The thing is... it's "men", though, isn't it. It's always men.

[Wilferton]

It's only really dawned on me in recent years. The conversations we all have about what "countries" or "states" are doing to eachother, the terrible crimes against women, animals and children, particularly the sexually motivated ones. It's men. We're not talking about what a particular state or country has done, we're talking about what men have done.

So now, when I click onto my news app, I find myself thinking "What have the men done now."

I feel sad that I can only really now see it this way. Actually sad for many reasons.

Totally agree.

We were watching a programme about the Met Police and some hooded teens involved in stabbing and robberies and DP starts calling them scum etc.

Then the news comes on and a man on trial for multiple counts of rape.
He doesn't say a word. So I say why don't you call him out? Call him scum? Have you any idea what's it's like as a woman hearing this, you have two daughters. It's exhausting. Nothing has changed in my 50 years on this earth.

He got all defensive. Until men start calling out other men, nothing will change.

Yes, its men.
My all female team are fantastic.

In my experience some women can be just as nasty, spiteful and dishonest as some men. There are a lot of very unpleasant people in the world, regardless of sex

Of course there are. Some women are dreadful. However I’m willing to bet that there are very very few women in the leadership of all the countries that are at war with each other at the moment.

There are lots of religions where women are very much second class citizens but women within these religions when questioned on here accept this treatment

I think it's always the people in charge. And largely that's men.

At the height of the British Empire, we happened to have a female monarch - she wasn't in to fluffy bunnies and hugging it out, I don't think.

Yes obviously the rest of the people in charge were men, and yes they carried out the atrocities in her name, but she did appoint them.

Likewise I don't think Margaret Thatcher was all about peace and love when in office.

There are fewer examples of awful women because there are fewer examples of women in power.

There are loads of sweet men. Even the sweetest one has a male brain and higher (on average, let’s not bring that debate here) levels of testosterone, which encourage aggression, ambition, jealousy, quick tempers, all of which are unsurprisingly stereotypically male.

Also, I proofread my housemate’s dissertation during my Oxbridge Master’s. She found several interesting things such as those women who get to the top (eg get power and control) will often adopt the masculine tendencies that get them ahead, and there’s lots of unconscious bias in selection which is normally done by men. I’d observed that anecdotally when I worked in the city - the women who get ahead are those who can take on the most damaging male characteristics, often. Margaret Thatcher and Queen Victoria weren’t lovely soft huggable angels, there’s a reason Thatcher was the Iron Lady, but that just perpetuates the problems, doesn’t it.

Yup. Always men

I have a 3 year old son and I try to raise him to be a kind, sweet and considerate boy. He's very wild, but I try to get him in touch with his gentle side.

^
this is great and all the rest of it, but let's see him when he's 30

Yes but it's the shit, toxic masculinity men not all of them. Definitely a type and we all know them. Torchbearers of the Patriarchy.

It’s not all men, but it is always men.

I came across a female offender at work this week. I expressed my surprise that it’s rare to come across a female sex offender… nope they’re transgender. Yet we all need to refer to them as she now…

It's always powerful men. Always. And less powerful men are as much the victims. The question is why do we produce these types of men in society, is it innate or learned? And more importantly how it is that these types actually gain power in the first place? It must be because we all enable it somehow. Whether it's a sexual predator, a coercive controller in a relationship or an aggressive regime its men who have power, who are using it against others to feel even more powerful. Why??

I don't necessarily disagree with you but millions of women, particularly those in places of privilege, are often happy to go along with it. Women had a vote in Germany in 1933. The majority of white women voted for Trump in 2016. Women don't get a pass for sitting idly by as atrocities happen.

And if we want to start splitting hairs, we can easily say it's only wealthy men. Poor, working-class men don't have the power to influence countries. Poor men are more often than not the ones who suffer for rich men's hubris (see WWI).

Yup. The most serious crimes are 99% men. And the few women leaders are working in a patriarchal system with internalised misogyny (and externalised for that matter).
DS is a sweetheart and holds the toxic groups in his school in contempt - he knows what a wanker is alright. But he and DH still go quiet when I talk about male violence and probably think, here she goes again. It’s just you get to a certain point in life and you get sick of seeing it in the world.

Nasty and spiteful isn't the same as institutionally abusive though.

Nasty and spiteful isn't the same as murder and rape.

Look at the stats on violent crime.

Men are more likely to be attacked and murdered by men.

Women are more likely to be attacked and murdered by men.

I will give you the Australian mushroom
Poisoner. That was a bit nasty and spiteful.

Suella Braverman... Now what was that you were saying OP?

My 85 year old father has said very similar for most of my life.

I know it's not all men - I know some lovely ones - but as others have said it's the type of man mostly that is attracted to power and control and the abuse of both. If those power structures were not there they couldn't do it.

There were a lot of nuns who effected this abuse on young pregnant women and their children. It created a society where it was downright dangerous as a woman to speak out - you could just get put away in a mental home or shunned socially for the rest of your life by your husband/father. You can't really blame them when religion was so powerful as it was in the past

But in religion it is almost always men at the top - apart from I guess when the monarch is the head of the church too as in the UK - Britain/England as was in the past.

I REALLY have to take issue with some of the points made here. The Conservative Party have promoted a tiny number of woman and ethnic minorities to powerful positions. That doesn’t mean their policies aren’t misogynistic or discriminatory for the other women and backgrounds in the country. Female serial killers and sexual abusers attract huge amounts of attention PRECISELY because they are unusual, uncharacteristic, however you want to phrase it. 99% of the time you use the Pill you won’t get pregnant. Does the 1% mean it’s completely ineffective? No.

Completely agree OP

Whenever there is an issue, it’s mostly always a bloke

All the women I work with are fantastic
The men? Power crazed, lazy or incompetent No thanks

Yep. Every time this comes up the NAMALTs and 'I work with horrible women' brigade appear.

A small percentage of men with specific personality traits.

Because they can- and that is largely because other men don't stop them. If men started challenging other men and calling them out for acts of violence, sexism and misogyny, even little ones- we might get somewhere. And if they though about raising their sons to be good men then we'd get even further.

I'd say it's predominantly male aggression that is wrong with the world.

But women have taken part in atrocities as well:

Female prison guards worked at Auschwitz
Female suicide bombers have killed and maimed
Female nurses have killed multiple helpless patients
Female citizens were intrinsically involved in informing on their neighbours and assisting the gestapo despite knowing what would happen
Female fighter pilots have dropped bombs
Females have carried out mass killing sprees on innocent victims
Female monarchs have carried out religious persecution
Females have become terrorists

Posters will probably say this is a whatabboutary list, but the fact still stands that women are also capable of horrendous acts.

Human beings are capable of breathtaking inhumanity

I've worked in the same team for 16 years. Over the years we've had about 25-30 different women come and go from the team, only about half a dozen have been awful people. And they never lasted long!