My male friend said to me the other day "why aren't women more assertive" He thinks that women are doing nothing about men abusing them in loads of different areas. He said "of course men are not going to give up their bit of power, women need to be more assertive and stand up to what men are doing, for it to change on a large scale."
I would agree with your friend, but for one inconvenient caveat as far as women are concerned. It goes along the lines of this well-worn phrase: 'Men are afraid women will laugh at them. Women are afraid men will kill them'.
This fear is ever-present and genuine. To show no understanding of what it means to live your life with this situation actually reeks of male privilege.
Yes, this behaviour needs challenging but this should also come with a significant risk assessment (like the woman who ensured security guards were around her when in a supermarket). Particularly if you start using the 'P' word to men leering at young children. Just like racists, people who indulge in this kind of behaviour do NOT like this fact pointed out, and a woman who does so might be taking the risk she'll end up in a ditch somewhere.
It's very sad, and it says an awful lot, that when I suggested going on a march for women's rights here , a woman's response on here was "I dont want men to think that I am hysterical".
On this we can agree. I'm beyond giving a shiny tin shit about what men think. And 'hysterical', or accusations of mental illness, are often a tool used by the patriarchy to shut us the hell up. It's why in a world pre-divorce men wanting rid of their wives (for a younger model?) declared them nuts and had them shunted off to a mental asylum.
None of this is new.