For example workplace harrasment by women towards males like touching or groping being ignored because the victim is male but if it where to happen to a woman by a male the male would be fired
One of the two presidential candidates has five children with three different partners. The coverage of that fact would be very different it it were the female.
This is going to be my new way to antagonize conservatives I know:
ME: Did you know Harris has had 5 kids with 3 different partners?!
MORON: I don’t doubt it. She’s a whore!
ME: Oh sorry, I meant Trump.
Yeah, he’s a good looking stud, what do you expect.
downvoters did not pick up on sarcasm?
Absolutely not. Satire of Trump supporters and Trump supporters are indistinguishable. The ear bandages, the diaper wearing. The complete and utter nonsense they swallow and spout. Being proud of “grab 'em by the pussy” and openly supporting KKK and walking the streets with actual swastikas. There’s nothing too extreme to be even remotely too absurd to be true from MAGA. So no, unless you’re putting a /s on your fake utterly stupid moronic take Republican opinion, I absolutely can’t tell that you’re ridiculing them instead of just being that stupid.
Oh no, instead she has step-children so was referred to as a “Childless cat lady” by checks notes the running mate of the opposing party.
The only place to the conservative crowd for a woman to be in is in a single relationship with her own kids. Though I’m sure they’d have a way to gripe about it too.
I’m kind of prude before I get to know someone. I can recall at least 5 times my friends tried to push a girl from the bar into my cab because they thought it was funny I didn’t want to take them home.
Just imagine the reverse situation. It’s the same as women calling other women sluts. Sometimes it’s the most vocal men that make the stereotypes worse.
This isn’t a blanket statement, but I have, in the past, been introduced to women in my friend group, and talked to them like I would anybody else. But for whatever reason, they get the idea that I’m hitting on them. I can see it in their body language, the way they bring up their significant other (Like, really? I was just introduced to both of you 5 minutes ago?), among others. They make it out like “how could you be hitting on me?” and I’m like, asking about a band she brought up? I wasn’t even remotely attracted to her, I was just trying to be friendly, but her demeanor made it seem like she thought I was some insensitive asshole, and it hurt. I excused myself and just fuckin left. I had only gotten there like 20 minutes beforehand.
Another time I was introduced to a woman while we were helping a friend move. This girl I was into (she ranted about recycling <3), and I was planning on asking her out once we were done for the day, but as we were talking, she mentioned her significant other, so I didn’t. After we’d finished loading something into the moving truck, I said “hey so, thanks for mentioning your significant other back there, saved me a bit of awkwardness haha.” To this, she took offense, and challenged me, “what do you mean? what are you talking about?” like, hands on hips, wide eyes, “how dare you” attitude… and I was dumbfounded. Here I was, thanking her for stopping me from embarrassing myself by asking out a girl that was in a relationship, and I was getting the third degree from it! At this point I didn’t know whether it would make the matter worse if I confessed I had almost asked her out, so I just blankly stared, mouth agape (dumbfounded, like I said). I eventually excused myself and went back to loading the truck. Avoided her like the plague since then.
These were just two myopic incidents, probably lasted 5 minutes in total each, but it affected me in such a way that I basically cut myself out from the entire social circle, and only ever hang out with a guy friend that’s kind.
However, I feel the need to add a disclaimer so you don’t get me wrong.
I’ve also gone through a lot of personal growth recently, and in the endeavor to understand myself and my sexuality (Go Fightin’ Bi’s!), I’ve encountered scenarios that help me understand women better. I’ve had guy friends who only acted like my friend because they wanted to sleep with me. That hurts, and it makes me feel cheap. Once I tell them definitely “No,” or they realize I’m not interested, they stop interacting with me. It’s like, is that all I was in your eyes? Some thing to fuck? And even getting to the point where I’d tell these guys “No,” was excruciating! I don’t want to lose a friendship, or hurt them by saying “No,” I’m just not interested! Makes it hard to engage with my fellow LGBT peeps, when I feel like I’m just going to be pushed into hurting someones feelings. This led me to ghost some guys, and I’m not proud of it. That doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate it when someone is flirty or compliments me, that’s nice and can be a real ego boost! But when I’m using all my body language to say “thanks but no thanks,” and you are still uncomfortably close? or touching the small of my back like it’s nonchalant or something? fucking GROSS.
