D
Deleted member 87612
All we do is mog
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2024
- Posts
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With humility, my (male) perspective and support.
I have no idea how to begin this. It is with a great deal of humility and reservations that I even dare speak to women right now, as if anyone wants another man to talk. We don't really deserve to talk more, but I hope, against hope, that maybe this will help a few people.
I have been reeling this week. With you all, despite how you may feel right now about whether I am worthy to offer any "I'm with you" talk. I have understood on an intellectual level so much of the plight that women and other vulnerable people have been living, but until now, I have never felt it.
Right now, I feel it in my body, in my heart. I knew it before, in my head, but I didn't feel it. This feeling of vulnerability and powerlessness in the face of unrelenting misogyny, of patriarchal masculinity.
My anxiety spiked this week. I am finally beginning to recover from that anxiety spike. And I have been watching my wife - my strong, brave, intelligent, funny, resilient partner and mother of our baby boy - bounce back seemingly effortlessly. She has been playing music and doing dishes and dancing and singing with our boy - barely a year old - and I thought "how can she endure this, how can she seem to brush this off so quickly?"
And I didn't talk to her about it for a while, because I didn't want to presume. I gave her time, and I was trying to find my own emotional footing. And while part of me felt weaker and selfish and confused and ashamed of myself at her resilience, it has served to inspire me, to stabilize me, to encourage me.
As I felt the fears for you all, and Americans of all different backgrounds, and the fear that so many people would choose this hatred, this bigotry, this incivility, over a woman - a strong, intelligent, and capable woman, I started realizing what it must have felt like to be *othered*; to be marginalized; to be ignored; to see nonsense and toxic aggression and to be powerless and vulnerable - and this has virtually been the case for so many people for most of history.
And so, your continued perseverance, your courage, your resilience, your defiance, as women in a patriarchal world, in a misogynist world, has hit me fully in the chest and it gives me inspiration and hope to carry on and keep fighting. If women can face a world of patriarchy and misogyny, then I certainly can. I am so sorry. But I will endure, as will you. We must. We persist. We defy. We plant the seeds of our little ones and teach them to be better. We have no other choice. As you all have shown me. I love you all.
I have no idea how to begin this. It is with a great deal of humility and reservations that I even dare speak to women right now, as if anyone wants another man to talk. We don't really deserve to talk more, but I hope, against hope, that maybe this will help a few people.
I have been reeling this week. With you all, despite how you may feel right now about whether I am worthy to offer any "I'm with you" talk. I have understood on an intellectual level so much of the plight that women and other vulnerable people have been living, but until now, I have never felt it.
Right now, I feel it in my body, in my heart. I knew it before, in my head, but I didn't feel it. This feeling of vulnerability and powerlessness in the face of unrelenting misogyny, of patriarchal masculinity.
My anxiety spiked this week. I am finally beginning to recover from that anxiety spike. And I have been watching my wife - my strong, brave, intelligent, funny, resilient partner and mother of our baby boy - bounce back seemingly effortlessly. She has been playing music and doing dishes and dancing and singing with our boy - barely a year old - and I thought "how can she endure this, how can she seem to brush this off so quickly?"
And I didn't talk to her about it for a while, because I didn't want to presume. I gave her time, and I was trying to find my own emotional footing. And while part of me felt weaker and selfish and confused and ashamed of myself at her resilience, it has served to inspire me, to stabilize me, to encourage me.
As I felt the fears for you all, and Americans of all different backgrounds, and the fear that so many people would choose this hatred, this bigotry, this incivility, over a woman - a strong, intelligent, and capable woman, I started realizing what it must have felt like to be *othered*; to be marginalized; to be ignored; to see nonsense and toxic aggression and to be powerless and vulnerable - and this has virtually been the case for so many people for most of history.
And so, your continued perseverance, your courage, your resilience, your defiance, as women in a patriarchal world, in a misogynist world, has hit me fully in the chest and it gives me inspiration and hope to carry on and keep fighting. If women can face a world of patriarchy and misogyny, then I certainly can. I am so sorry. But I will endure, as will you. We must. We persist. We defy. We plant the seeds of our little ones and teach them to be better. We have no other choice. As you all have shown me. I love you all.
