On social media, hashtags such as #MenAreTrash, #KillAllMen etc. trend at least once a year. Where social terminology and slang is often used to belittle men's masculinity, and these trends are never given the same kind of scorn as stereotypically misogynistic attacks. Hell, even on Discord, I just typed "Men Are" into the gif search. What was I met with? "Men are trash", "throw the man away", "men should die", "can men just not exist?". As an experiment I tried typing "Women Are", into the search bar next. I was met with "Women are wonderful", "women are essential", "women make the world go around". The worst I found in the first few results was "women are confusing".

Feminism has done well in elevating women and girls. There is no shortage of empowering media, messaging, advertising etc. anywhere a young girl might look. But often, it seems that someone can't say "girls rule", without adding in "boys drool". Outside of insular echo-chambers, Facebook groups and sub-reddits intentionally dedicated to misogyny, you cannot say anything hateful women, without your replies being full of scorn. There are strong social repercussions to misogyny, as there should be.

But women, please understand this. No one is going to achieve a more equal, or just world for themselves or anyone else, by taking on the exact same attitudes and traits of their oppressors. No one can speak for "women" as a monolith, without being rightfully called out for. Terms like "all women -" "women this, women that". But that same standard is not held for men. It's socially rewarded to stereotype men, to call men names, to re-enforce gender roles to shame men etc. We cannot achieve our egalitarian goals if we simply re-perpetuate toxic gender norms in the opposite direction of ourselves and call it "punching up". Men are not a monolith, and if we want to help men be better, we cannot continue on this way. The hypocrisy cannot withstand.