This Random Bro Brilliantly Explained How Guys Can Get Over Sexism
Recent events have really exposed which of your friends and family members are racist, sexist, and xenophobic.
Unfortunately, knowing who the assholes are doesn’t make it any easier to explain to them why they’re wrong.
In a strange (and sort of hilarious) twist of fate, one Reddit commenter brilliantly explained to his misogynistic peer how to get over his hate of women, and it can totally apply to all haters of certain groups of people.
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The original commenter, The_Hated_One, asked his Reddit brethren, “How can a sexist man grow out of hating women?”
And while starting a thread with this question is so quintessentially Reddit that it seems like a parody, we do applaud this fellow for admitting he’s a misogynist in the first place.
Many dudes suggested seeing a therapist, but one genius commenter had a better idea. To actually look at women as, you know, human beings. The full comment, by a man with the username Falxen, is below.
A lot of people are suggesting a therapist… and while that may be the best advice, I want to throw this your way.
Try not thinking of them as women. Don’t classify them as ‘other’. They’re people. Yeah, culturally there are some wide spread similarities with women, and genetically there are some differences… but when they get up at 6AM on Monday they’re tired and don’t want to go to work, the same as you. When there’s someone that they’re interested in they’re worried about rejection, the same as you. When they’re hungry they like a delicious pizza, most likely the same as you. When their next door neighbor blasts their music too late and they have to be up for work the next day they’re pissed off, the same as you. There are some big differences, but there are a lot more similarities.
Now… I know you’ve met your share of male assholes in life. But you don’t define all men as assholes. Because they’re people. Some are assholes and some aren’t. Women are the same way. Maybe you’ve run into a string of assholes who happen to be women. Our brains are wired to look for patterns, but you need to rewrite the conclusion your brain is drawing. People are assholes. Some of them anyway. Doesn’t really matter if they’re women or men.
Once you can wrap your head around that, the next thing to do is turn your gaze inward. Are you the kind of person you want to be? If you were to imagine the version of you that you would look up to and admire, how far away from that version of you are you now? Once you have that in hand, leave romantic interests out of your life for a time and really invest yourself into narrowing that gap. Invest serious effort and planning into becoming the guy that you would look up to.
Once you’re there, you’ll be better able to respect yourself and so will other people. Most importantly though, you’ll be better able to recognize red flags in how people treat you, and you’ll be better able to recognize and cut off assholes before they have a chance to dig their claws in and hurt you.
Sometimes the best thing we can do for ourselves in life is to just shift our perspective. I hope that helps.
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Groundbreaking, right?
The fact that women are people too may seem ridiculously obvious to us, but clearly lots of men don’t see things this way. Whether it’s an angry Redditor whose been rejected too many times, or a senator who thinks it’s his job to police women’s bodies, it’s important to remind people that women are humans.
And so are Muslims, and LGBTQ people, and anybody who may have a different skin color, religious belief, or ethnicity than you do.
Unfortunately, your uncle Jim will probably still come up with some BS excuse in attempts to disprove that we’re all human beings, but you can’t say you didn’t try.
