I grew up incredibly sexist. Towards men.

I grew up incredibly sexist

Towards men. 

My mom is a feminist. I grew up in the 90s in the most progressive province of one of the most progressive countries in the world in a family who always voted progressive.

Almost all of my authority figures were women (elementary school is dominated by women). 

Most of the movies I watched showed women being bad-ass heroes and the men were usually dumb and violent and needed to learn lessons from women. (e.g. Pocahontas was my first Disney movie). 

It took me until I was 19 to realize that I didn’t fully recognize that men were people just as worthy of respect and consideration as women. 

I had just broken up with a guy in a really harsh way, and I was telling the story to my new boyfriend. 

Instead of laughing like most of my peers would have, he said “That’s really harsh. You know, men have feelings too.”

And my mind was blown. 

That’s all it took for me to realize that I’d been prejudiced towards men. I viewed them as violent brutes who need taming. Their interests or feelings were barely relevant, or usually worthy of derision. 

Imagine having a similar view of women. Imagine thinking that women are emotional idiots who need taming (à la Taming of the Shrew). 

That is obviously sexist. 

It’s just as sexist if you hold negative stereotypes of men. 

Of course, some men are violent brutes. 

Just like some women are emotional idiots. 

But that doesn’t mean most are. 

That doesn’t mean you should judge a massive group based on the actions of a minority of them. 

That doesn’t mean that men’s interests and feelings are irrelevant and something to minimize and deride. 

That doesn’t mean you should treat people as groups instead of individuals. 

Misogyny is dumb and unethical. Misandry is dumb and unethical. 

Don’t accept either in your life.