I have always struggled with reconciling what feminism claims to be, and what I have been exposed to and experienced throughout my life. It has been my mental Rubik’s Cube to try to make sense of the jumbled colors of the ideology. Some of those colors started to align when it (ever so slowly) dawned on me how truly violent (both physically and socially) some women are. The cognitive dissonance between this reality and the cultural narrative that women are the nurturers, care givers, innocent and pure, eventually pointed me toward a possible answer.

What I was witnessing was actually psychological projection.

I started mentally applying this lens to a variety of feminist “issues”. The fit was startlingly accurate.

I now believe that “feminism” is, and always has been, gendered psychological projection on a macro scale.

I am certainly not the first to have linked feminism with projection, but I do hope to flesh out the concept to a certain depth while at the same time marrying it with the concept of in-group bias, thus explaining how it could function at the macro, gendered scale.

Before examining specific examples of this phenomena, it would be of some benefit to clearly understand the definition of the term “psychological projection”, as well as the term “In-group bias”.

Projection is defined or described as:

Pro·jec·tion {prəˈjekSH(ə)n/} (noun) — “…thoughts, motivations, desires, and feelings that cannot be accepted as one’s own are dealt with by being placed in the outside world and attributed to someone else.” (Freud, 1890)

In-group bias is defined or described as:

‘The in-group bias is the tendency that people have to favor their own group above that of others. This bias can have a powerful influence on both individual and group behavior.” (Cherry, 2018)

I was born in 1971 and am therefore of the first generation to have been immersed in a society heavily influenced by feminism. I grew up inundated by a media who embraced the terms and ideologies of feminism and feminists. My sister, for the vast majority of her life could have been legitimately described as a “radical feminist”, although as they so often do, she would disavow that label herself. With age comes wisdom, and today she has rejected that label for the more balanced “egalitarian”.

There was always something not quite settled between the dogma I was being subjected to and what I was observing in real life. This cognitive dissonance was always in the back of my mind, even from my earliest memories. In time, this awareness would start to flesh out as not simply a distorted reflection, but as an absolute mirror image. I became aware that many of the laments, complaints and accusations of feminists were in exact opposition to reality.

In my search to rectify this juxtaposition, I found that those who follow the feminist ideology are nothing more than brainwashed acolytes projecting their own insecurities, shadow nature, sexual desires, tendency to be cruel or violent, intrasexual competitiveness and need to control (whether subconsciously identified within the self, or outwardly identified within their own gendered group) onto men in an effort to absolve themselves of the agency of their actions.

While the list of examples is seemingly endless, I will examine some of the more common feminist complaints and how they are in fact, psychological projection.

“For instance, you might hate someone, but your superego tells you that such hatred is unacceptable. You can ‘solve’ the problem by believing that they hate you.” (McLeod, 2009)

Rape Culture

Consider the long standing feminist insistence that Western Society is rife with “rape culture”. This obsession with rape, seeing all men as potential rapists, even young boys (which adds a particular Freudian twist) would seem more simply explained by women’s own well documented propensity for rape fantasies. 62% of women admit to fantasizing about being raped. (Critelli, 2009)

It has also been recently well documented that women consume far more violent pornography than men, and become more aroused when watching it than men. (Stephens-Davidowitz, 2017) Add to the above the fact that over 125 million copies of “Fifty Shades of Grey” have been sold to date, overwhelmingly to women, and it becomes clear which gender is truly fascinated with rape.

“This involves individuals attributing their own thoughts, feelings, and motives to another person.” (A. Freud, 1936).

“Thoughts most commonly projected onto another are the ones that would cause guilt such as aggressive and sexual fantasies or thoughts.” (McLeod, 2009)

“In some cases projection can result in false accusations. For example, someone with adulterous feelings might accuse their partner of infidelity.” (GoodTherapy, 2016)

The tired propaganda that feminists have ceaselessly bombarded us with, that all men are rapists or would rape given the chance, that men are controlled by their insatiable sexual desires is nothing more than the projection of woman’s own deepest sexual desires and obsessions. Unable to reconcile the internal conflict, women project these feelings (aided by in-group bias) onto all men.

