Men

Since I wrote that little bit in a previous post about men having backbone and some women's problem with men who are too nice, I have been thinking some potential difficulties of being a man in the contemporary western world. Please note, what follows will contain generalisations. Also, I must point out that, in case you didn't know, I'm not a man, and therefore I accept that what I say may not be fact, or even the experience of men today. However, I will continue.

Unreasonable and irrational women

Women can be very unreasonable. They don't want a nasty man, obviously, but how does a man acheive the correct degree of niceness without becoming too nice? I'm not too sure, and I'm a woman, so how are men supposed to know? Some women can also be very irrational. As I am one of these women, I sympathise with any husbands, partners or other men who might come into contact with women like me. I have to say though, that I don't mean to be irrational and am at my most irrational during the dreaded PMT. I honestly don't know how Mr C copes. If he behaved the way I do sometimes I would probably leave him. (I'm also not very tolerant). I can see that if you are a rational person (man or woman) it must be very difficult to empathise with someone who is being irrational. However, also bear in mind that they might not necessarily be being irrational, they might just be doing something differently to the way you would do it.

Nagging

I am a champion nagger, but I still feel sorry for men who get nagged. We know it doesn't really work, and yet we still do it. It's like a compulsion. Please believe me when I say we really do only do it for your own good.

Portrayal of men in the media

I've noticed that nowadays men are often portrayed by the media, particularly on television, and particularly in adverts, as being rather stupid and inferior to women. The feminist in me thinks 'revenge at last', but actually it's quite worrying. Apart from anything else portraying men as being stupid and inferior is just as bad as portraying women in the same way. I'm not sure how offensive men find this kind of portrayal of themselves, but if I was them I would feel a blow to my self-esteem. I suppose it depends how seriously people take these images, but I'm the kind of person who takes things seriously I'm afraid. I don't like hypocrisy (even though I'm sure I'm guilty of it myself sometimes). You can't on the one hand say that adverts portraying women as objects are bad, whilst on the other hand portraying men as being totally ignorant. There are obviously still too many adverts using women's bodies to sell products, but making adverts where men are made to look stupid doesn't make us feel any better.

I also worry that this kind of portrayal of men is actually damaging to women. Women can't afford for men to have any more reasons to dislike or despise them. I know I'm sounding like a feminist now, but there are men out there who would love an extra reason to feel hurt by women so that they can justify their sexist opinions.

Oops, I didn't want to man-rant. At least most of this post was nice to men, I hope. Mr C read it and he seemed to find it amusing, which may or may not be a good thing, but he did say 'oh dear' when he got to the end bit!