“It’s a man’s, man’s, man’s world’’. It is impressive how James Charles and Betty Jean wrote these lyrics in the year 1966. A time of extreme sexism. Seeing a man’s world through a woman’s eyes, however, is circadian. When you live in a world where everything favors the comfort and advantage of a man, you get used to living with it. Sometimes you get so used to it that you are not able to see it for yourself. If I had to describe this concept with a simile, I would say that it’s like babysitting a mischievous four-year-old child whose trouble-giving behavior is justified by him being a “baby”.
In literature, the portrayal of women in pieces written by men is stereotypical. The distinction of gender roles is exclusively based on sexist grounds. Now men would argue that that is how society sees a woman, so their portrayal is rather “realistic”. Nobody really focuses on how women see themselves, how women want themselves to be portrayed.
Recently, I was having a conversation with one of my guy friends. I was telling him about how I would reply to a stranger woman on Instagram but not so frequently text back a guy I don’t know because I immediately repel toward a man’s text message. It sounds sexist to a man, doesn’t it? However, seeing it from my perspective, a woman using social media, it’s not. It is largely and solely based on my fear of receiving unsolicited genital pictures.
The concept that revolves around the #NotAllMen issue is extremely controversial. Not a day goes by without somebody fighting over this on the internet. In a man’s world, society will always defend a man’s action while gaslighting the sufferings of a woman. Maybe it’s not all men, but it surely is all women. All women walking down the road past 9 p.m. would see men as a danger. All women would carry a tool of safety to protect themselves from a potential mishappen. All women constantly fear being in a room full of men. And that, you just cannot argue.
“As long as she thinks of a man, nobody objects to a woman’s thinking.” – Virginia Woolf.