Additionally, I have an elderly, disabled, female neighbor that I used to help out a lot. Whenever she needed something done around the house, she’d come over and I’d take care of it for her. She is an old pot head, so she’d even smoke me up! We’d pass a joint while watching Amos and Andy or whatever was on TV, it was a nice relationship. Then, once I became single, it got worse. Before, after I fixed her fridge, she wanted to give me a kiss on the cheek, and it came uncomfortably close to my lips. Then she started standing in the doorway while I came inside, so I’d have to press past her to get in. Then she’d touch my arm, leg, small of my back when I was doing chores for her. It got to the point where she would wait till I was high, and then ask how big my dick was, and if I’d let her go down on me. Just repulsive behavior. I’ve since stopped helping her, and always decline her offers to smoke, despite missing how we used to be.
All of this to say, guys get sexually harassed, Guys get sexually abused, and Guys get unfairly depicted as predators in hurtful ways. But also, girls get sexually harassed, Girls get sexually abused, and Girls get unfairly depicted as cold honey pots in hurtful ways.
What we should all do is try to be more kind.
The fact that any point made in this post, no matter how reasonable a complaint, or how heinous it would be considered if done to a woman, will likely be derided and dismissed as misogyny, mansplaining, whining, etc, and all male participants in the discussion labeled as incels.
Incel
One that constantly comes up between me and my partner is fashion related. She is very liberal but when it comes to our relationship is the exact opposite. She buys everything from lacy thongs and g-strings to boy shorts underwear. She hates that I as a man wear thong and bikini underwear, too. I’m athletic, lift and workout 5 days a week, and get hot very easily. I like the support and minimalism of thongs for that, but she always buys me boxers which are uncomfortable and bunch up and all the extra fabric and cotton makes me hot and sweaty and chafe. When I bring up she wears thongs just do she doesn’t have panty lines and I wear them for comfort and support she doesn’t understand. She also mentioned she thinks guys wearing thongs is weird but then says it’s so “brave” when gay guys do it during pride. I once called her out and homophobic for assuming it’s a fetishized gay guys only thing and she got mad, but am I wrong?
She chooses for image. She’s sympathetic. But, she’s no empathy for you valuing different facets in your choice. Is it just underwear or does this extend to more, possibly all choices?
We agree on the overwhelming majority of important things (politics, cleanliness, nutrition, children) but obviously we have different tastes within those areas, I love cashews, she hates them, I prefer lifting weights, she prefers Pilates, etc… This is just the one weird thing we get hung up on.
She obviously likes the way you look in boxers. Maybe ask her to buy you some Saxx brand boxers: synthetic stretchy, great support, durable. Two pairs got me about 1k trail miles. I’ve since replaced everything.
How does their synthetic hold up?
I’ve always bought their cotton boxer briefs and it seems that in recent years the durability has gone down. They used to last a few years a pair, but new pairs start to look baggy and sad after about 4-6 months. (They’re honestly off the list of products I buy right now.)
Mine are all a couple years old. I’d expect the same enshitification across the product line.
I find my clothing by asking ultralight hikers, runners, and bicyclists.
This is more like her insisting you hate cashews because she hates cashews.
Only in this case her hate is homophobic/transphobic. Women can wear boy stuff. And men can, in theory, wear ‘queer’ stuff. As long as it’s not her partner doing it.
Women love feminine men, but they won’t date one.
Yeah, it’s very strange. They talk about masculinity like it’s a negative trait but then that’s all they want in a relationship. Nature > Nurture
Which leaves men playing this crazy game where we need to be very masculine but never acknowledge it.
We agree on the overwhelming majority of important things (politics, cleanliness, nutrition, children)
interesting first choice 🤡
Dude, I know this is a weird question, but where do you buy your underwear. I’ve been wanting to try it out, but I can’t really find a site that doesn’t fetishize thong underwear for men.
Btw, I think there’s nothing wrong with wearing something you’re comfortable in.
MeUndies. They have tons of colors, great return policy if you don’t like them or they don’t fit, and they don’t fetishize it. I know what you are saying, when I first started looking they had a very obvious “target demographic” that I’m not a part of. I just wanted a solid, normal, comfortable man thong. Before that, jockey had great men’s thongs and some women’s thongs that definitely fit men and don’t look feminine. I’m hoping that Meundies starts to do more fabric types in men’s thongs, women get all the light and silky fabrics….
Try. https://moonieco.com/pages/monies like you’re not wearing under crackers at all
I am not always wearing thongs, and I really like MeUndies thongs and I have a lot of their trunks, too. She calls the trunks “my booty shorts” jokingly. She doesn’t mind when I wear those.
Oh no! My husband just started eating thongy underwear and I’m enjoying the view ;)
Also he is really enjoying them as well, guess they feel better than boxers
I’m glad for both of you and that you are both enjoying it! It’s honestly such a small thing to get hung up on in our relationship that I just brush it off and move on.
small thing to get hung up on
The thong, right?
small […] hung
I’m getting mixed signals here
You’re definitely not wrong. If she’s willing to undermine or criticize your clothes preference after you’ve already told her why you like them and you don’t want to change, what else is she willing to undermine?
