I Am Woman

misandry - hatred of men (from the Free Online Dictionary)

I am, unabashedly, a feminist. I believe in the equality of the sexes, equal opportunity, equal pay for equal work. I am truly grateful for the sacrifices that our grandmothers, mothers, aunts and sisters have made along the way so that my little granddaughters can be and do anything they want with their lives. I don't suffer misogynists well.

However, it saddens me that there is a subtle contempt for men that has crept into our culture. We see it in the way family court is skewed favorably toward women. We see it in the classroom where teaching methods play to the strengths of little girls. We see it in television and movies, where the wife is smart and the husband is kind of a doofus. We see it in wives who on the one hand complain that their husbands never help them. Then on the other hand, they say he doesn't load the dishwasher the right way (her way) or change the diaper the right way (her way.) Women put men down by saying they aren't in touch with their emotions, they don't know how to nurture, they are just vaguely inept and stupid. I recently read of a study that said that 29% of men are victims of domestic abuse at some point in their lives. That is a much higher figure than is usually purported. Men and women are different, in obvious ways. But I think we have more similarities than differences. I don't want to have to apologize for being a girl. A man should not have to apologize for being a man.

Yes, we have come a long way, baby. We should be proud that we have moved up in the world. But if in the process of moving up, we put men down, that is nothing to be proud of. That, my sisters, is a shame.

Susan