There’s this essay going around titled “Do Women Even Like Men Anymore” with a lot of beautiful quotable pieces and thoughts. It’s well written, the tone is gentle and clear, the points clear. A good piece.

I don’t believe that anyone is a voice for everyone, that would be a lot of work and pressure for one person. As a lesbian, with many straight women friends, the piece seemed hollow, a bit narrow. And that’s fine! A straight woman talking about straight men, referencing “gender wars” is absolutely a logical path to go down. I truly hope every girlie pop finds that guy she has her heart set on.

I’m growing wary of people who blame everything on social media, as someone who is working towards a smaller social media footprint. Her points about internet users increase in misandry seems to ignore the soft life era, trad-wife movement, the yearly wedding season montage on IG, the heavy I-Want-A-Man-to-Lead sentiments across platforms, the Hotep/Womb-man movement, how every tarot or astro reading offered is about finding love.

After reading that piece, I was left feeling confused. She mentioned the many reasons and the newfound freedom for women to share their wounds (suffered at the hands of men) then turned around and said that it was hurting men’s feelings and they were starting to not like women. And THAT was a problem.

idk, the piece left me feeling agitated and not in a “i want to grow” way. I felt sympathetic, if not sad, about straight women having to acknowledge that while they love men, they might not like them. And they can’t say they don’t, because it will hurt men’s feelings and make men not like women. I felt like she infantilized men and women, while stating exactly why women (online and off) are expressing why they dislike men.

Good luck yall.