misogynoir

mis·o·gy·noir
M3I1S1O1G2Y4N1O1I1R1
UK/mɪˌsɒd͡ʒəˈnwɑː/US/məˌsɑd͡ʒəˈnwɑɹ/

noun

Contempt for, hatred of, or prejudice against black women.

First used 2010Scrabble 16

Meanings

nounmisogynoir (uncountable)
  1. neologismuncountableContempt for, hatred of, or prejudice against black women.First known use 2010

    [A] Black woman as the arbiter of racialized sexism against a young Black girl is an example of misogynoir.

    2016, Sonita R. Moss, “Beyoncé and Blue: Black Motherhood and the Binds of Racialized Sexism”, in Adrienne Trier-Bieniek, editor, The Beyoncé Effect: Essays on Sexuality, Race and Feminism, Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 157
    5 more examples

    My reorientation to the misogynoir ruling the radio took place when I tried to make the argument that “All the Way Turnt Up” was a great song because it didn’t objectify women. This was something I could get behind; a song simply extolling the youthful value of keeping the bass bumping in your vehicle. That was until I read the lyrics and found the choice lyric “three dike bitches, and they all wanna swallow.”

    2010 March 14, Moya Bailey, “They Aren’t Talking about Me …”, in Crunk Feminist Collective, archived from the original on 15 Mar 2022

    Hip-hop feminist studies continues to tackle black sexual politics by discussing and challenging the persistence and prevalence of hip-hop "misogynoir" (the hatred of black women and girls), respectability politics, and compulsory heterosexuality within the music and the culture at large.

    2013 spring, Aisha Durham, Brittany C. Cooper, Susana M. Morris, “The Stage Hip-Hop Feminism Built: A New Directions Essay”, in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, volume 38, number 3, Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 730

    Unfortunately, the idealization of white women is most often paired with the condemnation of black women, creating the intersectional problem of misogynoir: the combined racism and sexism black women face.

    2014 September 24, Monica Cruz, “Someone Tell Kanye West to Stop Insulting Black Women”, in The Paper: Fordham University’s Student Journal of News, Analysis, Comment and Review, volume 43, number 6, Bronx, New York, N.Y.: Fordham University, →OCLC, page 9

    Drawing upon a history in which racism, heteropatriarchy, and inter-racial gender ideology rendered Black women invisible and marginalized, Pough compels Black feminists attempting to reject hip-hop feminism to revisit the historical record of Black women pushing back against Black male sexism and misogynoir in Black political, cultural, and social spaces.

    2015 January, Treva B. Lindsey, “Let Me Blow Your Mind: Hip Hop Feminist Futures in Theory and Praxis”, in Urban Education, volume 50, number 1, Beverly Hills, Calif.: SAGE Journals, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 19 Mar 2015, pages 57–58

    To me, his words seemed a form of “misogynoir” – discrimination prejudice, and violence aimed specifically at women of colour.

    2022 December 21, VV Brown, “The Sun will protect Jeremy Clarkson. Who will protect women who suffer violence every day?”, in The Guardian

Origin

  1. Frenchnoir“black”
  2. Englishmisogynoir

Blend of misogyny (“contempt for, hatred of, or prejudice against women”) + French noir (“black”), coined by the African-American feminist activist and scholar Moya Bailey and first published in a 2010 online essay: see the quotation below.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Dutch misogynoir
  • misogynoircontempt for, hatred of, or prejudice against black women
French misogynoir, mysoginoire
  • misogynoircontempt for, hatred of, or prejudice against black women
  • mysoginoirecontempt for, hatred of, or prejudice against black women
Portuguese misoginoir
  • misoginoircontempt for, hatred of, or prejudice against black women

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with misogynoir

All rhymes →
Cite this entry
APA

misogynoir. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/misogynoir

MLA

“misogynoir.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/misogynoir. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “misogynoir,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/misogynoir.

Source: misogynoir on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.