Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny

A work of moral and social philosophy that asks what misogyny is and why it persists in societies that officially accept equality. Manne rejects the 'naive conception' of misogyny as individual men's hatred of women. Instead she treats it as a feature of social environments: the law-enforcement branch of patriarchy, which polices and punishes women who challenge gendered norms and expectations, while sexism is the justifying branch, the ideology that makes those norms seem natural. On her account women are expected to give feminine-coded goods such as attention, care, sex and deference, and are punished for withholding them or for taking masculine-coded goods such as power and authority. She argues that misogyny does not require seeing women as less than human. She coins 'himpathy' for the excessive sympathy shown to male perpetrators, and applies her framework to the Isla Vista killings, the Brock Turner case and the 2016 US presidential election.

It gives precise terms for patterns many people recognise but struggle to name, and shows how careful philosophical analysis can clarify heated public arguments about gender and power.