While exploring the Mental Health and well-being, I came across instances whose root causes are so deeply embedded into the society that we fail to associate them with the appropriate terminology. Hence, these ‘societal’ terms though commonly used are often misunderstood as much as they are stigmatized. By “societal” I mean terminologies that describe prejudice against a specified demographic group. Prejudice in gender studies is a negative opinion that is preconceived and is against or amongst people belonging to a particular social group. It is an attitude which the discriminator does not basis on actual experiences or a concrete reason and hence, is an unfair emotion.

Let’s understand what these basic terms mean:

Patriarchy

A society where men hold the highest power in the hierarchy often denying women the right to be included. It is a society governed through ‘male lines’. For example: When the family name needs to come from the man in the family. The result of patriarchy is a society where men are in control and responsible for making the rules and women are expected to stay home taking care of the family.

Effect on Mental Health:

Patriarchy has been prominent for centuries and continues to exist in most regions across the globe today. It often leads to a false sense of ‘honour’ and ‘pride’ in males which in layman’s terms, is commonly referred to as ‘male ego’. This attitude has perpetuated the idea that men are inherently superior to women. The result of patriarchy is the unwise cultural, social, and religious values that belittle mental health leading to diminishing self-worth and independence in women. Examples of these include demeaning verbal offence, name-calling, shaming, isolation, intimidation, controlling behaviours, psychological abuse, and excessive criticism. Studies by the UN show that while 50% of women are physically abused in relationships over 90% are mentally or verbally abused by male figures surrounding them. (Kamal, 2018)

Matriarchy

A society or organization ruled by women where the eldest woman is the most powerful. It is a society governed through ‘female lines’. For example: When the family name needs to come from the woman in the family. The result of matriarchy is a society like Mosuo of China where women practice a “walking marriage”, can have multiple partners, and handle all business decisions in the family. (Leal, 2016)

Effect on Mental Health:

Positions of power, when dominated by only one gender binary, has proven to lead to the phenomenon of over-developed ego. For example, the African American society has an influence of matriarchy that exist because of a combination of African norms and American social positions that naturally forces them to assume leadership conditions. Thus, there are burning mental health issues, especially in males. (C Boogie, 2019) This issue of Black Matriarchy was first brought to attention in 1965 by Daniel Patrick Moynihan. A study by Don Lemon shows that 67% of black children live without their father. Researches argue that the dominance of women in these families has led to castration in males and negative psychological impacts like low educational achievements, personality disorders, juvenile criminal behaviour, depression, and molestation. (Audiopedia, 2017)

Misogyny

The prefix “miso” means “hatred” in Greek, and “genie” comes from the Greek root for “woman”. Misogyny means Hatred of or prejudices against Women manifesting in forms of sexual harassment, social shunning, rape, etc. The result of misogyny is when a woman accomplishes something over a man and he responds to her with a course of gender vulgarities.

Effect on Mental Health:

Gender prejudices in society cause psychological and emotional distress amongst people that eventually leads to concerns about physical safety. Misogyny results in acts like sexual harassment and violence. The fear of such acts is engraved in the minds of the victims of such prejudices, and this fear leads to a sense of feeling trapped, time-bound, and vulnerable to mishaps. Incidents due to misogyny are an unpleasant reminder of the sore truth that there are rare spaces in the world for women to feel safe. Prejudices not only impact the mental health of the victims but the discriminators too. Hence, they lead to acts of physical and emotional abuse sometimes conducted so casually that they go unnoticed causing a feeling of inferiority amongst the victims to the other gender.

Misandry

The prefix “miso” means “hatred” in Greek, and “andry” comes from the Greek root for “man”. Misandry means Hatred of or prejudices against Men manifesting in forms of micro-aggressions directed towards men like “Really? You cry?” While the debate about prejudices against men exists, society does not take misandry as seriously as misogyny. The result of misandry is the categorization of some behaviours as only masculine and the society’s unacceptance towards men who don’t practice them eventually leading to micro-aggressions towards men. For example: When the interest of a man doesn’t lie in sport and a woman responds to him with belittling comments. (Kort, 2016)

Effect on Mental Health:

As said in the previous column, prejudices disrupt the functioning of the society, affecting the mental health of both the victim and the discriminator. Misandry is a prejudice that goes unrecognized in the shadow of discrimination against women that has taken over the world. As a result, this form of prejudice has woven itself smoothly in society and is expressed in the simplest form of bullying mistaken to be a ‘conversation starter’. These small taunts are micro-aggressions and most of the men I know have been a victim of them. Misandry threatens the victim’s freedom of choice. So, in order to not receive derogatory statements, the victim is forced to either change his opinions or keep them to their selves. Thus, compromising their entire personality.

