Realities Some Men Don’t Seem to Know Anything About
Is it willful ignorance, cognitive dissonance, or something else?
In just the past month, I’ve been stunned several times by men who said things that I could barely believe. They were so out of touch with realities that I assumed most people were aware of that I hardly knew what to say. It wasn’t clear to me if they were tragically undereducated, or if they simply had their heads in the sand, like ostriches — or if something else was going on.
#MeToo was only a few years ago. How is it that in this day and age, men who clearly use the internet regularly and who have access to thousands of articles about women’s experiences on Medium don’t seem to know the most basic things about violence against women, sexual violence, and other patriarchal social structures that affect women? Heck, they don’t even know about the ones that affect men.
It’s almost as if they don’t want to know and they certainly don’t want to believe. Below are just a few of the bizarre statements I’ve recently heard as well as the reality check that counters them.
He said what?
“People don’t seem to realize, but rape is actually quite rare.”
