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Comment by mullingitover | Hacker News Reader

> If you've been told your whole life that you're inherently evil for your gender

I'm sorry, I'm nowhere near an expert on gender theory but even I know this is BS: nobody is telling young men they're "evil for their gender."

What they are told is the fact that they live in a patriarchy. Nobody is held personally responsible for being born into the patriarchy, and the patriarchy is just as toxic to young men as it is to women. The main people who get held responsible are the ones who enthusiastically perpetuate the system and plug their ears when they hear evidence that it might not be super great for everyone.

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> I'm sorry, I'm nowhere near an expert on gender theory but even I know this is BS: nobody is telling young men they're "evil for their gender." What they are told is the fact that they live in a patriarchy.

Well sure, this is the actual text book answer for people who understand it. Today's young people are not responsible for the systems they were born into. This includes young men born into a patriarchal system.

But it doesn't take a genius to see why a young man might get the message "you're the problem" when he constantly hears that The Patriarchy is enemy number one. It actually does require a little bit of sophistication to understand the distinction between a system and the people in it.

And I also don't think young men are the only ones misunderstanding the message! Young women too often don't understand the difference between patriarchy as a system and the young men in their lives who had nothing to do with building it. A lot of them also go on to internalize a message of "man is the problem."

The gender divide for young people in this country is stunningly large. I can't help but think this patriarchy messaging plays a role here.

> It actually does require a little bit of sophistication to understand the distinction between a system and the people in it.

This is a great argument for doing a better job of educating young people. Problem solved, let's get to work.

Hang on, I'm getting word that the pro-patriarchy people with an iron grip on the throats of every aspect of the government are are gutting education.

> A lot of them also go on to internalize a message of "man is the problem."

The thing is, for young women men really are a problem. And no, most arent. But a relatively small number is, and they are a massive danger to their lives and wellbeing. And its really hard to figure out which ones are OK and which ones arent.

Nobody on earth has ever taken this idea too far? Even if I hadn't seen it myself this would be hard to believe. I've seen people go for the throat just because of opinions on Sailor Moon's color correction. And I mean fully treating them like a monster. The world is an awfully big place to make claims such as the one in this comment. It's one thing to say it doesn't matter or that it's not as bad as this or that, but this is the exact kind of gaslighting that's really messing with people's brains and sending them into underground avenues to discuss how they've been abused and what should be done about it. If we could just stop being so weird about this it would be a lot better. Why is it so hard to say that sexism is bad no matter who it happens to?

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