Off with Her Head: Three Thousand Years of Demonizing Women in Power

by Eleanor Herman

“Lock her up!” is, in fact, only a slightly more civilized version of “Off with her head!” and “Burn the witch!”

A 2016 study by the social intelligence company Brandwatch analyzed nearly nineteen million public tweets and found that 52 percent of misogynistic tweets were posted by women. In 2014, the cosmetics company Dove conducted a study on five million negative tweets written about women’s appearances and body image. Eighty percent of the writers were women.

In an astonishing coincidence, the creation myths of both the Bible and ancient Greece, arguably the twin pillars of Western culture, attribute all the world’s ills—death, war, plagues, tsunamis, dandruff, flat tires, acne, everything—to the woman. It’s all her fault.

How strange it is that both God and god brought evil into the world by creating woman, according to the stories written by men. And that in both creation stories, women are created in a different way than men. God creates Adam out of the earth, but Eve is formed from Adam’s rib. Prometheus creates man out of his goodwill; Zeus creates woman to destroy the world.

It’s hard to be a woman. You must think like a man, Act like a lady, Look like a young girl, And work like a horse. —Anonymous

When Marcos attacked Aquino for having no political experience, she replied that she indeed had “no experience in cheating, lying to the public, stealing government money, and killing political opponents.” Marcos, she said, had too much experience.

Because the problem was not her voice. It was her position. And it’s much easier to say we don’t like a particular voice than acknowledging we don’t like the fact that a woman is talking. Or even expressing her voice through writing.

In an election, if you are married, you are neglecting him; if you are single, you couldn’t get him; if you are divorced, you couldn’t keep him. If you’re widowed, you killed him.

When a man gives his opinion, he’s a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she’s a bitch.

Having a daughter does not make a man decent. Having a wife does not make a decent man. Treating people with dignity and respect makes a decent man.

Women who sleep around in this city are called sluts. Men are called senators. —Pat Schroeder, Colorado congresswoman, 1973–1997

Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them. —Margaret Atwood