50 Misogyny Quotes About Fighting Back

By Clifton Sankofa

School Leader, Language Arts Expert & Master Quote Curator

Published December 16, 2022

Check out these courageous and insightful misogyny quotes!

In the past, misogyny was defined as the hatred of women.

Over time, it has developed a more nuanced definition that includes the system that polices and enforces governing norms and expectations that perpetuate a patriarchal order.

Tell us which misogyny quote most resonated with you in the comment section below.

What are the benefits of reading these misogyny quotes?

Misogyny is a vicious system.

Every day, women deal with the harms of misogyny, sometimes even internalizing these beliefs.

We see misogyny in:

movies, music, and social media
politics, public policy, and religion
business, schools, and organizations

The traumatic internalization process can contribute to women policing themselves and other marginalized genders to avoid being victims of misogynistic violence from men.

Misogyny at school or the workplace continues to be an area of concern.

An example that is becoming more common includes “incels” or men who are “involuntary celibates” who see women as objects and feel entitled to wield power over them, believing women who reject them are evil.

Recent studies demonstrate that misogyny negatively impacts the mental health of both men and women.

Short quotes about misogyny

1. “Misogyny is the death of the heart.” — Jennifer Stone

2. “Misogyny is ingrained in people from the time they are born.” — Taylor Swift

3. “Misogyny comes naturally to a young man in his late teens.” — Michael Chabon

4. “Misogyny isn’t just something that affects women. It affects men.” — Antony Hegarty

5. “I feel that all revolutionary causes should start with addressing misogyny.” — Ezra Miller

6. “At their core, misogyny and racism are very similar modes of thinking.” — Dessa Darling

7. “I’m not a poster boy for misogyny and I don’t think hip-hop should be either.” — Bakari Kitwana

8. “The misogyny that is in every culture is not a true part of the human condition.” — Joss Whedon

9. “Misogynist: A man who hates women as much as women hate one another.” — H. L. Mencken

10. “I think that we need to look at ourselves and look at the way women perpetuate misogyny.” — Christina Ricci

Misogyny quotes from the bible or about religion

11. “Misogyny runs deeper than religion.” — Katha Pollitt

12. “Misogyny not only pervades the major faiths; it’s baked in.” — Katha Pollitt

13. “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.” — Timothy 2:12

14. “Can currently existing religion be disentangled from the misogyny of its texts, its traditions, and its practices? … a resounding NO.” — Katha Pollitt

15. “You have right-wing politics and misogyny, and religion employed together everywhere – here in the US, with issues like abortion.” — Chitra Ganesh

16. “The point is that religion puts a value on irrationality, which makes it the perfect tool for promoting irrational beliefs like misogyny.” — Amanda Marcotte

17. “And everything on which she lies during her menstrual impurity shall be unclean. Everything also on which she sits shall be unclean.” — Leviticus 15:20

18. “For me, religion is serious business – a farrago of authoritarian nonsense, misogyny, and humble pie, the eternal enemy of human happiness and freedom.” — Katha Pollitt

19. “If you belonged to a political party or a social club that was tied to as much bigotry, misogyny, homophobia, violence, and sheer ignorance as religion is, you’d resign in protest.” — Bill Maher

20. “We should have a zero-tolerance view of any text or collection of texts that at any time endorses genocide, misogyny, and other atrocities. We always judge ancient texts by modern ethical standards, and the Bible should not be treated differently.” ― Hector Avalos

Misogyny quotes about the future and the past

21. “Women say that my election represents a cultural break with the past – a past of sexism, of misogyny.” ― Michelle Bachelet

22. “Hip-hop is contributing to American society’s misogyny and racism, hyper-sexuality anti-Black representations.” ― Bakari Kitwana

23. “We grew up out of racism and misogyny and homophobia to become a mostly tolerant, successful multicultural society.” ― Geraldine Brooks

24. “Black Girl Magic is a radiant revolution against misogynoir – misogyny directed towards Black women and internalized hatred.” ― Amandla Stenberg

25. “A women’s place in history has never been given the attention that it needs to be given, and that’s why we have a lot of the misogyny in our society today.” ― Dolores Huerta

26. “Suggesting that you have the right to treat her exactly as you please because she didn’t adhere to your archaic views of feminine propriety is misogyny, plain and simple.” ― Clementine Ford