“Projection of general guilt: Projection of a severe conscience is another form of defense, one which may be linked to the making of false accusations, personal or political.” (Carl G. Jung ed., 1978)

Slut Shaming & Objectification

Since the sexual liberation of the sixties, feminists have railed against men whom they stated shamed women for being sexually liberated, having multiple sexual partners and dressing provocatively. As with all the examples listed here, it is not men who are guilty of these allegations, but women themselves. In a 2016 study of over 19 million tweets, the majority of attacks on women were penned buy other women. (Crook, 2016)

“Human females have a particular proclivity for using indirect aggression, which is typically directed at other females, especially attractive and sexually available females, in the context of intrasexual competition for mates.” (Vaillancourt, 2013)

It is clear that women, by the very fact that they have grown up as women, and have been the recipients as well as the perpetrators of said shaming, must know that the barrage is coming from other women, yet their in-group bias and inability to accept responsibility for their own group’s actions causes them to project this behavior onto men.

“Feelings that are projected may be controlling, jealous, angry, or sexual in nature. These are not the only types of feelings and emotions projected, but projection most often occurs when individuals cannot accept their own impulses or feelings.” (GoodTherapy, 2016)

Domestic Violence or Intimate Partner Violence

This topic hits a little too close to home for me and was the straw that broke the camels back, opening the door to my research on feminism. I fully experienced the physical, emotional and psychological abuse at the hands of an ex-girlfriend. I refuse to use the words “victim” or “survivor”. It was something I experienced first hand, then I left her and moved on. Simple as that. The experience (particularly the realization that if I dared seek help, chances were I would be the one prosecuted) did however lead me down the path of awakening about how feminism hurts both men and women, let alone society in general.

The popular narrative is literally super-saturated throughout Western Society.

Men abuse women. Violence against women must stop.

You can’t get through the average day, sometimes an hour, without this dogma being pile driven into your head. Like a jack-hammer. It. Just. Won’t. Stop.

The truth is the polar opposite. I cannot be more clear on this;

Women physically, emotionally and psychologically abuse men at HIGHER RATES than men abuse women in almost every category.

Here are some stats you may find unbelievable, yet they are the result of research based on over 1700 peer-reviewed studies.

Boys are more likely to be hit by girls in high school than boys hitting girls.

Overall, 28.3% of women and 21.6% of men are perpetrators of IPV.

57.9% of IPV is bi-directional, meaning both the male and female used some form of violence during any given altercation. Of the remaining 42.1% incidents, women were more than two times more likely to be the sole perpetrators. (28.3% vs. 13.8%) (Hamel, 2012)

2010 was one of the first years that statistics from the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Abuse Survey clearly demonstrated males overtaking females as victims of IPV. (Control, 2010) I believe this is due to men finally coming forward and admitting that their female partner abused them and NOT because women are becoming more violent. Further, I believe as the stigma around female perpetrated IPV dissipates, this discrepancy will become much, much higher.

*Estimate is not reported; relative standard error >30% or cell size <20.

(Control, 2010)

Author’s note: Whereas most categories of violence are specifically described, the category of “Beaten” is suspiciously ambiguous. In the category of “Hurt by pulling hair”, the elevated percentage and number of female victims should be self-evident.

The same pattern is observed when examining Psychological abuse or aggression, also know as coercive abuse.

