Friday, March 11, 2016
The Female Experience and Why I'm Unqualified To Talk About It
I've seen a large amount of articles written on how women are repressed and restricted from having equal rights as men, and for the most part, these articles resonate with me. Women are repressed. Woman are the targets of abuse, both sexual and nonsexual. These are facts, no matter how many times an uneducated person who appears from nowhere tells me I'm wrong and that I need to "educate myself." That's an argument that I CAN make. The argument that I can't make, however, is what the female experience in modern society is, and the reason for that is simple; I'm not a woman. As a man, I have NO IDEA exactly how it feels for women to be victims of casual sexism, misogyny, abuse, and the like. So instead, I'm gonna flip it and reverse it and explain how it feels for me to witness things like that happen. Casual sexism is something that I feel doesn't get quite enough attention, which is odd because it's the most common form of sexism. Simple things like a guy telling his group of friends that "'she didn't sleep with me, that skank", or "I asked her if she saw the game yesterday, not like I was expecting her to know anything about it." As a man witnessing these things happen, it utterly and truly disgusts me. What really gets me going, however, is that most of this casual sexism portrays the woman in a light of them being there specifically for someone to have sex with--a sex object. Most people find it extremely hard to do, and some can't do it at all, but what you have to do to rise above these stereotypes, names, and roles, is view everyone from a "human" standpoint. What I mean by "human" is stripping everyone down to the bare bones and viewing them as what we all are; human. Women should have equal rights not because "men have always been portrayed as the default" or "women are an oppressed people", but because we are all HUMAN. Because not everyone can find a way to take that stance, its hard to explain in depth. All I can say is that whenever I see someone acting in a way that lowers women, all I can think to myself is "what an idiot."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Your post was really powerful to read-- casual sexism is something that is so common is is often times not even noticed. It's so important to acknowledge it and stand up to it in situations like the ones you mentioned. You did a great job of articulating your standpoint!
ReplyDeleteI like how you opened with saying that as a man you have no idea what the female experience is like. I had this problem as well when I was making my post. It seems you are sensitive to casual sexism and because of that you feel like you're not entitled to speak from a woman's point of view and think that's respectable.
ReplyDeleteThis post is really powerful by the fact that you provided your own take on gender in America. The acknowledgment on your part that you do not know the female experience but still stand up in situations where you see something negative in the female experience is very interesting. Overall you did a great job of defending your argument and articulating your beliefs.
ReplyDelete