[Kizzy]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

To be fair though I still think it's different... my understanding of a hate crime is exactly as you say but what makes it a hate crime is that hatred of the group is the motivation for the crime... like there is literally no other reason for the attack than "I just hate Muslims" or whatever.

Attacks on women by men are different. They would usually have either a personal motivation or be a sexual assault... and it's not that they aren't driven by misogyny - it's just that misogyny is what makes the attack "psychologically permissible" to them (i.e. they see women as lesser, not deserving of respect, open to being made their victim... hating women allows them to feel like they "deserved it" etc.) but the motivation in itself is very rarely "I just randomly attack women because I hate women."... and groups of men aren't attacking women "because they hate women". They may well hate women of course, but their motivations tend to be "other".

I guess for that reason I find it slightly dangerous to start labelling them "hate crimes". Understanding the motivation behind crime is important to tackling it, and it seems that when asking "why did this happen", the answer "Oh he just hates women is all" would be falling well short of the mark there. Whereas with other actual hate crimes it literally can be as simple as "she hates black people" / "he hates gay people" etc.

I don't understand your logic here how can you apply reasoning to misogyny and not racism or homophobia?

'they see women as lesser, not deserving of respect, open to being made their victim.'

Are not the explanations for all three practically identical?