What's with all the woman-bashing lately?

Question

I've been finding all sorts of really sexist rants and "questions" in this section of Answers. What gives? Are men suddenly feeling threatened that a woman got so close to being President? Or do the vast majority of men relaly think that sexism is a thing of the past?

I have to say, with our right to choose what we do with our own bodies constantly being threatened as a campaign strategy, the fact that we get a little up in arms about equal rights seems like a natural sort of thing. Also, look at how we're represented in movies! "The House Bunny" (?!) where the extremely attractive woman is told that at 27 she's "too old" to be in playboy. What about those ubiqutous college movies with hot co-eds that really just want to show their b***s? Cuz I know that's what I want to major in... Men just don't have any equivalent. How can you guys seriously think that sexism is gone? It's just become more subtle and more exceptable if it's disguised as entertainment.

Answer 1

This is a normal troll stomping ground. The more ridiculious the question the more answers it gets.

Answer 2

Kris:  Your statement "So it should be expected that the oppressed take out there hostility on there perceived oppressors", should give you some sort of insight into what it's been like to be a female over the past, oh, I don't know, thousands of years.

First of all, I don't believe that men in America are oppressed at all.  You're just being a whiny little *****.  But perhaps, just perhaps, the reason why women have more of a foothold in this country is because we were getting fed up with the treatment that we received from men since the beginning of time.  Face it, every civilization on this planet from the beginning of time has, at one time or another, treated women like second class citizens, as people who are good for nothing but making babies, cooking dinner, and providing their husband with pleasure, as people who can be beaten by their husbands if they "get out of line".  Why didn't women get the right to vote until 1920?  Because men believed that we weren't smart enough, that we weren't really citizens, that we had the brain capacity of children.  Why for hundreds of years were girls not allowed to go to school, women not allowed to go to college?  Because men thought that right when a girl hit her period, she was ready to start popping out babies, no matter how young and small she was.  "Oh, she started her period, time to marry her off to a 40 year old man who will certainly abuse her so we can get that cow we've always wanted!"  Whereas boys were allowed to go to school and make something of themselves.

I could go on.  Don't be such a wuss dude, you don't even know what oppression is.  Ever heard of female genital mutilation, honor killings in the middle east, women in Saudi Arabia getting murdered in the streets because they went outside of their homes?  So just shut up.

Answer 3

Hmm, I don't think that at all...

That's just what society wants to do, is hide sexism subtlety in media, entertainment. It also seems like, and don't take this the wrong way, a lot of the women are compliant with being treated like that. I don't believe that sexism is gone, just like racism, we don't want to believe that it is still here, but it is very alive, and ingrained into our daily lives, media, and thought processes.

--Edit--

Commenting on what the user above me said, I am a man, and I have just as many emotions and feelings as anyone. I think that saying that men don't have feelings is leaning a little toward the sexist side. I know that men are technically a bit more physically dominant, but I have never used that to my advantage, any guy who does is an egotistic, spineless coward. (Oh, and I'm not saying that you are sexist, I'm just saying that its a bit counterproductive to say things like that, its just what the media wants you to think)

Thanks for putting up with me, I'm just venting, =D

Answer 4

Yeah, I've gotta agree, it isn't a recent phenomenon.

I keep reminding myself that most of them have psychiatric issues, and eventually they'll just spontaneously combust from all their inner hatred. They certainly can't do this for too long. Poor lads :(  

Answer 5

They are trolls who feed on your attention.  Why are you feeding them?

Answer 6

Gender inequality is rife.

Rape is ridiculously common and we have a criminal justice system (well i'm in the uk but other western countries are similar) which rarely even puts a rape trial to court, let alone results in a conviction.  In rape trials female victims are often treated as if they are the criminal and have to justify their behaviour, how much they drank, the clothes they wore, their s*x life...it's disgusting.

Domestic violence and other such crimes against women are also still common.

Women are still struggling to break through the glass ceiling by being given promotions and have to worker harder than male colleagues to prove themselves and suffer both vertical and horizontal segregation at work.  Also, the pay gap has not disappeared - women still earn about 2/3 of what men earn in the same job and worldwide it is 1/10th of what men earn.  Female graduates earn less than male graduates.  

Women's rights are threatened, with attempts being made to erode current abortion laws.