I feel very comfortable sharing with her, especially since I grew up in an extremely conservative area of the south and she grew up in an upper class suburb in the Bay Area in California. She knows when I’m feeling “off” because it manifests in body language she picks up on and tries to get me to share (I.e. when I’m having work or family problems) but it’s been hard to break that “men don’t share their feelings” attitude I was raised with. She actually buys me clothing that is vibrant and traditionally female brands (lulu, Madewell, etc…). That’s why I was kind of taken aback when I first started wearing my thongs around her and she was like “are those women’s panties?” Because they were brightly colored pink pair of a male thong from MeUndies. I explained they are the comfortable for support when engaging in cardio and lifting and she was like, “I don’t like seeing you in them”.
In the same way I grew up in a very conservative area and this is a unique way to express myself and enjoy feeling sexy, I think she grew up in the opposite and that’s why she was attracted to stoic, lumbering me. She has jokingly called me a “brute” in a loving way and says she is fascinated how I just “power through” manual labor for 12 hours at a time on the weekend doing projects and lifting heavy stuff around our house. I think she just has a biological urge to see me as that big protector.
Also, she always talks about how she doesn’t like muscle on guys, but since we have been together I have put on a lot of muscle and the more I put on the more she is constantly squeezing my arms and shoulders and putting her head on my chest… but she has also noticed that other women will feel my arms in public and I think she gets a little jealous
Other women touching you in public without your consent is harassment
As a guy who’s trying dating again, there’s something that keeps coming up that kinda bugs me: talking to women who just put in the bare minimum of effort, expect me to carry the conversation and make all the first moves.
I don’t give two shits about traditional gender roles and I’m all about subverting them. However, I think if you’re in the same boat but still wanna call yourself a “passenger princess” and expect the guy to do everything, you’re kind of a hypocrite.
Same, I am bi, and that is the reason I stopped trying to date women, or anyone who behaves like that for good measure, because some guys try to pull that same stunt.
I want a partner who is as interested and as into dating me as I am into dating them, someone who puts the time in and makes an effort, makes me and my time feel valued, and is also willing to to invest themselves and their time on me, and I don’t know if I was just unlucky, but I never found a woman who was into that. But then again, I pretty much only dated teens and women in their early 20s, as I liked dating people on my own age group and it was at those ages that I was actively dating women.
But from an outsider’s perspective, now on my late 30s, the straight dating market looks awful, I think I’ll stick with men.
I keep hearing horror stories on lesbian dating market, males seems to be doing fine and only group getting along lol
also, all these theories on domestic abuse but don’t lesbians have the highest rates of abuse?
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10751048/
This study found no significant differences in victimization types between same-sex and opposite-sex intimate partner violence for females, and no differences in physical and sexual abuse for males. Small sample sizes might have affected these findings.
They do, according to the studies I have read. And unlike a lot of studies, that default to male violence in straight cases of domestic violence, a lot of the lesbic cases seem to be tagged as mutual violence.
Don’t know if it is bias on the measuring bodies, since a lot of people claim female on male violence is not a thing, and that the moment a man strikes a woman, no matter the circumstances, it is male on female. Including a case I witnessed, where a female family member attacked her boyfriend with a knife, he disarmed her and since he bruised her while doing so, he was removed from the house and lost custody of his own daughter.
I’ve got a theory that women put more effort into dating apps than we think. It’s just spread across so many more people.
Oh yeah, I’ve seen the other side of things through female friends. They generally have the opposite problem as men.
I’d heard about guys doing stupid shit on dating apps like sending unsolicited dick pics or just going straight for sexual stuff and figured it was maybe a “yeah it happens once in a while” kinda thing, because I’d personally never do something like that. But in fact it seems like a large portion of the interactions are just that bad.
So I can understand not putting in a lot of effort initially. Starting with small talk and making sure it’s not a waste of your time. I do the exact same thing.
But even after it feels like I’ve started to establish a rapport with someone, the conversation still can feel incredibly one-sided. It’s like, okay, at this point you’re just kinda being disrespectful. And it happens over and over again.
Drop these conversations, let them go cold. This person clearly has no affinity with you or doesn’t value you. Move on.
Yes, thank you, I never would have figured that out without your brilliant insight.
Unfortunately, because of the aforementioned probationary period at the start of any conversation, it can take some time before it becomes clear that the other person just isn’t that interested.
