Misandry and the Ontology of Hatred: Voices from Chinese Cyberspace

The issue of misandry is particularly prevalent in the Chinese cyberspace, where male-hating discourses have gained prominence due to strict regulation of offline feminist activities. Present conceptions of misandry, alongside misogyny, have significant theoretical shortcomings. Research on gender-based hatred has historically focused more on misogyny than misandry. This imbalance stems from the politicization of misogyny, which is often conflated with patriarchal control -- rendering the corresponding females’ hatred towards men invisible. This conflation has resulted in a binary pro-feminism vs. anti-feminism, oversimplifying the complexity of both feminine and masculine emotional styles. Studies have also not adequately examined how different types of masculinities/femininities influence gender-based hatred. Women’s misandrist hatred may well be directed towards perceived ‘hegemonic masculine’ attitudes and behaviors, rather than towards ‘inclusive masculinity’, or men and masculinity in general.

We argue there is an insufficient understanding of the ontology of hatred in relevant literature. Combining emotion-based theories, we propose a conception of hatred-particularly inter-gender group hatred as an affective intentional quality. Hatred emerges from complex amalgam of emotions (e.g., anger, contempt) that manifest in attitudes containing one or more of the following orientations: 1) maintaining “permanent othering”; 2) annihilating the target; 3) passive rebellion to reclaim (limited) power, and 4) correcting unwanted behaviors to put the object of hatred ‘back in its place’. We exemplify these dynamics through misandry discourses in Chinese cyberspace and argue for a key distinction is that the former three are demonstrable in clear ‘us vs. them’ situations (e.g. antisemitism), while the ‘corrective’ dynamic reflects hatred in gender relations where “fibrous” interconnections between men and women serve neither to separate nor unite them, but to tie them ‘apart-together’, hierarchically. This research finally aims to explore how women’s online expressions of hatred foster affective solidarity and feminism and envisions equitable gender relations and desirable masculinity.