A leading thinker in feminist philosophy, Cornell University philosophy professor Kate Manne applies this theory—that “people may know full well that those they treat in brutally degrading and inhuman ways are fellow human beings”—to sexual violence in her book, Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny88. Where iconic radical feminist theorist Catherine A. Mackinnon asks “Are women human yet?”89 while listing the atrocities committed against our sex, Manne proposes: “Often, it’s not a sense of women’s humanity that is lacking. Her humanity is precisely the problem.”