Can I still be annoyed at my time and effort being wasted? Or is it just my fault for being a man on a dating app?
Morta is trying to fix your problem. Stop resisting and stop being a baby! /s
No wonder. Good luck
This kind of thing drives me mad.
If we both like each other, why don’t we communicate like adults instead of playing some stupid game?
Exactly.
Well, then there’s another stupid game… “Hey hon’ do I look fat in these jeans?”
“Positively rotund. How’d you even fit through the door to get in here? I’m amazed your shins haven’t given out under the strain.”
Push those “”““tests””“” right back down their throats with a second hand toilet plunger.
if we both like each other
I think the number of women* who are looking for a man to spend time with because she enjoys his personality are outnumbered by women who like the attention they get when they post a picture of the meal her date paid for to Instagram.
*here defined as “adult female humans somewhere between the age of majority and menopause existing in the present day found in the Western, English-speaking world” for those of you who want to so helpfully remind me that women in South Sudan or Mongolia that aren’t like that.
Just want to let you know that you aren’t alone. I have talked to a number of women who advocate for things like DEI and acceptance (which is something I also believe quite strongly in) but often default to preferring more traditional gender norms in dating. When pressed on the issue (not like I’m interrogating them just through normal conversations and getting to know them) they will inevitably say that it is ultimately “just their preference”.
What I find so odd about that “preference” is if a man behaves in accordance with the traditional/societal gender norms in the beginning of the courting process, why is it surprising that they do the same thing later in the relationship when it comes to sharing emotional labor or various types of household chores?
I know the below is taking it to a bit of an extreme example but that behavior and “preference” often reminds me the sentiment “the only moral abortion is my abortion”. Like I get it, there are a lot of shitty people out there who have no interest in putting in the effort, and they absolutely are not worth the time and effort, but when you do meet someone who is willing to put in that effort, it isn’t really fair to treat them like all those other people.
Yeah and then you got the “marrying kind” type of guys who cheat on their wife cause shes “frigid”
Men are in a kind of catch-22. Women say they want one thing but their actions usually say they want the opposite.
Not really. It’s quite easy to understand. They generally want feminism when it benefits them, but traditional gender roles when it benefits them.
I don’t blame them though, I also want things that benefit them. But it’s a dick move to do it with feminism, which is supposed to mean equality.
It’s not equality when they can pick and choose when to be equal.
Isn’t egalitarianism the term for equality?
This comes from my own observations, and might not be a popular take, but men are often encouraged or celebrated for having multiple partners and not using protection.
This attitude puts men(especially young men) at risk for STI’s, some of which can affect fertility even if a course of antibiotics will take care of it. Others don’t have cures yet, or are not as easy to treat like herpes, the different hepatitis strains, HIV, genital warts ect.
This attitude towards sex for men puts their health at risk and their partners.
The amount of times I’ve seen dudes encourage each other to not use condoms is kinda distressing. I don’t think guys are being educated on how a condom should fit and how to find the right size. They shouldn’t be uncomfortable. If they are try a different kind.
Women often have to try different birth control pills until they find one with minimal side effects. Try different condoms until you find the right ones for you. It’s to protect your dick from diseases, not just to stop pregnancy.
Take care of yourselves guys. Your health is important.
I mean maybe its just my circles but I found there was a type of guy that was a small minority who had a lot of partners and the average guy had a few and a goodly amount had trouble having one while women on average had a few. I guess what im saying it to me the average women has more partners than the average guy but like there is an above average area where the men have more than the women and then also guys obsess more over it (and lie). Granted at the extremes the extreme case women is likely going to overtake the extreme case guys.
This is probably 10 years ago that I read it, but I don’t expect that the numbers have changed much: The median number of lifetime partners for men is 4, while the median for women is 7. The median means that half of the group had that many or more, and half had that many or fewer. If every heterosexual encounter by definition has to include a male and a female, the way that that works out is that there’s a subgroup of men who have a partner count way over four.
In short, yeah, that observation checks out in the research. Among men, there are a few Wilt Chamberlains balanced by thousands with only a partner or two. (NB: extreme example for rhetorical purposes)
Regardless of whatever the case may be, men should be encouraged to protect their sexual health.
Women have gynecologists they see to monitor and do preventative care, discuss birth control methods ect.
Men don’t typically see a urologist unless theres an issue, and because of that there are less opportunities for them to ask questions, or be educated about STI’s and ways to protect themselves. Or know the potential long term risks of common STIs or even the symptoms.
Add to that common misconceptions about condoms, user error while using them, and cultural attitudes and men are kinda set up to not use them in way. Men’s health is important. I worry for my nephews who are getting into their early 20’s. I hope what I tried to teach them makes a difference.
