Misogyny

As a follow-up to my earlier post on anti-feminist language, I read a very good article in The Independent today about misogynist attitudes in the media. It's worth reading. It's written from a male perspective about the tendency in the media to vilify women, i.e. when there is a male criminal, label the woman in his life as a Lady Macbeth character. He traces this trend back to the story of the Fall in Genesis, which I can certainly confirm was made heavy use of in the Middle Ages when men wanted to find reasons to put women down.

I think it's so important to be aware of these attitudes so that we can avoid falling into them ourselves. I'm by no means saying that all misogynists are men. Plenty are women too, and here is the danger, going back to Ms Spender's arguments. There is a whole cultural mindset to be overcome.

There's another good article on the problems of equality in art, also in the Independent today. Joan Bakewell looks at the problems of redressing the balance in art galleries, given the lack of possibilities for female artists through history, which means the preponderance of male representations (not representations of males) in art galleries. The proliferation of female artists nowadays means that in modern terms they have equal opportunities - assuming that they receive the same amount for their paintings - but what can be done to redress the balance of the past?

Oh, and Mr Johns, the answer is absolutely. How can women receive equal treatment in the workplace if there is a need to differentiate between the genders?