The following document is a meta-commentary on the article, "La misogynie à visage féminin: Hircan's Role as Marguerite's Anti-feminist Voice in the Heptaméron (VII & XLIX)," co-authored by Dr. Robert J. Hudson and myself, which will shortly be submitted for publication. It contains an annotated bibliography of all our primary and secondary sources and an account of writing the article. Our article examines what Marguerite de Navarre, the sixteenth-century French Renaissance author of the Heptaméron (a collection 72 nouvelles, all supposedly true stories being told by a group of ten devisants to one another), intended by her inclusion of the misogynist, Hircan. As we demonstrate, current scholarships views Marguerite as one of the first authors to create a space for women in literature, and further, that the Heptaméron was meant to serve the didactic purpose of forming young ladies' perspectives and behavior. Given this, Hircan, whose debasing views on women are shared in each of his stories and interlocutory commentaries, seems an odd devsiant for Marguerite to create; and so, we ask, why did she include him? We conclude that Hircan serves as Marguerite's straw man for the worst aspects of sixteenth-century French society, allowing her to subvert him and demonstrate how Hircan (and by extension, French society's) views towards women ought to be considered inappropriate. To support our reading, we start by explaining the historical context, demonstrating that the attitudes Hircan represents did indeed exist and were prevalent. We then show how Marguerite undermines Hircan: first, by making him so grotesque that the reader finds his views repugnant, and second, in allowing other devisants—especially Parlamente and Oisille—to use superior arguments to overturn his perspectives. Finally, we demonstrate how Marguerite uses Hircan's own tales against him, by having his fellow devisants interpret his stories completely differently from his womanizing and debasing purposes—instead find praise for women in them.

Studiens syfte är att granska och utforska incels som fenomen genom att analysera dominerande diskurser och centrala komponenter på hemsidan incels.is. Studiens frågeställningar har uppkommit genom de främst dominerande och centrala diskurserna som upprätthålls på incels.is, vilka är: samhället, kön och feminism samt våld. Studiens teoretiska ramverk har utgått från en socialkonstruktivistisk diskursanalys med inspiration från den Foucauldianska diskursanalysen. Michél Foucaults begrepp makt, språk och kunskap har vidare använts för att undersöka maktaspekten och maktlösheten som uttrycks på incels.is. Begreppen har även använts i syfte att undersöka språkets betydelse och vad som är tillåtet att säga och inte samt vem som har tillåtelse att säga något. Vidare har Yvonne Hirdmans och Raewyn Connells teorier kring genussystemet och hegemonisk maskulinitet använts i syfte att undersöka maskulinitetsdiskursen, konstruktionen av kön samt våldsfrågan. Studien har genom en kvalitativ metod och netnografisk ansats använt diskursanalys för att analysera inlägg på hemsidan incels.is i syfte att belysa vilka dominerande diskurser som kan urskiljas. Empirin till studie är publicerade i citatform och har alla publicerats under mars månad 2021. Uppsatsens resultat har visat på att användarna på incels.is upplever att resten av världen är emot dem samt att de inte får plats i den socialistiska och feministiska världsbild som de beskriver. Användarna uttrycker vidare att det är feminismen och kvinnor som är skyldiga det upplevda förtryck som användarna upplever. Användarna uttrycker såväl stark misogyni, våld, hot om våld gentemot kvinnor genomgående i resultatet. Vidare visar även resultatet att det finns vissa mindre dominerande diskurser kring självhat, hat gentemot HBTQI-personer, rasism samt avvikande diskursen kring hur misogyni inte alltid är svaret vilka också belyses i resultatet. / The purpose of the study is to examine and explore incels as a phenomenon by analyzing dominant discourses and key components on the website incels.is. The study's questions are developed through the mainly dominant and central discourses that are maintained on incels.is which are: society, gender and feminism and violence. The theoretical framework of the study has been based on a social constructivist discourse analysis with inspiration from the Foucauldian discourse analysis. Michél Foucault's theories about power, language and knowledge have been used further to examine the power aspect and powerlessness expressed on incels.is. The theories have also been used for the purpose of examining the meaning of language and what is allowed to say and not and who is allowed to say something. Furthermore, Yvonne Hirdman's and Raewyn Connell's theories about the gender system and hegemonic masculinity have been used in order to explore the discourse of masculinity, the construction of gender and the issue of violence. Through a qualitative method and netnographic approach, the study has used discourse analysis to analyse posts on the website incels.is in order to shed light on which dominant discourses can be distinguished. The empirical data for the study is presented citation form and were all published during the month of March 2021. The results of the essay have shown that the users on incels.is feel that the rest of the world is against them and that they do not fit into the socialist and feminist worldview they describe. The users further express that it is feminism and women who are guilty of the perceived oppression that the users experience. Users express strong misogyny, violence, threats of violence against women throughout the result. Furthermore, the results also show that there are some less dominant discourses about self-hatred, hatred towards LGBTQI people, racism as well as the divergent discourse about how misogyny is not always the answer, which is also highlighted in the results.

Hysteria has been researched from many different angles, but this thesis focuses on the persistence of gendered medical diagnoses following the demise of hysteria. In Chapter One, I provide an overview of hysteria’s long history, beginning with the first reference to the disorder in Ancient Egypt. I then conduct a study of nineteenth-century hysteria in Chapter Two, where I highlight the interactions between medicine and culture that characterized the hysteria epidemic in Victorian Britain and America. Chapter Three continues this discussion of nineteenth-century hysteria, detailing the rise of psychological explanations for hysteria in Europe. My most important research, however, comes in Chapters Four and Five where I chronicle the rise of specific diagnoses that replaced hysteria in the twentieth century. I focus on gendered wastebasket diagnoses—illnesses that predominantly affect women, are categorized based on shared symptoms rather than causes, and are defined in relation to femininity. In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the descriptions of certain psychiatric conditions that are more frequently diagnosed in women contain stigmatizing language used to describe hysteria, especially in the nineteenth century. Outside of the psychiatric realm, chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia are also wastebasket diagnoses that are described by both doctors and academics using the dismissive language of earlier descriptions of hysteria. I argue that throughout all of this history, the mutual influence of medical theory and cultural assumptions—particularly about gender and femininity—has allowed women’s mysterious medical complaints to remain unexplained. The ambiguous nature of conditions descended from hysteria and their association with femininity causes doctors to return to long-standing stereotypes that diminish the suffering of these patients. Many patients with these conditions struggle to access effective treatments for their symptoms. Understanding these illnesses in the historical context of hysteria can help explain and address these experiences. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA) / The medical field has long been influenced by its surrounding cultural context. Social factors, including gender, race, and class, all colour the ways in which illnesses are understood and patients are treated. This thesis examines these interactions between medicine and culture in the context of nineteenth-century hysteria and the related diagnoses that arose to replace it in the twentieth century. The disease entity hysteria disappeared in the early twentieth century, but patients continued to experience the symptoms associated with hysteria under a range of diagnostic titles. Situating these illnesses in the historical context of hysteria can help address patient complaints and deconstruct the stigmatizing stereotypes that affect these patients— particularly those stereotypes associated with femininity that were once attributed to hysteria patients

This research delves into the lived experiences of young women in Kenya, who must navigate societal norms, gender bias, and the stigma surrounding feminism while forging their identities. The study is focused on identity formation, women's issues, feminism, stigma, and misogyny. It seeks to fill a gap in previous research by examining how the stigma of feminism impacts everyday women's relationship with the movement and their own feminist identities. Through interviews with educated women who do not necessarily identify as feminists, the author aims to explore how women attempt to develop their lives and identities in a society rife with gender discrimination. The interviews covered various topics, including childhood and adult experiences related to otherness and difference, belonging and shame, parenting and upbringing, traditional norms, pressure, and expectations.

This study aims to understand the Red Pill movement as displayed on YouTube, by exploring mechanisms used to convey these ideologies, and the extent to which these, if at all, legitimize and encourage violent acts. Netnography along with observation and transcription was used for visual and oral data collection. Thematic analysis was utilized for the analysis which was based on Sykes and Matza’s together with Cohen’s neutralization techniques. Although these techniques were found in the data, they could not effectively link to violence. Instead, three new neutralization techniques, denial of agency, appeal to biology, and appeal to greatness could be linked to violence. While the connection between cause and effect is far more complex, this study provides an insight of the neutralization techniques used within this community. The use of these techniques may weaken individual’s social controls, radicalize them, and effectively lead them to legitimize violence specifically against women.