Sexism

Sexism means prejudice based on sex/ gender. People particularly associated it with discrimination against women, because it was initially devised to raise awareness about the oppression of females in the 2nd Wave of Feminism from the 1960s-1980s. It later expanded to other genders with the third wave of feminism beginning in the 1990s, when the people challenged the very definition of feminism itself.

Effect on Mental Health:

Sexism is deeply rooted in modern society and challenges one’s perceptions of self-worth. This biasness is blended in every possible aspect of human life from family roles to career opportunities and financial dependence. Hence people experience economic, workforce, and health-care disadvantages, violence, and harassment. Studies show a direct relationship between sexism and poor mental health. (Walker, 2019) It has become such a part of who we are as people that often sexist jokes and language go unrecognized.

Reverse Sexism

A society or organization where the oppressed oppress their oppressors. It is an ideal scenario and hence, cannot and does not exist. People often confused this term with and use instead of misogyny, misandry, plain sexism, and a combined result of these terms which is the non-acceptance of the society towards non-binary behaviours such as “Men don’t cry”.

Every prejudice targets one or the other gender. Our role as educated individuals is to put an end to them and make the world a better place for our future generations.

Besides the aforementioned, here are the meaning of some common terminologies we use in our day-to-day life.

Non-Binary or Genderqueer

An umbrella term for gender identities that do not identify as masculine or feminine‍ but lie outside the ‘gender binary’ that is, genders other than male and female.

LGBTQ+

LGBTQ+ is an acronym for “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/ questioning.” The ‘+’ sign is used to denote all other communities in “LGBTTTQQIAA”–Transsexual, 2/Two-Spirit, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, Ally, + Pansexual, + Agender, + Gender Queer, + Bi-gender, + Gender Variant, + Pan gender.

Privilege

Privilege is the idea that some people in society are advantaged (privileged) over others based on class, age, height, disability, ethnic category, gender, sexual orientation, religion, etc.

Feminism

Belief inequality between the genders socially, politically, and economically particularly by advocating for women’s rights. It is divided into 4 waves in history–The first wave in the early 1900s when women were granted the right to vote. The second wave in the 1960s that focused on reproductive rights and female sexuality. The third wave in the 1990s when the term feminist expanded to other genders and differences of class, ethnicity, gender, etc. were celebrated. The fourth wave of feminism is still in the air and focusing on the larger issues of “isms” in a society like racism, ageism, casteism, etc.

Gender Inequality

The notion of inequality in the gender binary (male and female) that affects an individual’s living experience specifically economically, politically, socially, health-wise, and education-wise. The results of gender inequality are child marriages, poor infant life expectancy, human trafficking, salary differences in the gender binary, etc.

References

Audiopedia, T. (2017, October 19). What is BLACK MATRIARCHY? What does BLACK MATRIARCHY mean? BLACK MATRIARCHY meaning. The Audiopedia. Bosnia & Herzegovina. doi:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wmo7XkeRZs

C Boogie, P. (2019, May 13). Matriarchal Psychosis | Male Mental Health. United States. doi:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fI5nrFVCF7U

Dastagir, A. E. (2018, March 21). A feminist glossary because we didn’t all major in gender studies. USA TODAY. Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/03/16/feminism-glossary-lexicon-language/99120600/

Kamal, D. (2018, August 21). Patriarchy and mental health. doi:https://dailytimes.com.pk/286473/patriarchy-and-mental-health/

Kort, J. (2016, Aug 7). Misandry: The Invisible Hatred of Men. doi:https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/understanding-the-erotic-code/201608/misandry-the-invisible-hatred-men

Leal, S. (2016, March 8). 6 Matriarchies Still Functioning Today. Retrieved from https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/a19105/matriarchies-still-exist-today/

Walker, R. (2019, September 10). High levels of sexism fuel poor mental health among women. University College. London. doi:https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-09-high-sexism-fuel-poor-mental.html

WHAT DOES LGBTQ+ MEAN? (n.d.). OK2BME. Retrieved from https://ok2bme.ca/resources/kids-teens/what-does-lgbtq-mean/