page_title: Misogyny
section_title: Coordinated attacks
hierarchical_section_title: Misogyny / Online misogyny / Coordinated attacks
caption_attribution_description: English: Anita Sarkeesian headshotFrançais&#160;: Portrait d'Anita Sarkeesian.
context_page_description: Misogyny is the hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women or girls. It enforces sexism by punishing those who reject an inferior status for women and rewarding those who accept it. Misogyny manifests in numerous ways, including social exclusion, sex discrimination, hostility, androcentrism, patriarchy, male privilege, belittling of women, disenfranchisement of women, violence against women, and sexual objectification. Misogyny can be found within sacred texts of religions, mythologies, and Western philosophy and Eastern philosophy.
context_section_description: The most likely targets for misogynistic attacks by coordinated groups are women who are visible in the public sphere, women who speak out about the threats they receive, and women who are perceived to be associated with feminism or feminist gains. Authors of misogynistic messages are usually anonymous or otherwise difficult to identify. Their rhetoric involves misogynistic epithets and graphic or sexualized imagery. It centers on the women's physical appearance, and prescribes sexual violence as a corrective for the targeted women. Examples of famous women who spoke out about misogynistic attacks are Anita Sarkeesian, Laurie Penny, Caroline Criado Perez, Stella Creasy, and Lindy West.
  These attacks do not always remain online only. The government of Brazil makes misogynistic attacks against Patrícia Campos Mello and other female journalists in conjunction with street-level threats and violence. Swatting was used to bring Gamergate attacks into the physical world.
caption: Anita Sarkeesian was the target of a coordinated misogynistic attack because of her feminist work
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