Playing with my luck is a performance which comments on feminine expectations and satirizes the oppressive social structures that women must follow in order to be accepted by patriarchal societies. The 10 Commandments short film borrows religious recognizable elements and displays some of Orthodox Christianity's conservative beliefs to parody the patriarchal and misogynistic ideologies that religion often promotes. / Master of Fine Arts / Playing with my luck is a performance which comments on feminine expectations and satirizes the oppressive social structures that women must follow in order to be accepted by patriarchal societies. The 10 Commandments short film borrows religious recognizable elements and displays some of Orthodox Christianity's conservative beliefs to parody the patriarchal and misogynistic ideologies that religion often promotes.

Since the mid-1970s, classical scholars have taken a new interest in the study of women in antiquity. Prior to this time, the cultures of Ancient Greece and Rome were studied, like much world history, from a masculine perspective. The literature in the growing field of feminist research is centered on the misogyny of these ancient cultures. Although I agree with their observation that women were subordinate and not afforded the exact same freedom as men, I also believe something is missing in their assessment of women in antiquity, especially with regard to the moral virtues embraced by the culture of the Ancient Greeks and the mythic medium through which those beliefs were transmitted. This thesis presents the characters of Penelope from The Odyssey and Clytaemnestra from The Oresteia as paradigms, or role models, of good and evil for all of Greek society's members. I argue against the view held by some feminist scholars that regard the female characters of Greek myth merely as illustrating the misogyny of Greek culture. Those particular feminist views, in addition to being anachronistic, are based on too narrow an understanding of Greek society and the role that myth plays in that culture. By contrast, I argue that these archetypes represent any member of society and should not be considered, on a scholarly level, merely as examples of misogyny. Because of the important role that myth provided and the equivalent value of the freedom afforded to each sex in fulfilling their societal roles under the conditions of life within Greek culture, these two female characters represent the paradigms of the ideal and the ignoble for that society's entire citizenry. Greek myths and the characters within them are actually expressive of the consequences of the actions of any individual and provide Greek society with a lesson on appropriate behavior within one's role in the larger order of society.

Misogyny remains a persistent problem in online gaming communities, particularly on platforms such as Twitch, where female streamers are frequently subjected to explicit and implicit sexism. This study takes a mixed-methods approach, including qualitative text analysis and quantitative sentiment analysis, to investigate the nature and frequency of sexist comments addressed against female streamers. Chat logs from four popular games were examined to detect both blatant disparaging remarks and more subtle signs of gender bias. The statistics show a prevalence of negative emotion against female gamers, with many comments including sexist language, despite Twitch's efforts to regulate such conduct. The findings revealed that explicit misogynistic comments, although less common, were frequently harsh and demeaning but implicit comments subtly objectified and sexualized female streamers. These findings are consistent with previous research emphasizing the prevalence of gender-based harassment in online gaming environments and the systemic nature of misogyny. The study also found that misogyny in gaming is amplified by the anonymity and competitive nature of online platforms, in addition to reflecting social values.

Toni Morrison and Kathy Acker write their novels within the subversive feminist literary movement described by Helene Cixous in “Laugh of the Medusa”. Through Morrison’s Paradise and Acker’s Blood and Guts in High School they create a platform for women silenced by their bodily trauma to express and eventually liberate themselves from their traumatic pasts. These female writers are calling attention to the pandemic of misogyny-related violence and allowing assault survivors to speak through their pain.

Neil Gaiman’s use of a hyper-masculine American culture in American Gods sheds light upon the multiple issues surrounding a misogynistic society in which women are treated as sexual objects and punished for their independence as sexual beings. Gaiman’s efforts at highlighting these issues are discreet and hidden under layers of patriarchal expectations, but through the use of his protagonist, Shadow, Gaiman is able to provide an alternative to the society he represents. While he successfully illustrates this more “ideal” society, his endeavors fall short and are almost imperceptible throughout his novel. Gaiman’s work in American Gods, while lacking in its overall presence, brings attention to the issues within a hyper-masculine society and it is through this unique, feminist approach that Gaiman is able to present his strong argument for change.