What Is Misogynoir

WHAT IS MISOGYNOIR? By Ophelie Lawson

It was Moya Bailey, author of the book ‘Misogynoir Transformed: Black Women’s Digital Resistance’, who in 2008, came up with the term “misogynoir” after noticing the anti-Black racist misogyny that Black women continuously experience.

Misogynoir is where sexism and racism meet, it describes the unique discrimination that black women face. It oppresses black women. It is ‘the anti-Black racist misogyny that Black women experience, particularly in US visual and digital culture. Misogynoir is not simply the racism that Black women encounter, nor is it the misogyny Black women negotiate; it is the uniquely synergistic force of these two oppressions amalgamating into something more harmful than its parts’ Moya Bailey The term is a combination of the French world NOIR, meaning black, and the word misogyny. Misogyny is the “hatred of, aversion to, or prejudice against women. Bailey, a Black queer feminist scholar, writer, and activist, created the term to highlight the specific and many ways Black women are disregarded and dehumanised in the mainstream media. Her research and writing explore and criticise how popular culture and media perpetuate the mistreatment of Black women. What the term misogynoir does is that it provides a racialised distinction that mainstream feminism is not catching. Mainstream feminism has often failed to recognise and include the experiences of Black women.

Misogynoir is the media

Serena Williams’ experience of racism and sexism is but a classic case of Misogynoir. To Katrina Adams, the United States Tennis Association President, and to many people, Williams is the “greatest athlete of all time”, but she is also constantly the victim of unfair racist and sexist attacks. In the Us Open in 2018, during the Grand Slam final between Serena and Naomi Osaka, Serena was reportedly subjected to consistently unfair treatment by the umpire, treatment which since has been called out as blatantly sexist and racist. She was then fined US$17,000 after calling the umpire a ‘liar’ and a ‘thief’

Calling out sexism in tennis resulted in her becoming a target for racist attacks. In a caricature by Mark Knight for Australia’s Herald sun, she was portrayed as oversized, wild, with big lips, jumping and smashing her racket, incapable of controlling her rage because of losing, while in the background the umpire says to her opponent, a slim blond woman, ‘can you just let her win’? Mark Knight’s portray of Serena was widely regarded as a racist stereotype. A White artist depicting Williams as angry and ill-mannered, exaggerating her body feature, degrading and mocking her. She and her sister Venus have been referred to as a man and have been described as “too muscular,” often in the media. They have been called the “Williams brothers” -- by the head of the Russian Tennis Federation, Shamil Tarpischev, a top member of a ruling body in tennis. Both Serena and Venus are talented female athletes and have proven their talents to the public many times. Yet, when black women athletes do anything other than what is expected of them, they are penalised. We are surrounded by patriarchy, white supremacy, ideologies, standards of beauty that constantly undermine, exclude, and harm black women. Misogynoir is suffocating. In 2014, the hashtag #SayHerName was created to highlight misogynoir and how stories of Black Women and girls often go untold. From experiences of police violence to sexual assault and the list goes on. Many people are still unaware of what misogynoir is and what it means, and how it shows itself and harms Black women. Black women are often deemed strong like they are not allowed vulnerability. Their voices are often silenced, neglected. The first step in overcoming misogynoir is awareness.