First let me ask a simple question: What does sexism mean? By definition, Sexism is prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination, typically against women, on the basis of sex.
There’s no question that women face a lot of sexism in being paid less than a male co-worker or when people assume their bad mood has to do with PMS. The pressure is on to prove their competence because most, if not all, of the male colleagues in their department expect them to fail before they even start. So why am I asking if sexism is a women’s issue when it seems obvious that it IS? It’s not like men have have to deal with it. Men don’t have to go through sexism at all, right? Wrong!!
Quick Disclaimer: This is NOT meant to undermine or trivialize the forms of sexism women go through. This is meant to highlight the forms of sexism men face. Men face sexism as well. Some of these forms are just as bad, if not worse, for men than they are for women. The examples I’ll be giving will go from minor to serious examples. Try to keep an open mind when as you’re reading:
● If a girl gets caught looking at a guy, it’s cute. But if a guy is caught looking at a girl, it’s creepy.
● If a guy isn’t interested in a girl because she’s fat, he’s seen as shallow. I don’t know if the same is true for girls, but I doubt society is as harsh on girls as it is on men.
● Many people in the office STILL believe that women don’t really fit in the workplace much less in positions in areas such as IT. Likewise, society assumes that men are screw-ups as single dads. Of course they are, men can’t multitask but women can (I’m
being sarcastic).
● Apparently there’s this notion that men are expendable and husbands are replaceable.
Men may be, usually, physically stronger than women and we don’t show our emotions (otherwise our manhood and sexuality can be questioned) but we’re not exactly invincible. We’re human beings. Now to talk about more serious forms of sexism:
● If a married man cheats on his wife and she slaps him out of anger, she has a strong personality. But if we reverse the genders and he slaps her because she cheated on him, he’s not a real man in the eyes of everyone around him.
● Believe it or not, men CAN be victims of physical abuse from their girlfriends or wives. Unlike women however, men cannot fight back. We’re not allowed to. We’ll likely be antagonized whether or not we fight back. If a man is physically abusive, society deems it unacceptable, and rightly so. However, the same cannot be truly said for guys who go through any form of abuse.
We can all agree that a woman getting raped is a horrible thing, but a lot of people think that if a man gets raped it’s hilarious especially if the rapist was a woman. Yes it does happen, more often than you think. When a woman attacks a man, we laugh at him. You think Egyptian men don’t have that problem? Think again. *
Insisting that discrimination, abuse, harassment, etc. are a women’s issue only is a form of sexism. Sexism is not a women’s issue, it’s a human issue. It’s gender-neutral. As I previously
stated, this article IS NOT meant to make sexism against women seem insignificant. Bringing up a problem does not reduce the size of another. We Egyptian men eat rocks for breakfast, but
that doesn’t make sexism against men acceptable. And Yes, when it comes to assault we guys are strong enough to fight back, but usually when this takes place the attacker would threaten to
scream and tell everyone that you tried to attack her to keep you from fighting back. And we all know we’ll likely believe the woman.
Sources:
* The untold story of sexual harassment against men in Egypt
