I am a 15-year-old girl. Let me show you the vile misogyny that confronts me on social media every day

[Ilikepurple]

175. I didn't feel tarred. I'm not sure why you think this is about you.

I would understand if you were in a habitually marginalized demographic, but as a man who advocates for women’s rights and also strives to have an equal relationship with my wife, I presume I or other men like me aren’t included in the tarring. Your sophistic wordplay about “male”, “female”, “men”, and “women” belies your self-appointed status as a pro-feminist (not sure how that differentiates you from being a regular feminist) as it shows that you fail to recognize the privilege of being a man (male). When someone spends all of their energy in a thread about the misogyny a girl finds pervasive online defending men from the use of “men” in a aphoristic meme and the use of the word “female”, that I wonder what their thoughts on the actual subject matter of the article are. I never thought the meme was about me, even if I could make the tortured argument that, as a man, “men” included me. Most aphorisms are somewhat sloppy under detailed analysis as they are not generally logical arguments. I for one am trying harder to call out bigoted behavior from my relatively privileged standing rather than trying to argue that the use of the word “male” has the same power as the word “female” in gender stereotyping. As a pro-feminist, you should already be aware of false equivalence.

Also, I don’t think anyone here asked you to apologize for being a man. I don’t even think the meme said any man needs to apologize it just pleaded for men as a group to be better. I apologize if you came up with it on your own, but bringing up the “apologizing for being a man” and “male” “female” usage arguments reminds me more of current anti-feminist rhetoric. It certainly doesn’t imply that you are anti-feminist, but just know who you share this rhetoric with.