Misandry. Around Pauline Harmange’s Essay I Hate Men

The object of reflection is Pauline Harmange’s famous essay, I Hate Men (2020). I start from the perturbations it caused on the political scene, then try to situate it on the French map of feminist and anti-feminist movements since the 1970s, asking about the place from which the young essayist speaks. I consider the central issue to be the misandric discourse she has activated, and around it I (re)construct a spectrum of issues that, in her view, illuminate it. I trace the “archaeology” of the word misandry, which is not anchored in the everyday reality, including the academic one. I ask about  its function by juxtaposing two contradictory perspectives: Harmange’s feminist one and the anti-feminist one whose activists proclaim misogynist and sexist slogans. The symmetrical or asymmetrical approaches to misandry and misogyny are also arranged at these poles. Harmange, while cultivating misandric attitudes among women, consistently enumerates the benefits they should derive from misandry.

The object of reflection is Pauline Harmange’s famous essay, I Hate Men (2020). I start from the perturbations it caused on the political scene, then try to situate it on the French map of feminist and anti-feminist movements since the 1970s, asking about the place from which the young essayist speaks. I consider the central issue to be the misandric discourse she has activated, and around it I (re)construct a spectrum of issues that, in her view, illuminate it. I trace the “archaeology” of the word misandry, which is not anchored in the everyday reality, including the academic one. I ask about  its function by juxtaposing two contradictory perspectives: Harmange’s feminist one and the anti-feminist one whose activists proclaim misogynist and sexist slogans. The symmetrical or asymmetrical approaches to misandry and misogyny are also arranged at these poles. Harmange, while cultivating misandric attitudes among women, consistently enumerates the benefits they should derive from misandry.