An Irish psychotherapist has insisted that a new pamphlet entitled “I hate men” does not constitute incitement to hatred.
Sales of the French essay, ‘Moi, Les hommes, je les déteste’ have shot up after an official moved to ban it over its “incitement to hatred on the grounds of gender.”
Author Pauline Harmange has said she was shocked to find herself in the middle of a literary storm over the piece has now sold thousands of copies.
She said she feels strongly that women have a right not to like men.
‘I Hate Men’ – a book some French officials are looking to ban, caught the attention of @ciarakellydoc and Shane Coleman on @BreakfastNT this morning #bknt pic.twitter.com/tOs1nnQ349
— NewstalkFM (@NewstalkFM) September 11, 2020
On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, psychotherapist Iseult White said she thinks the title is “fair enough.”
“I think that is a title that a woman has written about her own misandry,” she said. “I don’t think that is incitement to the whole class of men as a sex.”
She said that ‘hate’ is always a strong word to use but insisted that the title does not incite hatred.
“To say, ‘I hate something’ is not incitement to hatred,” she said.
“Incitement to hatred is where you start stereotyping people – making them nothing, making them little, turning them into something other so that other people can find it easy to be violent or biased against them.”
Misandry
She said the author was talking about her own experience rather than attempting to stereotype all men.
“She is talking about, in her essay as far as I can understand it, her own misandry which is based on her looking at things like the level of violence perpetrated by men against women,” she said. “Of course, we also should broaden that out and say most violence against men is done by men.
“I think it is OK for me to say I hate men if I want to.”
Incitement
Ms White said the author is not afraid to admit to the misandry in the title but has not strayed towards incitement.
“She is not hiding behind anything,” she said. “I personally am not a misandrist, I actually like men, but I find that there is actually a huge amount of actual misogyny in society which is actual hatred against women that is personified in porn culture and in a lot of ways in society and I don’t see a lot of misandry personified in society.
“She is writing a provocative essay and owning her own personal misandry. She is not asking her women friends to go out and be violent towards men.”