Yeah I getcha. I actually always mention to my wife I sorta wish men could have a mens health doctor along with a primary care.
Everyone says to talk about your problems but the second you do, you’re told that women either have it worse or how they have some worse problem. I’ve largely stopped talking about my problems because I’m never heard, just talked past or worse, made out to be the problem. The older I get the more reinforced my silence is because evey time I open up it’s used against me and this is just normal.
Meanwhile I’m expected to play therapist when someone else talks about their problems and I have to stop my autistic ass from telling them I really don’t want to hear about you. I can’t even get the silence I give returned to me.
In dating or marriage: If a female partner criticizes on her male’s choice of outfit, it’s totally normal. If a male criticizes the choice of outfit of his female partner… a fight is imminent.
Insane expectations being placed on women around beauty and appearance, and the resulting insecurities that creates, play a big role in this
Sounds like an unhealthy relationship to me instead of a double standard but whatever.
Both are very common, so it’s easy to confuse them.
The whole question of double standards is in a sense, asking about common unhealthy traits
I see this all the time and my wife can give to hoots what I wear so I have no realtionship issue, but I see it all the time. Honestly it is a realtionship thing. Anyone can criticize a males outfit without to much blowback. If asked an not in a realtionship with a women a man can criticize a womens outfit minorly. If in a relationship they have to have an especially easy going significant other. Like my wife.
I don’t know any specific cases, but one thing I’ve heard that police (at least in Brazil) will just laugh at and ignore, is when a man is the victim of an abusive partner.
Of course, it’s nowhere as common as men being the violent/abusive partner, but it happens, yet “society” will effectively say “grow a pair”
Of course, it’s nowhere as common as men being the violent/abusive partner, but it happens, yet “society” will effectively say “grow a pair”
It’s funny how when talking about male victimization, people always feel the need to throw in a disclaimer that men are still “worse”
Which, I mean, they are:
Victim/Perpetrator adisaggregation reveals a large disparity in the shares of male and female victims of homicide committed by intimate partners or other family members: 36% male versus 64% female victims. Women also bear the greatest burden in terms of intimate partner violence.
— Source: United Nations Global Study on Homicide: Gender-related killing of women and girls
Domestic violence is a serious and challenging public health problem. Approximately 1 in 3 women and 1 in 10 men 18 years of age or older experience domestic violence. Annually, domestic violence is responsible for over 1500 deaths in the United States
According to the CDC, 1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men will experience physical violence by their intimate partner at some point during their lifetimes. About 1 in 3 women and nearly 1 in 6 men experience some form of sexual violence during their lifetimes. Intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and stalking are high, with intimate partner violence occurring in over 10 million people each year.
One in 6 women and 1 in 19 men have experienced stalking during their lifetimes. The majority are stalked by someone they know. An intimate partner stalks about 6 in 10 female victims and 4 in 10 male victims.
At least 5 million acts of domestic violence occur annually to women aged 18 years and older, with over 3 million involving men. While most events are minor, for example grabbing, shoving, pushing, slapping, and hitting, serious and sometimes fatal injuries do occur. Approximately 1.5 million intimate partner female rapes and physical assaults are perpetrated annually, and approximately 800,000 male assaults occur. About 1 in 5 women have experienced completed or attempted rape at some point in their lives. About 1% to 2% of men have experienced completed or attempted rape.
— https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK499891/
That’s not to downplay male victimization incidents, but let’s also not pretend the scale is the same.
Most studies show domestic abuse is almost always close 50/50 in perpetrators.
I doubt that very much, especially in relation to physical abuse and coercive control.
Can you show me some of these studies?
This thread is scary, a lot of you are being upvoted but your statements are just jealousy and anger.
Lots of projection going on here.
Lots of yall mad at women engaging in the type of behavior us men have exhibited forever.
Can you please go back to twoX already? We escaped Reddit because we don’t like toxic communities. Either don’t bring this shit here or just go back to reddit
You sure? Because what I’m seeing is a lot of sexual abuse towards guys that’s not being taken seriously, or workplace social abuse towards guys that’s mostly ignored.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure.
If you think I’m referring to the situations where men are referring to their abuse instead of the comments where people are just whining about women acting selfishly or shitty then that’s on you.
In fact my statement was specifically NOT about that.
https://lemmy.world/comment/11993090
https://lemmy.world/comment/11985350
https://lemmy.world/comment/11987028
https://lemmy.world/comment/11982251
https://sh.itjust.works/comment/13517729
Yeah, so, you are talking about exactly the kind of comments I thought you were talking about.
