A young man, in his late teens to early twenties, is in court—a rape case. However, when the jury rules the defendant not guilty, he is not happy; the rapist (a female who used drugs to her advantage) is being let off, simply because of their respective gender.

“Your Honor—the defendant has a statement to give. A man cannot be raped, because he must have physical enjoyment of the act for the act to be possible. If, indeed, the intercourse did occur, then this young man enjoyed it.”

Obviously, he is just as effected as anyone would be in his situation. The emotional trauma from the experience is already washing over him- knowing that the rapist isn’t convicted overwhelms him. A month later, he is found—dead—with a stomach full of sleeping pills.

As surprising as it may be to some, it is possible for a woman to take physical advantage of a man. A woman may violate a man while he is mostly unconscious, or she may slip him drugs when he is not looking. Women aren’t always the victims of sexual abuse cases; men aren’t always the criminals. Women can objectify just as well as men. It’s the cat accusing the dog of biting while ignoring the scars it [the cat] inflicted upon the canine.

Another court case—this time, it’s a custody battle. The child, a six month old infant, is thin and feeble, but otherwise relatively healthy. The mother is called to stand and she cries about how her ex-husband wouldn’t buy food for her or the baby, as well as other atrocities. “It was neglect, Your Honor. He never gave me enough to support the child. I did what I could…”

The women of the jury—some of them mothers—are appalled, looking at the father with disgust in their eyes. When the father testifies, claiming that he did no such things—rather, that his wife underfed the child and neglected it in preference to meeting with her lover—no one believes him. He loses his baby, who, in a few months, ends up in the hospital for malnutrition—the same week his ex-wife marries a new man. Trying to drink away the pain at losing his child, the man destroys his liver and is soon homeless and depressed.

Women are clearly favored in custody cases. People, in general, fail to realize that fathers are parents too. A father can be just as loving, caring, and nurturing as a mother. They just need the chance. Being a single parent is no easy job—having to work, cook, and look after a child all at once is a daunting task—but it is not a job any better suited to one gender than the other. Raising a child is like fishing; not for everyone, but anyone can learn.

In the past, women were oppressed and pushed down—to the point of inhibiting them happy lives. But now, as women gain rights and the misogynistic gears of some policies are overthrown, misandry grows more and more. Feminism (as it is often seen today) is not about equality; it’s about domination. Maybe, (instead of advocating a specific gender’s rights or a specific gender’s oppression in history) we should advocate egalitarianism. We’re equal in value, different in choice. To truly get rid of misanthropy—both towards women and men—we must not think of reparations for past wrongs. We must change society to prevent such wrongs. We’ve got to shift gears; history has a funny way of repeating itself if you do not learn from the past. We must right the toppled balance that once was nearing equality.