A feminist theoretical exploration of misogyny and hate crime

Abstract

Misogyny is often evident in women’s experiences of (hate) victimisation. Debates are ongoing about whether to extend legal protections to recognise this accordingly in hate crime legislation. If successful, this would emulate feminist efforts to criminalise violence in which men disproportionately target women, such as sexual assault, domestic violence and female genital mutilation. However, as with these laws, the prevention or prosecution of such gendered violence may be impeded by cultural and structural patriarchy. Including misogyny in hate crime policy and legislation may help evidence the myriad ways in which men harm women, but it would be disingenuous to extol it as a preventative or prosecutory measure within this pre-existing patriarchal framework. In this chapter, we offer a critical feminist perspective on misogyny and its positionality with the contemporary hate crime paradigm. We revisit core feminist theorising on men’s violence towards women which highlighted the importance of a gendered analysis which demarcated the agentic male in women’s victimisation. Using this analytical framework, we explore a crucial victimisation paradox: misogyny both manifests in and is often integral to women’s experiences of hate crime, yet gender remains curiously overlooked in hate crime analyses. Offering new insight, we suggest that while male violence towards women is the original and most long-standing ‘hate crime’, the masculinisation of hate crime ideology foregrounds male experiences in a way that renders (women’s) gender insignificant. Our examination of women’s experiences of hate crime highlights the importance of an intersectional focus that also centres on misogyny.