex, pretend to be interested in a serious relationship, then leave as soon as they get sex. On the other hand, men complain that women cheat on their partners.

These things happen partly because there are differences in what each sex finds upsetting; thus, each sex fails to grasp how incredibly upsetting these behaviors are to the other sex. They also happen partly due to individuals not caring about others’ perspectives or what effect they have on other people.

Misogyny

Andrew Tate is a self-described misogynist with a large online following. Some quotes:

“I’m a realist and when you’re a realist, you’re sexist. There’s no way you can be rooted in reality and not be sexist.”

“Women shouldn’t vote because they don’t care about issues outside of how THEY feel”

“A woman’s true power lies in her ability to inspire and support her man.”

“If you put yourself in a position to be raped, you must bare [sic] some responsibility”

“I have nothing to talk to women