MOD NOTE: Please note the following part of the forum rules:
The initial OP posted below covers it well enough: the premise of this thread is that men's issues exist. Don't bother posting if you don't believe there is such a thing.
Here's hoping this isn't considered too redundant. I've noticed that our existing threads about sexism tend to get bogged down in Oppression Olympics or else wildly derailed, so I thought I'd make a thread specifically to talk about discrimination issues that disproportionately affect men.
No Oppression Olympics here, okay? No saying "But that's not important because women suffer X which is worse!" And no discussing these issues purely in terms of how much better women have it. Okay? If the discussion cannot meaningfully proceed without making a comparison to male and female treatment, that's fine, but on the whole I want this thread to be about how men are harmed by society and how we can fix it. Issues like:
- The male-only draft (in countries that have one)
- Circumcision
- Cavalier attitudes toward men's pain and sickness, AKA "Walk it off!"
- The Success Myth, which defines a man's desirability by his material success. Also The Myth of Men Not Being Hot, which denies that men can be sexually attractive as male beings.
- Sexual abuse of men.
- Family law.
- General attitudes that men are dangerous or untrustworthy.
I could go on making the list, but I think you get the idea.
Despite what you might have heard about feminists not caring about men, it's not true. I care about men. Patriarchy sucks for them as much as it sucks for women, in a lot of ways. So I'm putting my keyboard where my mouth is and making a thread for us to all care about men.
Also? If you're male and think of something as a men's issue, by golly that makes it a men's issue fit for inclusion in this thread. I might disagree with you as to the solution, but as a woman I'm not going to tell you you have no right to be concerned about it. No "womansplaining" here.
Edited by nombretomado on Dec 15th 2019 at 5:19:34 AM
That sounds like a line for a good story.
Jer gets all the girls
I'm not sure what you mean?
I am autistic and conversations are hard sometimes.
Everybody's all "Jerry's old and feeble" till they see him run down a skyscraper and hijack a helicopter mid-flight.
Industrious Incisors
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I think they mean it literally, it would not sound out-of-place in a book.
Edited by ShinyCottonCandy on May 10th 2023 at 7:12:32 AM
SoundCloud
Jer gets all the girls
Ahh gotcha. Cheers.
Everybody's all "Jerry's old and feeble" till they see him run down a skyscraper and hijack a helicopter mid-flight.
Team Rocket Boss.
Lone Courier is an aspiring writer and is always on the lookout for ideas and networking.
Just throwing it out there for future's sake.
Edited by RedHunter543 on May 10th 2023 at 7:24:24 PM
I'll teach you a lesson about just how cruel the world can be. That's my job, as an adult.
Oh, bother.
Reminder that if you are looking for writing advice, otc is not the place for it. We have a Writers’ Block for that.
Disgusted, but not surprised
Team Rocket Boss.
Moving on, I noticed something on the header on this thread, called the The Success Myth, which defines a man's desirability by his material success.
Has anyone here encountered something like that? Feels like that thing back in highschool.
Edited by RedHunter543 on May 10th 2023 at 7:39:30 PM
I'll teach you a lesson about just how cruel the world can be. That's my job, as an adult.
Industrious Incisors
Hmm... well, my own experience as a man is that the last time someone was interested in me more than platonically was back in middle school (am now working full-time, mid-twenties) and I can't say I've had any level of anything that could be considered "material success" until this year (if my job even counts for that) so I can't refute it on my own.
Team Rocket Boss.
I've found that male and female friendships are far more easy to make if you make it clear that you can all find success through mutual cooperation.
In highschool, there was a certain cutthroat environment to success that encouraged men to always compete to be the big man in school, but I worked around this the same way with mutual cooperation since it's easier to trust people when it's clear we all benefit.
So the success myth is one of those things that encourage men to compete against each other instead of cooperating.
Edited by RedHunter543 on May 10th 2023 at 7:50:08 PM
I'll teach you a lesson about just how cruel the world can be. That's my job, as an adult.
Video essay using Avatar: The Last Airbender to discuss performance of masculinity among other things.
It goes into various factors contributing to positive or negative expressions of masculinity in more depth than I would expect from a pop culture analysis.
Team Rocket Boss.
This is just such an absurd boomer moment. And it's still gross how old people try to use gay as an insult to men being friendly.
I'll teach you a lesson about just how cruel the world can be. That's my job, as an adult.
Its really sad he thinks that way indeed.
EDIT: One thing its interesting to note is that he didnt say gay he said "sweet". We all know he means gay despectively but its interesting.
Edited by AegisP on May 26th 2023 at 6:15:32 AM
Discord: Waido X 255#1372 If you cant contact me on TV Tropes do it here.
Team Rocket Boss.
When did good manners get responded by you getting called gay?
Clearly, you just need to establish Good Morning dominance.
Good Morning!
I'll teach you a lesson about just how cruel the world can be. That's my job, as an adult.
Face me now, Bitch!
May as well pull up the Family Guy Clip of Peter and Friends dancing to Good Morning the song:
Macha
Now, for positivity: What equality for men(and women/enbies) are you guys hoping for?
-Society to finally acknowledge that there abusers/rapists/sexual harassers and victims of all genders. It's not just male-on-female.
-For men who were raped by women/other men to be taken as seriously as women who were raped by men. Ditto for women who were raped by women.
From Chrono Cross, and a canon mother. Happy Mother's Day!
Surrounded by weirdoes
Allow for more vulnerability and closeness between men, and looking at platonic relationships between men and women as more normal.
Edited by Blueace on Jun 6th 2023 at 2:35:01 PM
Wake me up at your own risk.
The Unknown Unknown
Hmmm, I did have something typed out, but there's some intersection racial/ethnic issues that minority men face. Wasn't sure if that counted.
A cruel, sick joke is still a joke, and sometimes all you can do is laugh.
Were you perhaps thinking about the "black men going after white women" stereotype?
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
The Unknown Unknown
I suppose. It is more like "the freedom to date whoever they want without persecution."
A cruel, sick joke is still a joke, and sometimes all you can do is laugh.
Team Rocket Boss.
Maybe it's just where I was growing up but close male relationships in my school were expected over male and female platonic relationships.
People called me horny for having a lot of platonic lady friends.
Edited by RedHunter543 on Jun 6th 2023 at 9:58:09 PM
I'll teach you a lesson about just how cruel the world can be. That's my job, as an adult.
A Self-inflicted Disaster
Indeed, I think it is a cultural thing. In the region I grew up in, if a boy addressed a girl who was not his girlfriend in first name basis, he would get weird looks.
This is an intersection with race/ethnicity, but author Riel has written an article
on how male Latinos (both real and fictional) have been fetishized with "daddy" and "papi" memes. It also looks into how this impacts Latinos of varying races, as this fetishization tends to focus on Latino Is Brown. The author also discusses their own experience with this behavior.
Does Pedro Pascal play a part in it? 
But seriously, it must because some people want some fetish of other people they barely know about.
He's mentioned in the article.
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I sorta ran into the strength perception thing at my work. I work with primary school aged kids. A boy and a girl were having an argument over if boys or girls were stronger. I ended up explaining it as "Boys tend to be stronger than girls, but that doesn't mean every boy is stronger than every girl. And even then, being strong is only one thing, it's not everything."
Everybody's all "Jerry's old and feeble" till they see him run down a skyscraper and hijack a helicopter mid-flight.