Does Sexism Hurt Men?

YouTube superstar and sex education activist Laci Green has a teenage brother and she says that he is one of the reasons why feminism is so important to her. The expectations that society puts on men are huge — and they’re often damaging. Some examples:

  • be tall and muscular
  • push down fear and pain
  • have manly hobbies
  • prove their manhood by having lots of sex (with women, not men, no no no, not men)
  • be the protector in the relationship, never the protected
  • pursue dangerous and demanding jobs
  • be the breadwinner, the handyman, the money manager
  • always be the leader and always have all of the?answers
  • be fighters
  • be as masculine as possible so that they don’t appear to be gay
  • be the first to die on sinking ships

The question Laci asks is “is this sexism?” Not specifically.

“Sexism is about exclusion and unequal power in society, and about discrimination against individuals that bleeds into the workplace and the law. It’s also about shaming, belittling, and devaluing the feminine.”

Which brings us to this point:

“Many of the pressures that men face come down to defining themselves against women.”

What this means is that men are the victims of sexism against women. I know that’s a little hard to wrap one’s mind around, and this should help:

“So much of the pressures that boys face in the world come down to the expectation that they not be like girls.”

So as Laci says,?“These gender specific pressures are a side-effect of sexism.”

Sexism hurts men in ways that reach deeply into society. Boys are commonly shown less compassion than girls from a very early age, and they’re expected to occupy the most dangerous jobs. And this, from Quora via HuffPo:

When a man and a woman commit the same crime, the man will most times receive a harsher sentence and be assumed the initiator if the man and woman were partners in crime (this is largely sexist towards women in that it believes men to be more in control of their own actions, but it’s a double-edged sword).

Watch the video below. You can find Laci on YouTube, Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook.

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Tiffany Willis is a fifth-generation Texan and the founder and editor-in-chief of Liberal America. An unapologetic member of the Christian Left, she has spent most of her career actively working with ?the least of these? and disadvantaged and oppressed populations. She’s passionate about their struggles. To stay on top of topics she discusses,?like her?Facebook page,?follow her on Twitter, or?connect with her via LinkedIn. She also has?a?grossly neglected personal blog?and a?literary quotes blog that is a labor of love. Find her somewhere and join the discussion.
 

I had a successful career actively working with at-risk youth, people struggling with poverty and unemployment, and disadvantaged and oppressed populations. In 2011, I made the decision to pursue my dreams and become a full-time writer. Connect with me on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.