woMAN ... It's THE SAME.
When talking
about sexism, homophobia or discrimination, most people would raise their
voices against the gender discrimination that women are suffering from. They, I
mean most of us, would shout and ask from the society to stop considering women
as sex machines, slaves or “men’s puppy”.
Yet, going away from all of these “mainstream” topics,
I chose to bring on a topic that the majority of the society is ignoring most
of the time. Today, I am talking about gender discrimination against men and
the horrible false definition of manhood and masculinity worldwide. Today, I am
not going to go deep into detailed examples of false misconceptions about all
men. I am actually going to talk about a percentage of men, who are suffering
from the hardest judgment concerning their “masculinity”.
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| Thank you Javi. |
Masculinity square is the issue that every guy is
suffering from nowadays. It is the social standard that controls men’s
attitude, look and strength. Society is simply putting all of the men in the
masculinity square that disregards the fact that men are being raped, called
“faggots” and domestically abused every single minute. Boys, no matter what age they are commonly
considered as sex-monsters who won’t feel bad or offended if raped. Instead the
myth says that they would rather enjoy it and take advantage of it.
Andrew Bailey is actually the best example about what’s happening to men every day. As a British writer and a comedian, Andrew was raped and all what he got from the society was sarcasm and bigotry. As an answer he wrote a monologue called: “Why rape is sincerely hilarious to dudes”. His monologue was sarcastically criticizing the mental and physical oppression that the society is enforcing upon what is means to be a man.
Andrew Bailey is actually the best example about what’s happening to men every day. As a British writer and a comedian, Andrew was raped and all what he got from the society was sarcasm and bigotry. As an answer he wrote a monologue called: “Why rape is sincerely hilarious to dudes”. His monologue was sarcastically criticizing the mental and physical oppression that the society is enforcing upon what is means to be a man.
It’s commonly believed that women are the only victims
of domestic violence. However, statistics have shown that in 2010, the CDC
stated that 40% of domestic violence victims were men. This is not the central
problem, the issue is that men are likely to be ridiculed by both of the
society and law. Due to the belief, men have the higher power when it comes to
relationships. That’s why men will not report their case that will question
their masculinity and bring them shame for the rest of their life. In the words
of ANN ARNETT FERGUSON[1] who discusses the society’s
misconceptions saying that “Boys will be boys: they are mischievous, they get
into trouble, they can stand for themselves.’
“That’s so gay.” Said 1,579,050 times on twitter the
last month.
“Look at her, she’s such a dyke.” Said 134,760 times on twitter the last month.
“Stop being a Fag.” Said 389,170 times on twitter this month[2].
“Look at her, she’s such a dyke.” Said 134,760 times on twitter the last month.
“Stop being a Fag.” Said 389,170 times on twitter this month[2].
How many of us have ever heard this??? I am sure that
the majority of us have ever heard at least one of these homophobic terms. All of the numbers listed above actually are
still increasing day by day. People are sadly not caring about their language
anymore.
Last year, 9 out of 10 LGBTQ students reported being a
victim of verbal harassment. And over 1/3 were physically assaulted. We live in
a society in which we have accepted the use of derogatory terms as a joke. It’s
simply allowed to make fun of someone because of his sexual orientation and/or
sexual identity. The use of facilities is also one of the other difficulty for
transgender men for example.
Two weeks ago I watched an important documentary called “Toilet Training” initiated by Tara Mateik who succeeded to show how a small silly symbol on a toilet front door can define people’s genders and leads them to be in the wrong place. Which can sometimes, be harmful and unsafe for them physically and psychologically.
Two weeks ago I watched an important documentary called “Toilet Training” initiated by Tara Mateik who succeeded to show how a small silly symbol on a toilet front door can define people’s genders and leads them to be in the wrong place. Which can sometimes, be harmful and unsafe for them physically and psychologically.
That’s exactly why I wanted to share with you this
picture. WoMAN are the same in suffering, in oppression, in discrimination and
in social misconceptions. By speaking for our rights as women, we should never
neglect the fact that our there, there are billions of men who are in a
permanent pain caused by their society. We should all learn how to accept each
other in terms of identities and sexual orientation because at the end of the
day, who you are is what really matters. Just like RAEWN W.CONNEL[3] examined, the fact of
globally defining masculinity cannot be completed without the interaction with
femininity. CONNEL argues that the globalized definition of manhood by the
muscled body shape and the ability to do hard work.
To wrap up I would like from everyone reading this,
starting from myself, to sign a personal pledge to be a supportive ally to anyone
no matter what identity he chose to embrace. My pledge is to never oppress
anyone and say homophobic words. And to take it further, let’s all pledge to
EDUCATE people who are still unaware of the danger of their homophobic acts.
“In other words, it is the responsibility of the
oppressed to teach the oppressors their mistakes.” The great AUDRE LORDE.
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