General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Disparaging terms to both men and women here... [View all]athena
(4,187 posts)First of all, you greatly underestimate what misogyny is. Misogyny is not just a matter of people using disparaging terms to refer to women. If you were a woman, you would realize that misogyny goes way beyond words. You would find that you don't get promoted for the same level of work that gets your male colleagues promoted. You would learn that speaking your mind in a meeting, the same way your male colleagues do, results in a bad review or even a reprimand. The tiniest bit of anger or irritability you showed in the workplace would get you labeled as "unprofessional" or "out of control". People would dismiss your comments and ideas, and then applaud them when later made by a male coworker. You would get paid less than your male coworkers doing the same job. And you would find that it takes a lot more money, time, and thought to present what is considered a professional appearance when you're a woman than when you're a man. (It actually goes way beyond all this, but I don't want to take the discussion too far off topic.)
Words hurt. But if words spoken by a handful of people are all you have in your argument that the world is a misandristic place, all you're demonstrating is that you have not actually bothered to listen to feminists.
Feminists have always known that sexism hurts men as well as women. The same system that says women are valued for their appearance and must spend time making themselves beautiful says that men can't dress and present themselves the way they wish. The same system that devalues women for supposedly being emotional and fickle forces men to miss out on what an emotionally fulfilling life could bring them. The same system that says women's real job is to bear and raise children robs men of the close relationships they could have with their children. Sexism hurts women more than men, but it hurts men, too. Just the same way that racism hurts minority races most but also hurts the majority race in subtle ways the majority does not always realize. Instead of declaring that misandry is the problem, try to see that sexism, the way it is practiced by our society, hurts everyone and that it's in your own best interest to fight it.