Well, yes but no. This isn’t just about incels and really predates their visible presence online. The for-profit media companies do absolutely profit from “engagement” which they achieve by pushing stories that make people fearful.
However, there is much more to the picture. I didn’t understand, myself, when I was younger and it took maturing, listening to women around me, and experience as a supervisor for customer support to get through my skull how fucked up and different the experience is that women have in life. Talk to the women in your life and it is likely that they have experiences feeling threatened by men, being treated as incompetent and belittled by men (especially in technical fields), not having their health and medical symptoms taken seriously, or outright sexually assaulted. They’re often taught that they just have to go in with life because this is “normal”. The statistics show that over 15% of women and 3% of men in the US gave experienced sexual assault and that’s with an estimate of 75% being unreported, so likely a larger number.
TL;DR Yes, corporate media is fucked up but, just because slapping the asses of female coworkers is no longer acceptable does not mean that sexism is gone and women don’t have legitimate reasons to fear for their safety around men. As unfortunate as it is for the majority of us men who don’t engage in awful behavior, it’s a lot worse for women who have to think “is this a guy who is going to murder me if I say ‘no’?”.
Well, yes but no. This isn’t just about incels and really predates their visible presence online. The for-profit media companies do absolutely profit from “engagement” which they achieve by pushing stories that make people fearful.
However, there is much more to the picture. I didn’t understand, myself, when I was younger and it took maturing, listening to women around me, and experience as a supervisor for customer support to get through my skull how fucked up and different the experience is that women have in life. Talk to the women in your life and it is likely that they have experiences feeling threatened by men, being treated as incompetent and belittled by men (especially in technical fields), not having their health and medical symptoms taken seriously, or outright sexually assaulted. They’re often taught that they just have to go in with life because this is “normal”. The statistics show that over 15% of women and 3% of men in the US gave experienced sexual assault and that’s with an estimate of 75% being unreported, so likely a larger number.
TL;DR Yes, corporate media is fucked up but, just because slapping the asses of female coworkers is no longer acceptable does not mean that sexism is gone and women don’t have legitimate reasons to fear for their safety around men. As unfortunate as it is for the majority of us men who don’t engage in awful behavior, it’s a lot worse for women who have to think “is this a guy who is going to murder me if I say ‘no’?”.
Yep. I don’t dare share my opinions at work any more because of my experiences with “nice” men who wouldn’t lay a hand on women.
And I’m paid for my opinion. It’s not just sexual assault. It’s the fabric of our lives.