• wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      8 hours ago

      You’re right, you’re not all women. So just because you haven’t used the argument doesn’t mean no woman has ever.

      But guess what? Being a man and simply not making misogynistic arguments about women isn’t enough to protect one against criticisms aimed at “men” as an abstract whole.

      Responding to those criticisms with “I’m not like that” or “I don’t do that / haven’t said that” gets hit with the “nOt AlL mEn!!1!” ridicule…

      • velma@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        8 hours ago

        You’re having a discussion with me. I haven’t used that argument against you. You’re fighting strawmen.

        • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          7 hours ago

          We’re talking about whether men commonly have their experiences invalidated and you’re like “No, that doesn’t happen because I haven’t seen it.” Basically doing the thing you say doesn’t happen.

          And every argument you’re making to defend yourself is one that if the situation were reversed and a man were making to defend himself, people would deride him for it.

          I’m not saying those arguments are wrong, but that the critique of them is unevenly enforced. It’s wrong when a man does it, but perfectly valid when a woman does. That’s what I mean by double-standards.

          For instance, if someone makes a strawman “so you hate waffles” argument to call me a misogynist despite me not saying anything misogynistic, and I say “No, I never said that,” those same people will bring up some abstract societal critique to justify why I must be a misogynist because that’s what men are in an overly broad generalized sense.

          And no matter what I say or do to defend myself, they’ll have a preset word to dismiss it. “Fragility,” “Mansplaining,” “Derailing,” “Defensiveness,” “taking it too personally,” or whatever else. All of which is aimed at communicating: “You’re too sensitive; men aren’t supposed to have feelings or passions. Just take it on the chin. You have nothing to contribute to the conversation so just sit there and be quiet like a good little stoic. This isn’t about you, it’s about all other men (but if you were an exception then you would already understand that, although if you consider yourself an exception then you’re probably deluding yourself anyway. So it is about you, even though I’m telling you that it isn’t).” Maybe not verbatim, but those are the sentiments it’s usually loaded with.

          To be clear, I think that’s wrong. But it only really gets used against men. And then when a man says there’s a double-standard or that having one’s experiences invalidated isn’t exclusive to one gender, people are like “No, men’s experiences don’t get invalidated. Men don’t even have experiences to invalidate. All they ever go through is being privileged within a patriarchal system, so what could they possibly complain about? No, their problems aren’t valid.” Paraphrasing, of course, but that’s what it boils down to.

          And you’re acting like I’m making all this up, as if I pulled it out of thin air instead of relating a fairly consistent pattern of experience. Which is quite literally invalidating my experience. That wouldn’t be tolerated going the other way, would it? (“No, I don’t think women experience that. I’ve never seen it. I’m not doing that to you.”)

          • velma@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            3
            ·
            7 hours ago

            you’re like “No, that doesn’t happen because I haven’t seen it.” Basically doing the thing you say doesn’t happen.

            Where did I say this?

            • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              3
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              7 hours ago

              This entire chain is you saying:

              Can you show me an example of this happening?

              At this point it’s getting suspiciously close to sealioning, I’m just not entirely convinced that you’re doing it in bad faith. You seem like you genuinely believe what you’re saying

              • velma@sh.itjust.works
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                3
                ·
                edit-2
                7 hours ago

                I’m honestly asking for examples and you keep conjuring strawmen to fight instead of actually engaging with me.

                You made the claim that the reverse happens all the time in this community and I was simply asking for examples.

                • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  arrow-down
                  1
                  ·
                  7 hours ago

                  I never limited my statement to this community specifically. But the fact is that it does happen all the time and I’m not going to go hunting for examples for you because they happen often enough as it is.

                  And you’re still doing the thing that a man would get trashed for doing to women. “I haven’t noticed that, so it doesn’t happen.”

                  • velma@sh.itjust.works
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    arrow-down
                    2
                    ·
                    7 hours ago

                    “I haven’t noticed that, so it doesn’t happen.”

                    Where have I claimed that it doesn’t happen?

                    Sure, make a post about guys and see how long it takes these same users to comment saying “why is this unnecessarily gendered?!? Women experience this too!” Or even “That’s not an issue men face! It’s clearly a women’s issue.”

                    Why would you specify that the same users will comment if you weren’t limiting your statement to this community specifically? Can you share examples from the wider Lemmy community that shows what you’re talking about?