Winston Smith’s Misogyny Bothers Me

As a woman reading 1984, I was very struck by Winston’s passage about his encounter with a prostitute, and his general ideas about “party women” in general. Winston seems very irritated with the party’s anti-sex virtues, but for an interesting reason. 

That is, Winston seems to blame the party for the way they have de-sexualized sex- while also simultaneously blaming women for it?

When he describes sex with his wife Katherine, who he is now separated from, he laments that she always seemed like she didn’t want to have sex with him, “she would lie there with shut eyes… submitting”. As a sexual assault survivor, this made me gag. 

It feels like even though he knows the party is to blame for brainwashing its citizens into disliking sex, he still was very angry with Katherine? I understand the complexities of this situation: Katherine still wanted a child and saw sex as a “duty” for her to perform. But it was so obvious she was not okay with it, and the way that Winston got frustrated instead of sympathizing with her made me frustrated.

Generally in this novel so far, Winston seems to have a huge problem with women for not wanting to have sex. We see this with his disdain at a woman with an Anti Sex League sash, and his ramblings about his wife later.

Okay, so how do we see this parallel in real life? Well to me, this seems like textbook rape culture. 

The part of rape culture we see reflected in the book is the idea that wives do not have to consent. As well as a general sentiment of women as objects, and the idea that women “owe” men sex.

We see rape culture and its implications reflected everywhere- through our legal system, social interactions, and even how we perceive people through their gender roles. 

I don’t have an issue with Winston necessarily. I also do understand the broader point Orwell is trying to make. But the idea that “all-party women are stupid and dumb and don’t have a brain” is a bad take, and could have been better expanded upon. (For instance, are women still being oppressed for being women in the party, and Winston is just unaware of it? This would explain why he perceives all women to be just “submitting” when maybe they are just trying to survive?) 

Anyways, Orwell had many choices to make when he wrote his novel, and so far it seems one of them is misogyny. And it irritates me. 

Are there any other ways you see Winston’s “anti-women because they won’t have sex with me” sentiment on display? Is there another way of looking at his bigotry?