Way to go continuing to ignore legitimate issues, brushing them off as “jealous whining”.
I didn’t realize this was an incel community, my bad.
Go back back to othering
It’s behaviour like yours that makes the world’s problems stay the world’s problems. Ironically you’re the kind of person this thread is about.
Go back back to othering
The irony…
You’re really representing a lot of these with bad faith. It seems like you came into this thread with a view and used anything said to justify that view.
Your first call out about and ignores the entire point being made and the clear double standard being called out. You seem more willing to play the victim than have an honest conversation on equality.
Imagine if men behaved this way about women discussing double standards, it wouldn’t make you feel good. So why do it to men?
If you believe the patriarchy doesn’t harm men and can’t be enforced or upheld by any gender, you have an incomplete view of what patriarchy is.
I’m earning 1.2-1.3x what women in my job are earning, but when we go out to lunch, they want to split the bill according to what each person ordered. That makes me feel guilty, which is very unfair.
That is an intretresting view.
I understand, and respect the sentiment. However, in a co-worker dynamic, it makes sense everyone pays for what they order. I think they would feel guilty if you were buying them lunch. If my co-worker payed for my lunch, I’d want to buy for them next time. Putting a bunch of colleagues in an “I owe you” situation (intentional or not) probably isn’t the best idea.
I think you could offer to cover tip for the table and be within reason.
If they were making more money than yourself, would you expect them to cover part of your bill? I think most men would say no, you pay for what you eat.
For a birthday or something, go ahead and push it a little more, but don’t refuse when they return the favor (assuming they are decent people).
The fact they want to split the check is a big step from the steryotype of women expecting the man to cover the bill. You’re not their wallet, and if they treat you like it, run.
it makes sense everyone pays for what they order
In my experience, the only time a single person will cover most of or all of the bill is when they are celebrating something, like getting a promotion or moving to a new team.
that or if they have the company card
(and are allowed to use it for meals every now and them)
This is a troll
Thanks very much for the good advice. I think I will pay the tip in addition to my portion going forward. That should even the score.
No problem
If they insist of covering their tip; you can sleep knowing you tried, and they can sleep knowing they can pay for their own food.
pay grade aside, do you mean that it fills that you as a man must pay the full bill
i am leaving this comments since your getting higher down vote ratio without an explanation for why
Here’s another thing that I was just reminded of in this very thread, lmfao:
Men are expected to accept unsolicited advice at face value when they want to vent, because we’re supposed to be the ones with all the answers, and if a man is complaining about a problem, then he’s obviously just missing the answer.
This actually blew up my last relationship, right at the beginning of the pandemic, when my girlfriend at the time was stressed from being laid off and we weren’t able to see each other due to the isolation orders.
She would try to vent to me about her problems, looking for support in a time of emotional vulnerability, and I, an inexperienced idiot just trying to be helpful, would suggest solutions that I thought she hadn’t considered. If you can’t guess exactly how that went, you’ve almost certainly never been in a serious relationship.
What made it worse is she would then say to stop mansplaining, which made me defensive because I thought she was tacitly accusing me of being intentionally misogynistic when I was honestly just trying to be helpful. At the time, I figured I just needed to adjust my approach a little bit, not completely change course. Unsurprisingly, that didn’t work.
It was only in hindsight, some time after she had dumped my dumb ass, and I had blocked and deleted her number, that I was complaining to my friends and getting the exact same kind of thing back that I realized, “oh wow, I get it now, that is actually really fucking annoying and invalidating.”
It was also around this time, while discussing my experiences with friends who have been diagnosed, that I realized that I might have ADHD. So that definitely hadn’t helped.
In the extremely unlikely event you’re reading this, K, I’m sorry. I figured out what I did wrong, just a little too late.
Had to learn this the hard way myself.
Now I literally ask when it isn’t obvious. Do you want support or solutions? It’s rarely the latter but at least we’re both on the same page.
I defining had to have a chat with my SO about letting me vent without problem solving. I still have to remind them from time to time. Some people are just solution-minded like that.
It’s not entirely on you. Accusing you of mansplaining is not cool, she should’ve just said something like “i’m sharing this because I’m looking for emotional support, not solutions, so please stop trying to solve my problems when I’m just venting”.
In a sense, how people react to having problems shared with them is a cultural difference, neither is right or wrong but they can be jarring and confusing when you’re used to one culture but interact with a different one. But it’s not fair to just assume the other culture is acting in bad faith
With my brother I’ve started asking “are you looking for advice or do you just want someone to vent to?”. I think most people can do better playing both roles.
