Written By: Jonathan Munroe
You’re not smart enough! You’re not skinny enough! You’re not rich enough! Eventually you actually start to believe that you are not good enough. Reread these sentences out loud. Who do you think they are referencing? Do any of them remind you of yourself? Society has instilled a fallacy into each and every one of our minds to believe that we will never be good enough for anyone including ourselves.
While society has told us that women normally are the ones most affected, the men get to take a backseat and seem to be ok to forget about. No one would never argue that women suffer from image problems however men are constantly left out and forgotten. Picture in your mind or use Google to search for anti-rape ads. Over 90% of these ads all point fingers at men and degrade them. Slogans such as “Don’t be THAT guy” (theviolencestopshere.ca), “Just because she’s drunk doesn’t mean she wants to F***” or even “Just because you help her home doesn’t mean you can help yourself” have been popping up all over the internet and feminist rallies. Do we see something in common here?
Men constantly are getting the short end of the stick here. Men have just as unrealistic social expectations or even worse so, and are constantly attacked for the workings of others without any end in sight. Looking at almost any movie or the most liked male actors they all have a similar type being that tall, slender, in great physical shape, great face, amazing hair. This is because they have been groomed that they must look this way, but no one talks about them. Research has proven that if man looks good and people find that person attractive, they are more likely to listen to them and do as they say. What is this saying about men?
Looking closer at the tremendous multitude of ads in today’s society we can see more man shaming. What are we doing about the men getting falsely accused of rape? What are we doing to focus on the unrealistic conditions set on men? The only anti-rape ads for men that I could find was for gay men and one slogan that read: “Don’t be THAT Girl” by AVoiceforMen which was created as a parody of Canada’s slogan.
Men are blamed for almost everything in today’s society and are held to an even more unrealistic expectation then any other.
A Man Must:
- Be Physically Attractive
- Cannot make a mistake
- Well Endowed
- Make all the right choices
- Provide for their partner
- Be held accountable to everything
What ever happened to being 50/50 with a partner or even in society? Women have had plenty of problems in the past, no one can deny that they have. We all have reached a point that we have to give women special treatment instead of being treated equal. Is it too much to ask for equality for men? Instead of Don’t be THAT Guy, could it not have easily been changed to Don’t be THAT person?
Equality is a two lane street. Maybe if everyone agrees to hold everyone equal and not have to treat one group of people special the world might end up being a better place.
