men are from... earth?

I often notice that people are very quick to assume that if someone has been sexist then they must have insulted a woman. This is not the case. In fact there is even an element of sexism involved in assuming that it is men that are sexist towards women.

Actually we have an ingrained, sort of societal sexism towards men.  The ideal man traits, the blokish characteristics, the physical prowess that we connect with the male sex. We assume that men like football and wrestling. That they either work in a suit or in a uniform. We assume that all men are macho and that men aren't sensitive or emotional. We tend to connect emotion, vulnerability and tenderness with women and strength, power and brutality with men.

This seemingly condoned sexism is encouraged by the images of men, and women for that matter, in the media- in tv programmes, films and even on the news. How often do you watch the women's football team play? my guess is not all too often. You could say that not being aware of the female football culture was sexist towards women and you would be right, but it is also sexist towards men. It creates a link between football and men. It creates the idea of a "real man". Are there "fake" men? honestly.

The "real" man probably watches football, topless, reeking of lynx, with a beer in one hand and the other hand up a woman's skirt- I'm pretty sure that that's more of a fantasy to most men.  The "fake" man on the other hand probably anxiously tries to successfully do a press up when trying to impress a girl while sweating, reeking of nervous sweat and tears.

We are sexist towards men in that we assume they like the colour blue. We are sexist towards men in that we assume that they like sport. We are sexist towards men in that we don't think they should stay at home and look after children. We are sexist towards men in that we think they should be out and about busily being a "real" man. We are sexist about men a hell of a lot but we don't admit it, we don't acknowledge it and we often aren't even aware of the gender stereotyping we enforce on both men and women.

(Tip) So next time you accuse someone of being sexist just think about whether you are actually a incy bit sexist yourself. You might think the least sexist thing to do is to empower women with your patronising, self-motivation, female initiative rubbish, but actually the least sexist thing to do might be to stop forcing men to watch top gear and stop asking them to fix your bicycle- they probably know a woman who is much better at it than them anyway.