(Control, 2010)

Coercive abuse is only now starting to attract serious academic research and legislation. Many consider it to be even more damaging than physical abuse (Wench, 2014) and women are just as likely, if not slightly more likely to be the perpetrators. (Suzanne C. Swan, 2008)

“Bullying: A bully may project his/her own feelings of vulnerability onto the target(s) of the bullying activity. Despite the fact that a bully’s typically denigrating activities are aimed at the bully’s targets, the true source of such negativity is ultimately almost always found in the bully’s own sense of personal insecurity and/or vulnerability. Such aggressive projections of displaced negative emotions can occur anywhere from the micro-level of interpersonal relationships, all the way up through to the macro-level of international politics, or even international armed conflict.” (Gibert, 1999) (Carl G. Jung ed., 1978)

Danger to Children

Society and mainstream media have parents believing that there is an inherent danger when men take care of children. Men in public are just waiting for the opportunity to swoop in and grab any children in sight. Men are the medieval Bogeyman of myth personified.

This perception is so strong, so prevalent, that all careers which involve supervision of young children have seen a steep decline of males in those positions. (Cruickshank, 2017) How convenient that a narrative arose which pushes men out of these positions to make way for women. Fathers accompanying their own children to the local park are routinely judged, scolded and shamed. A man helping a lost child can even be beaten for being a good Samaritan. (Andone, 2017) Ask any father about the looks he gets for being near his own children at a park.

Here again, the truth is the opposite of the public’s perception. A British study of almost 3000 young adults found that mothers (49%) were more likely than fathers (40%) to have been the abuser in the home. Researches also believe that in other areas of abuse, the numbers of female perpetrators are artificially low as many cases go under reported. (Raphael, 2005)

Other examples

The list of projected behaviors by feminists is too great to be examined in detail in this one article alone. I ask you, the reader to apply the same critical thinking to the following feminist “buzz words” and come to your own conclusions. Purely for brevity (and levity), let me suggest the following examples: mansplaining, manspreading, misogyny, even the patriarchy itself.

In-group bias

Each and every one of us is guilty, on some level, of in-group bias. Consider sports fans routing for “their” team, or any tribe on the popular reality show “Survivor” — ever. Even when the tribes are randomly mixed halfway through the game, many times old loyalties stay in place.

Perhaps due to millions of years of evolution, women have a much, much more elevated propensity for gender in-group bias than do men.

“Four experiments confirmed that women’s automatic in-group bias is remarkably stronger than men’s and investigated explanations for this sex difference, derived from potential sources of implicit attitudes.” (L. A. Rudman, 2004)

“…only women (not men) showed cognitive balance among in-group bias, identity, and self-esteem revealing that men lack a mechanism that bolsters automatic own group preference.” (A. G. Greenwald et al., 2002)

“In addition to personal self-esteem, we propose that there is a second type of self-esteem, collective self-esteem. People who are high in trait collective self-esteem should be more likely to react to threats to collective self-esteem by derogating outgroups and enhancing the in-group.” (Luhtanen, 1990)

Projection on a macro scale

When we think about the term “psychological projection”, we associate the trait to an individual. We view it through the lens of the singular, the personal. If, however, enough individuals within a segmented group (be it a sports team, a government or a gender) share this trait, the projection can morph to the macro scale.

“Carl Jung considered that the unacceptable parts of the personality represented by the Shadow archetype were particularly likely to give rise to projection, both small-scale and on a national/international basis. Marie-Louise Von Franz extended her view of projection, stating that “wherever known reality stops, where we touch the unknown, there we project an archetypal image”.” (Gibert, 1999)

If we accept that projection can occur at a macro-level of international politics, it is therefore perfectly reasonable to accept that it can also occur in a macro, gendered sense as well. Especially when considered through the lens of in-group bias.

This, I believe, has always been present in the ideology of feminism. Yes, even in the first “wave”. Since at least the 1970’s in Western society, we have born witness to nothing less then the projected guilty conscious of a specific group of (usually upper-class) privileged women. In an effort to assuage their own guilt, they have lashed out at anything and everything within their sphere of influence. Much like an exhausted parent of a child having a temper tantrum, society has acquiesced to their incessant screaming. We are paying the price for our weakness today.

“Narcissists are renowned for using psychological projection to blame other people, even when it is entirely apparent that they are the ones in the wrong.” (Davies, J., 2017)