In all fairness, she was pretty patient with me for a bit, but as I alluded to, I attempted to apply small course corrections when I should have tried a different course entirely. In reality, this was the cumulative effect of multiple different occasions.
See, my dumb ass didn’t think it was an issue with what I was saying, but how I was saying it. So I figured it was just a matter of trying to be more tactful with my suggestions. Obviously, that wasn’t it.
Sure, she could have been more mature and introspective about it, but so could I. So it’s kind of a wash.
I can’t really blame her because of the shit she was going through. There’s a bit more context that I don’t really want to get into on a public forum, but in hindsight her reaction is understandable.
Kinda hard not to blame myself when it was ultimately my fuck up, however. I’m still dealing with that over 4 years later.
Had a gf way back in the day explain this to me. “When we’re venting we want emotional support. Stop trying to give us solutions.”
Dated many women in the 25-years since I was given these wise words, seen the truth of that advice over and over. Yet I still struggle to STFU. It’s so prevalent among men, I wonder if we’re not hardwired to go into problem solving mode when confronted with an issue.
I think it’s because we feel that we can find the solution to the problem, it will stop the pain that our partner is feeling at the situation.
Because it is, right? Right?!? When your car brakes makes weird noises you replace them to fix it and stop whining. Why doesn’t this work with women too? /s
I’m sorry you equated me saying we want to help our partner feel better with ‘stop whining’.
I mean, if it’s a problem, fix it. If you don’t want it fixed, shut your cake hole.
Holy shit, it’s almost like men and women sometimes have different motivations! Maybe the problem isn’t the event, but how she feels about it. And maybe the solution is to let her get it off her chest instead of suppressing it. I know, us guys generally don’t like to deal with our feelings, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist, or that it wouldn’t be healthier if we did.
Feelings are shit. And no, I’m not being dismissive, I’m being metaphorical.
When you eat, you mash up the food with your mouth and saliva is added and then it gets pushed into your stomach with various glandular juices and it gets squished around into a paste and then pushed through your intestines where it is attacked by yet more enzymes and bacteria, nutrients and fluids are extracted and the unusable brown sludge that gets pushed out as a waste product is what we call “shit.” Who’s hungry?
When you perceive stimuli, electromagnetic, mechanical or chemical signals enter your senses, are transduced into action potentials which fire across synapses, signals travel along nerve cells to your brain where the processes of filtering and attending, perception and decoding happens, in a process I don’t think we fully understand yet, these perceptions are compared to memories, recognition, learning or insight occurs and the energy left over from this experience gets pushed out as a waste product that we call “feelings.”
If you take a bad shit, if it hurts, if it’s difficult, if it’s messy, it can be an indication that your body or your diet are unhealthy. If it’s too much of a problem for too long it’s time to talk to a healthcare professional because maybe you’ve got a condition. But if everything was fine and then you ate that suspiciously room temperature shrimp cocktail at that non-chain steakhouse 150 miles inland that hasn’t changed its decor since the 1980s, probably that’s the problem.
Deal with your bad feelings the same way you deal with a bad shit: troubleshoot, diagnose, take corrective action, return to service, monitor for further issues. Or do what women do and use your acquaintances and/or your Tiktok audience as feelings toilets, I guess. Just dump your shit onto other people to deal with.
The overall topic here is gender double standards, right? Well, I don’t get to use people as feelings toilets. So people don’t get to use me as a feelings toilet.
And there’s the toxic form of that sentiment
Yeah not wanting to be someone’s feelings toilet sure is toxic.
I struggle with this too. I think it’s because it feels so damned nonproductive to not try and figure out how to make things better. Matter of fact, it feels like how I approach people dumping personal problems at work…indifference I suppose. And that’s the last thing I want to show someone I care about. So it weighs me down.
I’ve taken to asking questions from different angles during the venting, and this seems to be my best strategy. Results are mixed.
I’ve accepted that I can’t be one of these “there, there” people because I don’t enjoy feeling useless. I care, what’s being said matters to me, but I can’t be myself in the situation. And that feels bad.
be happy it turned out the way it did.
Here it is, folks, case in fucking point.
Did I ask, at any point, for opinions on how I should be feeling about any of this? I don’t think so.
Yes. You posted it on the internet. We’re not your ex. This is a public forum. Go blog if you want to vent without someone else saying something.
you invited ths beast to appear, now deal with it like a man.
Ah, the “it’s not about the nail” situation. https://youtu.be/-4EDhdAHrOg
Well, kind of the exact opposite of that. I realize that’s meant to be satire, but that kind of attitude is what got me into trouble.
I left out the exact details for brevity and privacy, but it was a situation where there wasn’t a simple answer. I just didn’t have a good grasp of the concept of active listening.
