Man speaks out ...

[HMElizabethII]

I've never started a thread in Feminism Chat before. Yikes!

I came across this article in the Daily Mail and it's given me more rage than is usual for a DM article:

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3427022/Biker-long-hair-makes-look-like-big-girl-helmet-warns-women-dangers-sexist-road-rage-revealing-harassed-threatened-men-think-female.html

How is it that when one bloke experiences male aggression towards women it's national newspaper news worthy? Why wasn't it newsworthy when thousands upon thousands of women have been saying the same for forever?

Because he is a Man and therefore, he Counts. And women don't count.

It'd be nice to think people will think, oh, it's really real, and things will improve, but I suspect it won't make any difference at all.

I notice he says that people have suggested he cuts his hair or changes his bike helmet. So their solutions are to not look like a girl...

Why does long hair = girl, though? A number of my male colleagues have long hair, often (annoyingly) in far better condition than mine. It's not the 1950s still, is it?

The headline is misleading (unusually for the daily mail ) as man in question isn't warning anyone - he is just stating his experiences with misogynists.

Of course it's a news story as men don't experience the violent and threatening behaviour that women do just because they are women who happen to be doing perfectly normal, everyday things. The usual doesn't make the news - the exception does.

I notice he says that people have suggested he cuts his hair or changes his bike helmet. So their solutions are to not look like a girl...

So people are suggesting that he changes his behaviour? I thought this sort of victim-blaming was only aimed at women. I'm surprised no-one has mentioned this.

Well you were wrong Grimarse.

It's still misogyny. Be a little less like a woman and then you won't get harassed.

They weren't suggesting he didn't ride his bike though.

Of course it's misogyny. We live in a misogynistic society. Everything is affected by our hatred of women. Men hate women. Women hate women. And when men are told to change their behaviour, that's misogyny too. All down to our hatred of women.

I like smidsy, though, Louise - I've never heard of that before.

Grimarse wrote - "Everything is affected by our hatred of women."

Only you have claimed it's "everything". The rest of the posters on this thread seem to understand that when a man receives a type of adverse treatment for the first time in his life because other people have mistaken him for a woman, then this can can be connected to misogyny.