Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s fiery speech on misogyny has prompted Australia’s leading dictionary to update its definition of the word. Footage of Ms Gillard lambasting the opposition’s Tony Abbott as a misogynist in parliament last week drew global attention. The Macquarie Dictionary describes misogyny as ”hatred of women” but editor Sue Butler says it will be expanded to ”entrenched prejudice against women” in the next edition.
A speech can change the dictionary.
Misogyny is defined as ‘hatred of women’ or ‘hatred, dislike, or mistrust of women’. I like what Michael Flood says, ‘though most common in men, misogyny also exists in and is practiced by women against other women or even themselves. Misogyny functions as an ideology or belief system that has accompanied patriarchal, or male-dominated societies for thousands of years and continues to place women in subordinate positions with limited access to power and decision making.’
Misogyny is ‘the root of patriarchy’. Patriarchy will not survive without misogyny.
I wish I could delete the word ‘misogyny’ from the dictionaries. But misogyny will definitely not disappear from society today. Better to erase it from people’s mind before we go to erase it from various places.