Actually, we do, but it's so little known (I only ran across it myself a while ago) that it hardly even registers in Google search. Try looking for its cousins, and you'll find misogyny (hatred or dislike of women) coming back with a scary 1,640,000 results, misandry (hatred or dislike of men) clocking in at 1,100,000 results, and the more equal-opportunity term misanthropy (something I definitely fall prey to on occasion) yielding 542,000 results. But misothery? A paltry 1,780 results is all you'll get.
A shame, really, since the term itself (coined by Jim Mason in 1993) contains the resulting misery for animals right within its letters. I like this term, I really do. And it reminds me of the dangers when we don't have proper names for things so commonplace, so underlying just about everything, and yet so silent. Remember the world-changing effect when Betty Friedan described the problem that has no name? Naming is powerful, necessary, and exciting too.
The word misothery may have an awful ring to it, but I'm glad I found it, and will be adding it to my arsenal of tools to fight animal and human exploitation. Because these two types of exploitation are linked, with the one enabling and the other perhaps begetting, but definitely reinforcing. And who knows, maybe one day, certain acts of animal use and abuse will be seen more widely for what they really are: hate crimes based on species.
p.s. if you agree that this term is a damn fine one, and deserves a wider audience, please help pass it on :)
His book titled The Way We Eat, co-authored with Peter Singer, was one of the first books I read when I went vegan. It was one of the few books my local library had that addressed the how we treated animals.
Misothery...a good catch.
I find it scary that hatred of women gets 500k more hits than hatred of men...and even more scary that hatred of humans only gets a paltry half a million hits.
Maybe we do have a name for animal-hater, however it's not overtly used that way although in practice that's exactly what it is. Meat-eater (or carnivore for those who think it makes them sound tough) or follower of the Standard American Diet...these human animals are animal haters in what they do. Instead we can now call them misotherists. :-)
Thanks for the new term.
"it reminds me of the dangers when we don't have proper names for things so commonplace, so underlying just about everything, and yet so silent." ... this was very powerful when I read it and I had thoughts immediately of comments I was going to make until I read the next sentence. And I have to admit, I felt a bit bad that I didn't know anything about Betty Frieden. So I read the link you provided and did some thinking about that, too. As long as women have a choice as to whether or not they are going to be wives, mothers and/or work outside the home, then I think things are ok. It's only if there's not a choice other than to be at home taking care of kids that it's not ok - and I won't point out which cultures in the world are still like this today. But I have a feeling that the sheer fact that it was so expected of a woman back then to aspire to nothing else that that's why so many women were feeling what Betty Frieden wrote about. I'll tell ya what, if we didn't have financial woes from my not being able to work outside the home full-time, I would have no problem whatsoever being a "housewife" (for lack of a better word). I've had so many jobs and the only one I didn't hate was my volunteer job at the shelter. Work to keep a home up and running is hard work and deserving of respect. As I mentioned and I'm sure we can all agree, it's only when it's compulsory that it's a problem.
Now I went on way too long about that part of the post. The term Misothery is new to me, too. But it's a topic I've been thinking on a bit lately in a way. I'll skip some details to keep this to the point, but I've seen so many examples that show how naturally drawn to and caring for other animals that human babies and small children are. It's SICKENING that the natural instinct of our own species to live in peace and harmony with other creatures is squashed for most of us before we get out of childhood. I know that kids in North America are not innocent of this kind of thing entirely, but by about age 8, here in Germany, is when I notice the cut off that children begin to be total ___holes to other animals. That's what Nick remember from his childhood as well. It's pretty common here not just with Germans, but with the large Turkish and other cultures living here. Instead of wondering why this is that we do this to our kids and how it came to be over the centuries, I will just focus on what we can possibly do to change it. Up until now, I've really let kids have it when I see them hitting defenseless little creatures here, teasing and tormenting dogs, etc. I am going to try with all my might next time to talk to them calmly and try to explain to them why what they are doing isn't ok. They're learning their bad behavior at home and from friends and so the influence of an auslander might not be long-lasting or far-reaching, but I can talk easily with children here so I'll give that a try.
Another long rambling comment from me!!! :) Snort! And that wasn't even all I had to say, but I think it's enough. Thanks for another thought-provoking post. :)
You wrote "hate crimes based on species" and this fits accurately into the results of misothery. I love this word/idea! Lots to ponder! Thanks for this post!
Just found out about this group: http://www.seashepherd.org/cove-guardians
yesterday. It reminded me of your Captivity is Cruel t-shirt. .. The site has a lot on it that is very emotional, but it's also good to know there are people out there trying to help.
Hi, Misery for animals! That just about sums it up. Thanks for highlighting it.
Anne
so what is a person suffering from misothery, (like my landlord who has a no pets rule and forced me to put my beloved cat in foster care via PAWS)?
a misotherp? now that has a great ring to it! sounds like twerp!
(and i will develop misandry toward him as long as i live here. anus.)