Continuing problems with misogyny

Posted October 2020

By Elizabeth Philbrick

Staff Editor

After years and years of women experiencing the double standards between men and themselves, the problem has yet to be solved.

It’s not that there are no solutions to these problems; it’s just that some men, and women surprisingly, don’t want to solve the problem. Women should be treated with respect, but for some reason, there’s a problem with women wanting to be respected.

In early quarantine, women got back at all the "dishwasher" jokes by calling men "wallets." Some guys went along with the joke, finding it funny. But other guys were completely offended, even if they’ve been calling women "dishwashers" and telling them to "go make them a sandwich" for years. They had no problem saying all those things to women, but as soon as women get back at them, they see a problem with comments like those.

After the song Kill All Men by Grace Façade went viral on TikTok, some guys found the jokes funny and went along with it. But the other guys got offended again, responding to the joke with the statement "Rape All Women," which wasn’t a joke.

Another similar situation happened last year when the song, Stupid by Ashnikko, also went viral. A lot of TikTok users loved the song, as it centered around "not needing a boy" to stay satisfied after a break-up, and the song was good altogether. But again, some guys didn’t appreciate the song and in turn, the artist R3AZONS created the song, Stupider. Of course, it’s no different than Ashnikko’s song, and talks about not needing a girl after a break-up, but that’s also the problem. R3AZONS could’ve written a song about that topic in any other way, but chose to write the song almost identical to Stupid.

In 2003, an academic study used the Canadian Violence Against Women Survey and found that 66.4% of women were followed in a way that frightened them; 61.6% reported usually or always checking the back seat of their car before driving away; 53.1% reported violent incidents within the last 12 months; 32.4% received unwanted attention from a stranger; 31.5% reported that they avoided walking by boys or men; 10% stated they had taken a self-defense course over their lifetime.

After 17 years, women’s problems are still the same. They’re afraid to walk alone at night. They’re afraid to walk back to their car in a parking lot by themselves, and they’re afraid of what might happen when they’re alone with a man.