27. “So when you spot violence, or bigotry, or intolerance or fear or just garden-variety misogyny, hatred or ignorance, just look it in the eye and think, ‘The good outnumber you, and we always will.’” ― Patton Oswalt

28. “It’s almost as if all of the negativity and misogyny needs to come to the surface so we can fully understand what it is and how deep it goes before we can begin to shift it. Of course, I wish it weren’t there.” ― Monica Lewinsky

29. “The misogyny that shapes every aspect of our civilization is the institutionalized form of male fear and hatred of what they have denied and therefore cannot know, cannot share: that wild country, the being of women.” ― Ursula K. Le Guin

30. “In this cultural moment, many of us are feeling inadequate to solve societal problems – fascism, racism, misogyny, homophobia, anti-Semitism, the list goes on – and are unsure of how individuals can affect real change.” ― Sabina Murray

Misogyny quotes to think about

31. “Everyone has a spectrum of masculinity and femininity inside them. In every individual, a war of misogyny is raging.” — Antony Hegarty

32. “No one is more arrogant toward women, more aggressive or scornful, than the man who is anxious about his virility.” — Simone de Beauvoir

33. “I don’t see that happening very often, whereas I see a lot of misogyny on the internet. I see a lot of hatred towards women and a lot of fear of women.” — Anna Biller

34. “The misogyny, the racism, the violence, the homophobia, these are things that we try to avoid instead of dealing with. All of that I see it so often.” — Russell Simmons

36. “I’ve felt that most of the misogyny I’ve witnessed in my life – a lot of it, yes, it comes from men, but most of it professionally has come from other women.” — Christina Ricci

35. “And what is the most powerful of these energies? The energy that patriarchy and misogyny constantly try to repress. The divine female sexual energy.” — Russell Brand

37. “Of course, I am not worried about intimidating men. The type of man who will be intimidated by me is exactly the type of man I have no interest in.” ― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

38. “Many people believe the change that has taken place in recent decades was set in motion by the emancipation of women. But this argument is not valid; it is an insult, a form of misogyny.” — Pope Francis

39. “You have to be pretty amazed at the level of special provocation and sort of violent speech and misogyny that comes at them. Any woman that’s really in the public sphere has experienced this. It’s kind of shocking how universal it is.” — David Simon

40. “They refuse to acknowledge that masses of boys and men have been programmed from birth on to believe that at some point they must be violent, whether psychologically or physically, to prove that they are men.” — bell hooks, The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love

Misogyny quotes about politics, America, and the military

41. “Not all black women have silently acquiesced in sexism and misogyny within the African-American community.” ― Kimberle Williams Crenshaw

42. “Feminism is hated because women are hated. Anti-feminism is a direct expression of misogyny; it is the political defense of women hating.” ― Andrea Dworkin

43. “What we want to get across most is that this is a real opportunity for the military. They can step up and be a leader on misogyny and gender issues.” ― Amy Ziering

44. “I would say that to vote for Trump was to at least overlook the fact that we’e talking about someone with a record of misogyny and racist invective.” ― Jeffrey Goldberg

45. “[Donald] Trump phenomenon is just marbles with all this toxic stuff, the misogyny, the outright bigotry, and so now people are left to try to pull this apart.” ― Van Jones

46. “I think because we live in such a coarse and pornographic era. Years of this has produced a certain amount of misogyny that is just a given of life in America at this point.” ― David Simon

47. “I have strong opinions about misogyny, institutional sexism that consistently places women at a disadvantage, the inequity in pay, the cult of beauty and thinness, the repeated attacks on reproductive freedom, violence against women, and on and on.” ― Roxane Gay

48. “We live in manifestations of it – permanent war, environmental destruction, poverty, racism, misogyny, the assault on labor, torture in our prisons, capital punishment – a corporate capitalist state controlled by oligarchical interests for their own private profit and gain.” ― Lawrence Joseph

49. “The teabagger thing and the right-wing thing – they pick easy targets, and a female in the entertainment industry is low-hanging fruit. It’s very easy to mock and marginalize people in general who are in the entertainment industry for some reason. But then, definitely, there’s the double standard and the misogyny that goes through it as well.” ― Janeane Garofalo

50. “I don’t want to see trickle-down racism. I don’t want to see a President of the United States saying things which change the character of the generations of Americans that are following. Presidents have an impact on the nature of our nature. And trickle-down racism, trickle-down bigotry, and trickle-down misogyny all these extraordinarily dangerous to the heart and character of America.” ― Mitt Romney