oh and by the way.

“men are evil” and “masculinity is bad” is just the new way of saying that “boys will be boys”.

not only is masculinity not evil, it also gives a get out of jail free card for men who behave badly. it gives them an opportunity to say “oh I’m just a guy, can’t help it”.

nope. men aren’t evil. and the ones that are bad shouldn’t be able to get out of it because they “can’t help it”.

lowkey regret making this post because. it’s kind of taking off, and people are reblogging it without knowing the context. which, to be fair, happens a lot, and it isn’t the fault of anyone on this site who resonates with what I post from time to time.

but… the idea of masculinity being evil was deliberately constructed just as “boys will be boys” started to go out of fashion. it’s the same idea, just reheated. and being used by slightly different people. which I guess is the point.

the idea that men are inherently bad people is an advantage to the exact same kind of man who was advantaged by “boys will be boys”. it signals to them that there’s something about male biology that makes them unable to control their impulses.

yes, “men are evil” is a TERF dog whistle. but, more importantly, it gets the idea into peoples’ heads that men are not to blame for anything they may or may not do. which is then going to lead to a terrible biological essentialism worldview (even if you include trans people in your “I hate men” rants!)

this isn’t misandry. it’s biological essentialism. there’s a difference, and the difference is that one of those things is real, and one isn’t. we’re all hurt by the impulse to assign certain normative characteristics to certain people. and that’s what I was trying to get at here.