Androphobia
Androphobia, hominophobia or arrhenphobia is an irrational or undue level of fear of men, boys or males in general. The term is sometimes correlated with misandry although it should not be conflated because it is different.[1] Androphobia pertains to fear rather than hate, and a psychological proclivity of fear characterized by anxiety when in the presence of biomales, and may include fear of being in close proximity to males or maintaining social contact wth males[2]. Someone who feels such a fear is an androphobe, hominophobe or arrhenphobe. The aquivalent of androphobia for women is gynophobia, a fear of women. There are many subsets of androphobia, including androheterophobia, androethnophobia and phallophobia (fear of erect penises).[3]
Forms of treatment include paroxetine, an antidepressant, psychotherapy involving speeking to a licensed therapist or exposure theraphy involving socializing with males.
Individual[edit | edit source]
Androphobia can be caused by some previous traumatic experience with a male or a result of a mental disorder. Juts like other phobias, androphobia can have several symptoms, such as apnea, shortness of breath, difficulty in thinking clearly, dizziness, a dry mouth, feeling that one is dying or going crazy, losing self-control of one's ambulation, malaise, inability to concentrate at work tasks or school tasks, inability to make a simple decisions, nausea, palpitations, tremors, profuse sweating, and in those who have PTSD, social anxiety attacks. Not everyone suffering from androphobia experiences all the above-mentioned symptoms, and some people may have none of these reactions.[4]
Societal[edit | edit source]
Although the term androphobia is usually associated with individual experiences, androphobia can sometimes manifest itself as a wholesale societal issue. This is especially the case when androphobia appears to have a societal foundation, such as extreme taboos against freemixing per the legal system of some countries, or an upbringing in a TERF household or community wherein radfem ideas are not challenged. When androphobia seeps into society, it may also seep into major international corporations and enterprises, as was the case with the British Airways, Qantas and Air New Zealand, all of which had policies permitting forbidding men and children from sitting next to each other on airplanes. This policy was especially considered androphobic since these corporations never highlighted any previous instance of reported of child abuse on planes, whether hebephilic, ephebophilic, gaslighting, doxxing, psychological or otherwise to have prompted such a decision.
Terminology[edit | edit source]
The most overt androphobes can sometimes be told apart from normal people by the language they use:
- wurstie: a term that satirizes the fact that the penis looks like a wurst sausage
- scrote: mocks the appearance of the male scrotum
- testerical: play on the word "hysterical"; assumes that any form of male apprehension is caused by testosterone-fueled irrationality stemming from his testes
- moid: blend of the word male and android: assumes men are robotic-like
Brazil[edit | edit source]
Brazil is thus far one of the few (if not the only) country to have recognized androphobia as a serious societal issue, much to the dismay of BrazilianSigma. The organization ABRACODHPAI is a Brazilian group that stands for "Brazilian Association Against Andro-phobia and Equal Rights to Men" which was created on the online platforms Orkut and Facebook in the the 2000s. Although it has not succeeded in changing any of the androphobic laws or societal norms, it has made several issues associated with androphobia being discussed in public as well as in government hearings. These include criminalization and arbitrary arrest of men who are unable to provide alimony for understandable reasons, guardianship and custody of men's offspring, government housing programs, welfare programs such as the family grant, protectors and paternity leave, men's health, and employment opportunities for men in areas such as female dominated sevice industries which refuse male applications.
Popular culture[edit | edit source]
Misse Mohge, a character in the Danish television series Matador suffered from androphobia after abuse from her husband.