Stephen King Misogyny

Misogyny in From a Buick 8 The Cambridge Dictionary has defined Misogyny as “feelings of hating women, or the belief that men are much better than women” [1] Misogyny can take various forms from violence against women, sexual objectification and the diminished role of women in a male-dominated society. Despite living in a so-called “modern” society, unfortunately there is no denying that misogyny is still very much thriving in our media, politics and entertainment with literature being no exception. Although not his first time accused of misogyny in his writings, the author Stephen King in his book “From a Buick 8” has clearly demonstrated traits that lean towards his misogynist views with signs of blatant sexual objectification of women …show more content…
King throughout his book has showcased men as the breadwinners and the one in charge, while the women crumble if the men in family no longer exist. For example, Ennis sister, Edith after his disappearance was facing a dire situation and according to Troop D was “next door to destitute” (105) without the help of the men, a common assumption that women cannot take care of themselves. In fact, the only important role women seemed to have been consistently displaying in the book is their role to serve the men. The line “Wives bringing forgotten lunches or sometimes boxes of fudge” (177) or Shirley when she insisted to serve her colleagues when it clearly isn’t her job “Nope, I just know that men get thirsty when they talk, and that men are always hungry.” (101) These are two examples of how King’s misogynist view can only appreciate a domesticated woman because misogynist don’t consider women as equal members of the society and hence it can be seen in the book that there are no female Troopers because it is viewed as a man’s job. One can argue, that the author was trying to portray a time in the 70’s when women were not given opportunities to work in male-dominated fields. However, even when the story moves to the twenty-first century there are still no female troopers because for misogynist women are only meant to look …show more content…
We claim to live in a society where women are equal to men, but so many bestselling books today still have misogynistic tones. There is no denying that author Stephan King is a misogynist as his previous works like “The Mist”, “Carrie”, “It” etc. all have one thing in common is his misogynist view of women. “ From a Buick 8” is a story that focuses on the men in Troop D and the women roles are nearly insignificant. The roles the women do have are reduced to eye candy using sexual objectification and stereotypes. The character Shirley is the only female character that has been given a voice in the entire book, but her voice is compromised by the misogyny. One may beg to question whether we still are living in the dark ages? Are women still second-class citizens? Why is still ok to portray women as helpless and fragile even in fiction when women are fighting so hard to break away from these stereotypes. Unfortunately even today, women are constantly bombarded with misogynistic messages through media, politics (our current election is a huge example), entertainment and literary works. Misogyny has negative impacts on women and sends the wrong message, especially to young, impressionable women that may question their worth in our society. It is time for the authors to break away from men are strong and women are weak cliché and explore more

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