In the past, I participated in a Middle East discussion forum in which the terms Islamophobe and anti-Semite were tossed around. Sometimes with justification, sometimes not. But the thing is, no one wanted to be a racist. They considered it to be a bad thing. No one wanted to consider themselves to be someone who didn't like Jews or didn't like Muslims or Arabs.

Here, the response of some has been different. When confronted with how sexist or misogynistic a good portion of the RP threads are, for those RPs that don't deny it, the question is invariably, so what?

What's so bad about it?

I've heard in a rhetorical sense, "What's so bad about hating women?" Not that this person hates women, but it was a rhetorical question which got me thinking, why isn't that obvious?

For most RPs, hate is too strong a word, dislike or disdain are more appropriate.

So what's bad about disliking women? What's so bad about holding them in contempt? Holding them in disdain? What's so bad about considering them inferior? What's so bad about thinking that all women are shit?

There's a few reasons as to why it's not wrong that seem to pop up:

  1. it's only a small group on the internet. The beliefs of these individuals don't affect me or you or society as a whole, so it doesn't matter.

  2. it's true, so there's nothing wrong with it, the beliefs are justified (and therefore sexism and misogyny are made up words and have no use because AWALT)

  3. sexual strategy is amoral, so there's nothing wrong with anything that they believe. All's fair in love and war?

  4. it's true, and society will eventually make it's way back to a situation where women's failings are kept in check by men anyway

  5. It's not wrong because these are men expressing their feelings and experiences, feelings and experiences are not wrong.

Are there any other reasons that I'm missing? Or perhaps I've misrepresented them?

The question is twofold:

First: even if you don't agree with the "women are shit" type attitude (and especially if you do agree), but don't think there is any harm in them, (we've got plenty that both agree and disagree on this sub) why do you personally think that there is nothing wrong with disliking an entire gender?

Second: more philosophical, do you believe there is nothing wrong with hating or disliking a group based on gender/race/religion/sexual orientation? Is it just not as big a deal as we think it is?