Book Reviews August/September 2019 ●Philosophy Now 45
friends.” Hmmm ... It’s certainly interesting
to imagine what the word would be like if
everyone spent four hours (or even just one
hour) meditating each day. In a First World
dominated by commercial imperatives, and
a Third World dominated by survival imper-
atives, this practice, however meritorious,
seems unlikely to become a mass movement.
But each person is entreated to individually
begin the transformation in their own life. In
this regard, His Holiness enlists the well-
known adage: ‘Be the change you want to see
in the world’. (He misattributes the quote to
Mahatma Gandhi. The first verified articu-
lation of it was in 1974 by US educator
Arleen Lorrance, who wrote, “be the change
you want to see happen.” The closest Gandhi
ever came to it was in 1913, when he wrote,
“If we could change ourselves, the tendencies
in the world would also change.”)
The Dalai Lama’s appeal to the world for
secular ethics is rounded out with timely
entreaties to take climate change seriously,
and for arms control and disarmament.
Nevertheless the entire statement takes up
only seven pages. While this is a beautifully
succinct and articulate expression of the Dalai
Lama’s thesis, it does not a book make. To
expand the tome into publishable length, a
long interview with the Dalai Lama by
German writer Franz Alt is included. This
interview is a good encapsulation of all the
Tibetan leader’s key ideas on the principle
topics that have concerned him over the
years. They range from the sublime (spiritu-
ality, compassion, happiness) to the pressing
(the refugee crisis, gender equality – he agrees
the next Dalai Lama could be a woman – and
the future of Tibet) to the mundane (Donald
Trump). If you want an excellent summary of
his wide-ranging thought, you could not find
a better source than this.
This is not a long book, but its merit is in
quality rather than quantity. The Dalai
Lama is one of the seminal thinkers of our
time, and this book demonstrates time and
time again why his ideas are always worth
attending to in so many areas of human
endeavour.
© IAN ROBINSON 2019
Ian Robinson, President Emeritus of the Rationalist
Society of Australia, has been a philosophy tutor at
the University of Melbourne, and was given his
personal meditation mantra during a one-to-one
audience with the late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.- An Appeal to the World: The Way to Peace in a
Time of Division, by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, with
Franz Alt, William Collins, 2017, 126 pages, ISBN
978-0-00-827842-7
DOWN GIRL BY KATE
Manne is, as far as I know,
the first treatment of misogyny by an
analytic feminist philosopher (as distinct
from a continental feminist social theorist).
It provides a fresh interpretation of the
concept, restating what misogyny is and
what it consists of, and constructs a well-
reasoned argument on this idea.
Manne is an assistant professor of philos-
ophy at Cornell University. Her main aim in
this book is to develop an understanding of
the root and nature of misogyny. She does
this by first deconstructing the traditional or
dictionary definition of misogyny; namely, a
hatred of women. Instead Manne talks of the
demeaning and shameful way in which
women are treated, that includes elements of
hostility and aggression, as misogyny. The
book distinguishes misogyny from sexism,
and helps to dispel some troubling misunder-
standings of ‘misogynist extremism’ seen in
public life and politics, by calling into ques-
tion the typical responses towards such cases.
Manne argues that misogyny must have a
dependence on patriarchy, either existing
within a current patriarchal society or else
having a historical connection with one.
Therefore, she examines patriarchy’s under-
lying assumption of gender relations,
whereby women are ‘givers’ of so-called
‘feminine-coded goods’, such as love, care,
attention, and support, and men are entitled
to take such goods to enhance their position
of privilege, and will create conflict when
women violate these expectations. This
model of patriarchy sets the context for
Manne's argument. As a woman, it was possi-
bly the most relatable part of the book for me.
One of the most common responses to
crimes against humanity is the humanist one
of arguing that such behaviour stems from the
failure of some to recognise others as fellow
human beings. This is commonly heard in
cases of misogynist violence, prompting
questions of why women are such easy targets,
and why they’re not automatically seen as
human beings. Manne outlines five common
claims of humanism which highlight how
men are psychologically able to behave in a
misogynistic manner by reducing women to
objects, making their victims effectively inhu-
man and thereby relieving the men of any
guilt or moral tension. This attitude also
helps to spawn an ideology about women
which is disseminated throughout society so
that it comes to seem normal (which alsoexplains why women might themselves exer-
cise misogynist behaviour).
Manne, however, finds fault with this
argument. She claims that it rests on a
common mistake: that of automatically
attributing man’s inhumanity to manto a
dehumanizing psychological attitude,
coupled with the idea that the very recogni-
tion of humanity in another person means
seeing shared characteristics that make them
more relatable. On the contrary, says
Manne, seeing shared characteristics could
be potentially threatening, and dangerous
insofar as it could create hostile dispositions
that may compete with the capacity for
empathy. Manne concludes that the human-
ist outlook does not explain misogyny.
There must be additional factors at play
which give rise to misogynistic motivations,
such as political ideologies or a sense of enti-
tlement. For example, seeing someone as
your enemy creates a motivation to try to
harm or even destroy them.
The book covers the range of topics you
would expect to see in any feminist text on
gender relations, such as abortion, family
annihilation, and sexual objectification.
This helps to highlight the prevalence of
misogyny in society. However, Manne also
recognises cases of institutionalised misog-
yny that might not be as obvious, such as
accounts of injustice whereby women’s
testimonies are not given due consideration
or they are not taken seriously as victims of
crime. This provides a good link to her
discussion of victimhood and the hostile
attitudes victims face through micro-
aggressions which inevitably build up and
harm members of harried social groups.
Manne provides contemporary case studies
to further support her analysis and her
conception of misogyny, making frequent
reference to the Isla Vista killings, Donald
Trump's presidential administration, and
the serial rapist Daniel Holtzclaw, amongst
others. These case studies are revisited
throughout the book, and while they do
provide an excellent framework through
which to view misogyny, a more diverse
range of examples would have strengthened
the argument and made for a more interest-
ing and convincing read.
One of the most insightful parts of the
book is Manne’s coining of the term himpa-
thy, describing excessive sympathy towards
male perpetrators of sexual violence (which
might be characterised by some as ‘business
as usual’). Himpathy tends to be directed
towards white privileged ‘golden boys’
deemed incapable of misogynistic behaviourBooks
Down Girl
by Kate Manne