Do Women Really Hate Men?

While wandering through the darker valleys of social media — that peculiar place where people now confess in public what they once confessed only to a priest — I came across a rather strange post that declared, with great pedagogical confidence, that when a woman says she hates men, no one needs to be the most intelligent person in the world to understand that the expression is not meant literally. Since I have always had the unfortunate habit of taking things literally, and since I consider myself moderately intelligent, I found this rather puzzling.

The cry of “death to men!”, the explanation continued, is merely a figure of speech or a rhetorical flourish. A reaction to the real violence of men — oh yes, that violence! — systematic, institutionalized, and carefully directed toward the destruction of women and minorities.

Now, there is nothing particularly original in this. It is a familiar discourse in certain feminist circles, often presented under the almost elegant name of ironic misandry. What was curious, therefore, was not the argument itself, but the fact that it came from a Catholic profile. And that was the moment when I felt that small itch of suspicion that makes a person stop, scratch her head, and ask: what exactly is this doing here?

So I made myself a cup of coffee.

Let me begin with a concession that may sound counterintuitive. The claim that women hate men as a reaction to perceived violence is perfectly plausible. It may even, if I dare to say, be true. There is nothing absurd in recognizing that this kind of hatred does not belong to the category of an «acte gratuite».