I was trying to engage with what she was saying, because she had previously told me that it seemed like I didn’t care about her problems. But I just wasn’t saying the right things.
In reality, my previous approach had revolved around keeping my mouth shut because then there was no way I could say anything to fuck it up. But then, in large part thanks to my undiagnosed ADHD, I would tune out without realizing it.
So I engaged in the only way I knew how, by trying to rationalize her experiences when I should have been empathizing with them.
So I engaged in the only way I knew how, by trying to rationalize her experiences when I should have been empathizing with them.
Ah, ok. I’m essentially the same as the person in the video. I didn’t talk about something unless I want help and the situation fixed. Otherwise, I kept to myself, and I treated others the same. It was a rough young adulthood.
Some good examples:
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Fat acceptance and body positivity. Obesity is glorified (even fetishized) when it’s a woman, whereas obese men are shunned. Have you noticed that nobody in the fat acceptance movement is vouching for the 300lb basement dwellers?
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Older ladies who date younger guys are called cougars, whereas if you flip the gender roles, an older man dating a younger lady half his age is going to be labelled a pedophile, even if she’s of-age. Just look at at the anger surrounding Tobey Maguire (48 years old) dating a 20 year old actress. There are people who legitimately think men like him should be hunted for sport.
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The amount of effort you have to put into your dating profile. Women have the opposite problem of being inundated with matches even with minimal effort.
The amount of effort you have to put into your dating profile. Women have the opposite problem of being inundated with matches even with minimal effort.
Dating apps have fuckloads of problems that work against non-top paying users, but for men the main issue is demographic: 80% of users are men. There just aren’t enough women on them.
The body positivity one really upsets me. A few years ago Target rearranged the clothing area. The men’s area shrank and the women’s is like three times are big. The women’s area has all manner of plus sized models and mannequins. Nothing of the sort in the men’s.
It’s like, I’ve always known body positivity (when it comes to corporations doing it) is extremely one sided and they’re only chasing profits but I’d never seen it so literally before. Target was one of my favorite places to shop for clothes.
I think I get what you’re saying but let’s be honest in that a larger guy half the time will just need an XL T-shirt. The sizes of these areas for merchandise are relative to consumer demands and consumer volume by sex. As someone who worked at Target for a couple of years back in the day, yes, far more women shop there. And the style of dressing for women has always been more diverse.
With respect to the mannequins, there seems to be a difference in the perception of average body types in reflection based on the gender. Perhaps this is more a trait of conservative men, but no matter how much of a beer belly they have, they seem to want to be perceived like they’re macho manly six-pack men. Marketing plays to that. On the flip-side, it has become trendy to give comfort to women who – by far – receive far more bullying over being large both online and offline. No doubt as a white male I feel fucking privileged by contrast of what my sisters or wife have gone through at times in their lives.
I think I get what you’re saying but let’s be honest in that a larger guy half the time will just need an XL T-shirt.
I’m being honest when I tell you that I need 2X.
Body positivity almost doesn’t exist for men. As soon as some asshole guy does something, its jokes about their body. Ive seen jokes about being short and no one cares as long as your talking about Putin or Tory Lanes, fat and small dick jokes constantly thrown at Trump. All of these are body shaming that will never be seen by the people they’re directed at but will be seen by pleny of others with those features.
I am in the dating scene at the moment. I definitely agree that men and women suffer the opposite problem on those apps. I think the apps are generally not designed to be successful and take advantage of choice fatigue. I don’t know if it’s a double standard per-se but I do think there’s a drastic difference in amount of effort applied.
Of course there’s no requirement but I do think that the minimum general expectation people have is that there is going to be effort applied to find a partner (aka, communication). That doesn’t always seem to be the case, especially from my anecdotal experience, that getting anything more than a 1-3 word reply is considered a success.
On the age thing, TBH anyone under 25 or so should not be dating anyone more than 10 years older than them. It’s still a very formative time both physically (brain development) and psychologically/sociologically. It can cause serious power dynamic issues that risk them being unable to end the relationship or deny consent for certain things. That said gender doesn’t make a difference in those scenarios beyond the fact that women are at a disadvantage and less likely to be wealthy and use that to control the younger.
But outside of issues where the older person holds power over the younger, I don’t think age should even be that big of a thing. Yes, people of different generations are less likely to have things in common and other conflicts can occur that are age related, but that’s for them to decide.
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I feel like your example makes claims contrary to reality. Are you saying women never get fired for SH or SA? That’s a claim you can make, of course.
This sounds like you’re arguing in bad faith but I’ll bite. Just replace never with rarely and you got it right
