Hi all.I wanted to post my story to see how people who consider themselves feminist would react.I'm not here to insult or demean anyone. I just want to see what y'all think.

First off I want to make it clear that I have witnessed my ex-stepfather be mentally and possibly physically abusive to my mother(i was only 3 yrs old so its hard to remember it clearly)so I know that there are some serious issues regarding men mistreating women in our country.If I don't talk about this more thoroughly its only because my memories are so vague.

When my mother finally left this p.o.s. ,I had no father figure, so my uncle(my moms brother) did his best to help fill that role.He was about 22 at the time.He would play cops and robbers with me or we'd pretend to be ninjas or some other game almost everyday after he got out of school.I loved him and looked up to him. My uncle's girlfriend at the time was a cute young college girl and at 5yrs old I thought she was the most beautiful woman in the world.I was sure I was going to grow up and marry her.Needless to say marriage wasn't to be.

My uncle ended up marrying her and moved out of the house where we all lived with my grandparents.I was sad to lose him but even then I understood that he had his own life to live and I knew we would still get to visit each other. About 2 weeks after he moved out my new aunt came over crying.She said he had hit her. We saw some bruising on her arm.My mother immediately began to talk with utmost respect and sympathy for her.I couldn't believe my uncle could be so evil but we saw the marks.The only person who didn't believe was my grandpa.My uncle showed up about 30 min. later with several deep scratches on his face and his glasses broken.He said that she had started it.This was all the explanation my grandpa needed.I didn't know what to think.

Several times over the next two years when visiting my uncle I saw her start physical confrontations with him.Once she slapped the glasses off his face while he was driving me and my sister home from the beach(she claimed he had looked at another woman).Another time I saw her scratch his face while cursing at him.He never physically retaliated while me and my little sister were in the room.One time I remember him hiding from her.He obviously didn't want to fight.She didn't stop abusing him until they had their first son together.I guess she loved her son enough to give up hitting his father.

Another uncle of mine,who recently came out of the closet as gay,told me about his abusive relationship with his ex-wife.I never witnessed this first hand so I will make his story quick.She would attack him as well he said.She would call the police afterwards and even tried to get their son to lie about who started the violence(Luckily he would tell the truth.Poor kid). He also told me that his second son was conceived when she had sex with him while he was passed out drunk.They had been arguing at the time and hadn't had sex in a long while.I'm pretty sure this would be considered rape.

And now my story.I used to work in a kitchen in Portland ,OR.There was a gay man who worked there who would constantly hit on me in a very vulgar manner, even though I am straight and I was obviously not comfortable with it.He would do it in front of co-workers and they would just laugh and roll their eyes.Some of these co-workers of mine were lesbians and card carrying feminists(I am aware that not all feminists are lesbians.)I am not homophobic in the slightest but after months of this, I told this jerk to eat sh**.I had to stand up for myself because no one else would.The thing is I don't even think he was attracted to me.I am not the most attractive guy and I'm kind of quiet.I think he was just making fun of me.

When I related this story to a female friend of mine who is a feminist and generally very hip to how f@#ed up our society can be,she criticized me for being a typical overaggressive male and asked me if I couldn't have confronted him in a nicer way.(To her credit, after some explaining she seemed to come around to my way of thinking.)

So my questions to you all is:Do you think that Feminism needs to be re-thought?I can't be the only guy who has experienced things like this. Shouldn't we all be humanists and stand against injustice wherever it rears its ugly head. I'm not attempting to minimize women's or homosexual's struggle for equality.I just think that sometimes people have blinders on when it comes to some of the injustices that straight men face.Thanks for reading.