Tracing Misogyny in American Culture

Contributing to a two-volume set of reference essays on misogyny in American culture, researchers explored the history, current trends, impacts of, and responses to misogyny across a range of topics and areas of American life. The scope of this research included politics, education, literature, sports, beauty and fashion, public policy, health and medicine, film, music, video gaming, science, and technology among a variety of other topics. Working collaboratively as a research team, the authors identified key events, figures, and organizations as well as sources of additional information for a target audience of near-peers (i.e. upper-high school and beginning college students). This poster presentation will showcase the findings of this collaborative research, including a chronology illustrating the pervasiveness and persistence of misogyny in American culture. Given our current political and cultural climate and the more frequent and widespread use of the term misogyny by various media outlets and among voters during the 2016 presidential election, this project contributes to ongoing conversations on the topic and, among its intended audience of advanced high-school/beginning college students and the general public, informs a more recent shift in public conversation on sexual harassment and assault. Significantly, the researchers’ findings are also grounded in and informed by an intersectional approach to the topic with the goal of expanding and complicating current definitions of the term misogyny