We live in a society which is becoming pornogriphised and sexualising young women.  They are more objectified than ever before and this reinforces gender inequality and leads women to focus increasingly more on their appearance.  The beauty myth results in thousands of women suffering from eating disorders, insecurity and cutting up their bodies and trying to remould them in a futile attempt to live up to an impossible aesthetic ideal.  Strip clubs are becoming rife (at least here in the uk), prostitution is becoming accepted as is pornography (altho i should mention feminist debate around the importance of p**n and how prostitution should be viewed, vary).  

There is still a lot of gender inequality and that's just without mentioning the general sexist attitudes many men still hold.

Of course feminism is still relevant.  We are no where near equal.

Answer 7

If it is disguised then thats a step in the right direction.. that means its getting beaten if it has to hide more.. right?. the negative has adapted now Women have to adapt with it.. like a combatant in a war..one step ahead

now women have to stop the sexist c**p they put in movies and tv..

personally tired of cleaning commercials where they are all women.. im a man and I clean my own mess im not a baby

when I was younger I read comic books and all the super heroines wore next to nothing suites.. and I wondered " how the heck do they fight evil in that string bikini?"  lol

Answer 8

What do you mean by "lately?"

Sadly, this is a common state of affairs.

Answer 9

Funny to think men would ever be afraid of women. really you think all men are going to let you start makeing world decisions. Men think with logic not emotions emotions will get you killed. An there brains come on now they still lack in the tech an math. Who will get your cell towers to work really I would love to see a world where women built the building an paved the roads. Bet they would want to go back to the good ole simple days.

Answer 10

umm no. Men are just the number 1 oppressed group in the USA(unless of course your rich). So it should be expected that the oppressed take out there hostility on there perceived oppressors.

It has nothing to do with Hilary's failed attempt(she didn't have a chance, she pandered towards feminist's while insulting and alienating male voters).

But it has to do with the constant discrimination men face in public,government,educational system, judicial system and the private sector.

       Don't worry we don't believe sexism is a thing of the past. Most of us experience it on a daily basis.

        

Answer 11

Sorry, you are jumping to conclusions.  Being British, the idea of a female leader is....Been there, done that!  We treated Mrs Thatcher as a leader first, and a woman second, and she relished it.  Men in the US are not scared because Hillary Clinton is a woman: they disliked her strongly anti-male stance, and were quite within their rights to do so.  She lost, as much through her own faults as to the superiority of Mr Obama.  Deal with it- there is no patriarchial conspiracy!

You complain about how women are portrayed in movies, but men are not exactly shown positively either, and the other media sources: magazines, normal television and advertising, degrade and make a mockery of men in ways that would never be allowed if women were the objects of mockery.

I do not think sexism is gone, but I also don't worry too much about it.  Sorry, got enough on my plate without getting my hert all a flutter on that issue.  Besides, sexism by women, against men, is also very common: but we don't complain so much.  Perhaps we should!

Remember, most men are not the sexists many on here seem to suggest, and we won't necessarily adopt your sense of victimisation or zeal:  I will account for my own issues, but I won't get all worked up over the actions of others that, in relity, are trivial.  As I have said: iI rather think it s the male of the species that is the object of sexism rather more than women, especially in western society.

Answer 12

To be entirely honest, it's the presumptuousness of having a "Gender & Women's Studies" section. It's one of those things that just begs to be trolled, mostly because one can easily tell that the people found here take themselves very seriously, and will be greatly upset by your saying offensive things.

It's all a joke, and it's all it's meant to be. For more information on professional trolling, see George Carlin, and 4chan.org.

Answer 13

lol. Good, they should be scared. Guys are always going to think that they better in alot of things. Im not going to say ALL guys but most know they are physically stronger and they don't have emotions as most girls do. Thats why its nice to see women finally stand up and show them the real guns, their brains. And 27 is so not old, isn't Holly (the girls next door) that age or maybe 28 by now?

Answer 14

For the trolls, its a way of life.

Answer 15

One thing you have to take into account is that this is the internet. Yahoo! Answers is basically like a large public internet forum. Public forums are infamous for being infested with trolls and stupidity. Expecting there to be well thought out questions and answers that are unbiased on Y!A is like expecting an untrained puppy to not p**p on your new rug.

Take a look at this sight and try to identify the the people in YA! in it.

http://redwing.hutman.net/~mreed/

Though, I do agree with you. I do hate how women are portrayed in the media, especially in regards to s*x. The thing that irks me the most is that women go along with this because they feel that is what is expected of them. Many women could not succeed as actresses if they did not take roles that did not exploit them sexually.