The law in Deuteronomy punishes a man who rapes a virgin by requiring him to make a payment to her father and marry her. The concern over the effects of violent misogyny in contemporary popular culture is appropriate. But when we realise that this evil has been central to cultures around the world for millennia, it becomes apparent that it would be more useful to examine this phenomenon as a symptom of a deep-seated malady. The outburst of woman-hating is only the latest manifestation of an underlying male sense of insecurity. A large number of men throughout history have suffered from the envy of female reproductive abilities.
Many men can find no satisfactory definition of manhood.
Hell hath no fury like a man devalued. The rap on women has been the anthem of history for 10,000 years. The misogynistic music is but a different song with the same old meaning. Robert S. McElvaine is a historian at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi.