is mega-literal about "misogynist" meaning hatred of women. I've seen people be a lot less than literal about the words "homophobia" and "infantilize". There are dictionary definitions of "misogyny" that say "hatred or contempt for women". (Notice that it doesn't say all women, everywhere.) When I hear someone over-generalizing nastily about women, which happens frequently on MRA sites, that's clearly contemptuous. To me, slammming someone with the word "c-nt" is also contemptuous, similarly to how racial slurs used down the power differential sound contemptuous. I don't really understand reactions like "Oh, she called me a misogynist; that's so mean!" Anyone want to translate what you hear/feel if/when someone calls you or your friend a misogynist? In the olden days, feminists called people expressing negative attitudes towards women (or women's rights) Chauvinists. Sometime later, the adjective was "Sexist". I'm not sure when "Misogynist" became popular, but maybe it's a meme that escaped from academia? Sexism and chauvinism are not specific to women; sexism can be directed at men, intersexed persons, trans* persons, etc. Chauvinism is basically the (uncritical) belief that a particular group is superior to all others; one can have male chauvinism (what feminists often decry), White chauvinism, Christian chauvinism, etc. Persons who are part of marginalized groups can even be chauvinist -- the MRAs occasionally identify actual instances of female chauvinism, for instance (though trans* activists typically have a better hit-to-miss ratio when criticizing female chauvinism in feminist circles). Misogyny is specifically the institutionalized system of marginalization that marginalizes