Reply to Are men aware when they have sexist views about women and just don't care?

Forum Index » Relationship Discussion (non-explicit)

Reply to "Are men aware when they have sexist views about women and just don't care? "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Frequently it's just that the lived experiences of people are different, and often (including men) aren't able to get out of their own state of mind (frequently called privilege).

When we were dating, my husband didn't understand why I wanted to cross the street when I saw a large group of men in an alley when we were walking at night in Rome. My lived experience told me this was not safe, and for him it didn't occur to him to think about it this way. I suspect that most women would have understood this from my point of view immediately.

I wouldn't say that all men are obtuse when it comes to sexism (and you can add in racism, homophobia, etc), but it stems from both privilege or a lack of lived experience.
[/quote]

Except that men are more likely to experience an act of violence and to be assaulted than a woman so I don't think it is lack of lived experience. It is more how people are socialized. Often boys are socialized that they should be tough, fight back, not back down, only cowards walk away from a fight etc... and women are socialized that you are a victim or that you are about to be a victim, that victimizers are all around you and that backing down and walking away is the best thing to do. [/quote]

This is part of what occurred to me during the discussion. I've experienced quite a bit more violence from men than my wife has, but she is far more likely than me to walk to the other side of the street. She expressed to me that I didn't know what it was like to be afraid of men on account of being a woman. And that's true. But, I left unsaid that she doesn't know what it's like to get her nose broken by a man who is punching you in the face. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics