Short book, big emotions
Bewertet mit 5 Sternen
'The common definition of misogyny is "the hatred of women." Consequently, most men don't think they're misogynists, let alone think they have misogynist attitudes or engage in misogynist behaviours. Just as those who exhibit racist tendencies wouldn't classify themselves as racist, few men would admit to hating women or believe they hate women.'
This is a very emotional read of the authors personal experiences in life. The book is very small and only has about 80 or 90 pages, but those few pages have a lot of impact. At least they had impact on me.
'I'm afraid of men' summarizes very good, why transpeople and cis women are, rightfully, afraid of men and the portrayed masculinity. The toxic one that is. But also the hidden toxic one! To this day and age it is still often seen as completely normal for a man to express violent behaviour and have people around him say 'boys will be boys'. Even a lot of women vies this behaviour as normal and support it with their own actions.
'And so, I'm also afraid of women. I'm afraid of women who've either emboldenes or defended the men who have harmed me, or have watched in silence. I'm afraid of women who adopt masculine traits and then feel compelled to dominate or silence me at dinner parties. [...] ButI'm aspecially afraid of women because my history has taught me that I can't fully rely upon other women for sisterhood, or allyship, or protection from men.
I think this is a very import book for everyone! Everyone should read it and rethink their own behaviour towards gender and how we treat each ine different. I don't exclude myself from that, as reading this book did give me some thinking to do on my own. Especially the part, where the author describes how she remembers all the women in her life, that, for example, described a man as a 'sweetheart' just moments before telling her, that this man wanted to beat up Vivek for making eye contact a few times. I am now thinking about how many times I may have said or at least thought of someone as 'a good person' that was maybe badmouthing a friend of mine in front of me. Like thinking 'well, they just don't get along...' and just be done with it.