This Is What Sexism Against Men Sounds Like

Article and video here. She approaches the matter of sexism at first from a femino-gynocentric standpoint but as her talk progresses, her working definition of sexism expands to include sexism as directed toward males. She points out many ways in which boys' and men's self-expression options and freedom to become and grow in ways that suit them as individuals are restricted by the expectations of others around them. Worth listening to. Excerpt:

'Oh, Hi, Babes. Some of you probably already know that I have a 16-year-old brother. This is him. He's basically my favorite person on the planet, and he's up there on the list of reasons why feminism is important to me. Boys facing a number of pressures related to their gender. For example: pressure to be physically tall and muscular, to push down feelings, especially fear and pain, to never or be vulnerable, pressured to be into sports, or to have manly hobbies, to prove yourself using violence or intimidation to solve problems, to prove your manhood by having lots of sex, learning to see women as sex objects, and struggling to have meaningful relationships with them, pressure to be one of the guys, to make harmless jabs at each other meant to establish dominance, pressure to be the protector in a relationships, never the protected, to be the bread winner, the handyman, the money manager, to pursue physically demanding, dangerous, or even violent jobs, pressure to be the leader, and to always have the answers. Is this sexism against man? Sexism is about exclusion and unequal power in society.

It's about discrimination between individuals that bleeds into the workplace and into the law. It's about shaming, belittling, and devaluing the feminine. Notice how many of the pressures that boys face come down to defining themselves against women: "I'm a man because I'm not emotional, like women. I'm not physically small, like women. I know how to throw a ball, or even a punch, unlike women." So much of the pressures that boys face in the world come down to the expectation that they not be like girls. These gender-specific pressures are a side effect of sexism. It's one version of masculinity. One way to be a real man that we impose on boys in a million subtle ways all throughout their lives. And the effects of that are serious. From men who have been told to repress their emotions so long that they can't physically cry anymore to man who are left emotionally stinted in their relationships; caring fathers who can't get custody, because nurturing is a girl thing; men who are raped and not believed. A real man? A real men wants sex all the time; he must have liked it. A version of masculinity is also connected to homophobia. Gay man are demonized, because they're stereotyped as feminine. They like to take care of their appearance, they like to dance, they sleep with men -- too much like women.'