Does Education Eradicate Misogyny? Not Always!

Posted: January 15, 2015

Being educated is no deterrent to holding misogynist opinions, as these two interactions reveal.

In our society, intolerance is prominent and scary. What is even more terrifying is having to hear such nonsensical opinions from educated people.

I was talking to two classmates while having lunch in a restaurant. Conversation went somewhat this way :

X: Abortion is a sin.

Y: Oh yes, its terrible.

Me: Abortion is a sin?

X: Yes, of course. You are killing a human being here.

Me : Shouldn’t we leave that to the parents? What if they are not ready for a baby yet?

X: Then what’s point in having the child in the first place? They should simply avoid doing immoral stuff.

Me: Well, if they are consenting adults, then who are we to judge?

X: We can because it’s against out culture. One can be in a relationship but should not be involved in indecent things.

Me: Well, for some people, being in a relationship is counted as ‘indecent things’. So are you going to change yourself to comfort them?

X : *smiles*

Me : You can choose to refrain from things that you don’t like. But you can’t judge or force someone to follow your way. It’s like, just because you don’t like the colour “blue”, you criticize anyone wearing a blue shirt.

The conversation didn’t end there, where he merely repeated the same thing over and over. He is one of those guys in my college who always dresses fashionably with western clothes and shows off his gadgets, which again are invented by foreign people. So lecturers about tradition from him was really unbearable. But there was more.

*** *** *** *** ***

Another conversation with the same person went like this:

Me : It’s really nice to see girls in sports.

X : Yes. They are always fit.

Me : Of course. They have to practice a lot for hours.

X : Yes, but they are not really desirable.

Me : Why’s that?

X : In our society, men desire to marry women who have soft bodies. While practicing, their body hardens. Hence they have a hard time finding husbands.

I literally didn’t know how to respond.

What has been your experience with finding misogyny in places where you thought it wouldn’t exist? Share!

First published at the author’s blog

Breaking sexism image via Shutterstock