Androcide is a term for the hate crime of systematically killing males because of their sex. Not all murders of men are androcide. Androcides often happen during war or genocide. Men and boys are not always solely targeted because of abstract or ideological hatred. Rather, male civilians are often targeted during warfare as a way to remove those considered to be potential combatants, and during genocide as a way to destroy the entire community.

Etymology

Androcide is a hyponym of gendercide. The etymological root of the hybrid word is derived from a combination of the Greek prefix andro meaning "man" or boy, with the Latin suffix cide, meaning killing.

Causes

Androcide may be deliberate: for example, to degrade the offensive capabilities of an adversary. Massacres of men and boys may be of this type. For example, during the Kosovo War, the Yugoslav forces under Slobodan Milošević was accused of massacring a lot of male Albanians of "battle age" because they saw them as a threat. Androcide may also be part of a larger genocide. Perpetrators may treat male and female victims differently. For example, during the Armenian genocide, elite men were publicly executed. Afterward, average men and boys would be killed en masse, and the women and little children in their communities deported. Gendercide Watch, an independent human rights group, regards this as a gendercide against men. However, this gendered treatment of victims was not ubiquitous; in many locations, women and girls were also subject to massacre. Men's rights activists such as Paul Nathanson, author of Replacing Misandry: A Revolutionary History of Men argue that the draft is a form of androcide. In many countries, only men are subjected to military conscription, which leaves them at greater risk of death during warfare compared to women. Worldwide, males constitute 79% of non-conflict homicides and the majority of direct conflict deaths. Androcide has also been a feature of literature in ancient Greek mythology and in hypothetical situations wherein there is discord between the sexes.

Warfare

Generally, military services will forcibly conscript men to fight in warfare, inevitably leading to massive male casualties when faced with males on the opposing side. Non-combatant males make up a majority of the casualties in mass killings in warfare. This practice occurs since soldiers see opposing men, fighting or otherwise, as rivals and a threat to their superiority. Alternatively, they are afraid that these men will attempt to fight back and kill them for any number of reasons, including revenge, mutual fear, and self defense. Thus, they may kill preemptively in an attempt to prevent this possibility.

Examples

In warfare

Srebrenica

As part of genocide

Plants

With regards to plants, androcide may refer to efforts to direct pollination through emasculating certain crops. In cannabis cultivation, male plants are culled once identified to prevent fertilisation of female plants due to the fact unfertilised female plants produce parthenocarpic fruits.

Mythology

In the Ancient Greek myth of the Trojan War, accounts of which are largely legendary, the Greeks killed all the men and boys of Troy after conquering it. Even infants and the elderly were not spared; the Greeks wanted to prevent a future Trojan rebellion or uprising. The female Trojans were raped and enslaved rather than being killed.

Sources