Sunday 22 July 2007

It's not ok for guys to just go and have a cry. I resent that. The gender equality debate isn't over and I doubt it ever will be, but there's no malism. Oh the irony of a name that literally means "badness". I'm not arguing that there needs to be a shift in the way men are treated in a number of areas - politics, pay and the like. But it is unfuckingdeniable that there is a social inequity which means that certain behaviours are unacceptable for men (I'm going to have to start calling myself a man soon; there are no twenty year old boys) but completely acceptable for women.

One such behaviour is crying. It's not ok for men to be weak. Fuck you all, maybe I'd be more sympathetic to feminism if I didn't (a) have no experience of gender discrimination; (b) have a poor knowledge of feminist theory (c) have no idea about the real world and (d) have to put up with everybody being uncomfortable every time I want to go off and have a cry. It just happens sometimes! Fucking get over it already! Not to mention the hair thing...

I had a panic attack today when I tried to go to the meeting I later described to my parents as "boring". I spent two and a half hours subsequently driving through Sandy Bay and sitting in shopping centres in Hobart desperately trying to avoid people. I stopped driving because I wanted art supplies (I wanted to draw - I saw three children walking along the street and I wanted to draw and I was so incredibly, insanely, unimaginably jealous of them) but of course all art shops assume that my raw creative talent (yes, that was a joke) only flows Monday - Fri 9-5 and Saturdays before 12.

Then I came home.

I saw that I'd made a difference. That didn't help, but it's nice to know that it's possible. Keep spouting aphorisms long enough and somebody will remember one of them.

6 comments:

mjec said...

Oh and here's another thing! Guys aren't allowed to be all "oh, I'm fat and ugly" all the time. Girls do it constantly and that's fine, but if I do it I need to quit bitching. The irony? There's a guy who likes every girl, but the converse is not true.

Also, satire.

Anonymous said...

I don't think there's a guy who likes every girl. I mean, the only guy who has ever liked me was a creep. As in, only wanted sex, blah blah. Ergh. But, meh, it doesn't matter, lol. Homosexuality ftw. Sometimes I wonder if I'm only a lesbian to safeguard myself against male stupidity and cruelty, but then I look at how I like celebrities. I have celebrity crushes (Marilyn Manson, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, heh), but the thing is, I don't want to fuck them, nor do I feel emotionally compatible with them. So I suppose I'm a lesbian. Then again, I also have a crush on Helena Bonham Carter and Kate Winslet, and I feel the same way. Maybe. Kate has FANTABULOUS breasts. Have you seen Quills? OMG. Dammit teenage life is confusing. The only thing things that make me think I'm lesbian is that I find men attractive in the slightest, and that I love a woman. Eh...

I ramble. Sorry.

Anyway, back to what I was going to say. I also don't think it's fair that it's unacceptable for males to cry. I hate it when girls I know are all, "I can't stand a man who cries". For god's sake, men are people too. Heh, the contrast of that with my usual outlook on men is hilarious. I am rather fond of my "all men are bastards" badge. Despite the fact that I know that only the vast majority of men I have met are bastards. But I usually don't have the energy to say that much. I just generalise. I need to stop doing that.

To turn it around, why is it that if women sleep with two people, or even one, they're a slut, while men can fuck as many people as they want without being insulted and degraded? There's no male equivalent of "slut", is there?

And why are lesbians automatically sluts? Ergh, I blame porn. We're always labelled as such by porn sites, damn them. "Lesbisch sletjes, kleine kutjes!" Therein lies a reason why I curse men regularly. I'm horrible.

Also, why is it that so many guys think that lesbians are hot, and want to fuck them? I mean, the descriptor "lesbian" denotes a general lack of attraction to the male gender, so why do they think they can just whip it out? Porn... Videos of girls getting it on, labelled "lesbians", then a guys comes in. Uuuugh.

Angst, I know. And again, I ramble. Sorry.

If you don't like the scariness of "man", use "guy". I see it as being kinda non-descript. Just like "male".

Anonymous said...

today's feminism is a fight for geneder equality, not just for women's rights.
but yes. geneder inequality does suck. rather a lot. on both sides.

people can make a massive difference without even realising... actually, often that's when it's most powerful.

Anonymous said...

i hate typos. especially twice in a row. gender, damn it.

Anonymous said...

I have the opposite problem. i never cry, only have once in the last 4 or 5 years. i have massive issues with myself because i don't. so you really shouldn't be worried if you cry, its a part of life.

and who needs real men anyway?

Anonymous said...

Crying is good. It's awful to bottle up your emotions.

Anonymous, no one does. :P