ARE MEN REALLY TRASH?

SO ‘men are trash’ has been a trending topic across my social media. This ‘men are trash’ notion has been met with such open arms from audiences for their comedic gold apparently.

I’ll admit even I’ve laughed at some of the tweets or Facebook posts about this topic. But I admit I had never really deeply interrogated the whole statement. When I finally did, I realised that such  blanket statements are problematic, through and through.

Not all men are trash

Not all men are trash. Such blanket statements grate my ball because they are based on such a limited experience of men. I’m sure every women in the world have had a bad experience dating a man who did not appreciate them or treat them accordingly.

But, truth is, there are wholesome men out there. Men who treat women respectfully, just because you’ve had the regretful chance of interacting with some of the rotten asparagus in the bag, doesn’t mean the whole bag is ruined. I’m not sure if women understand how having such

perceptions of all men, decreases their chances of finding a good one because you enter new spaces with all your past hurts and baggage. I know it’s hard to do because we are all meant to learn from previous relationships. But I’m just trying to say, not all men are out to get you. They are also dealing with some things they don’t even understand at times, especially feelings.

Is ‘men are trash’ as a statement directed to black men?

I’ve seen the tweets, the posts and it seems all the people complaining about men are black women. I will be simple in this argument and assume that this is also directed to black men. Before I go further, how one treats people is their own prerogative, independent of race. I just feel that it appears as if black men are the target of this statement.

At times this is how the statement should be (black, broke, never treated me right but sexed me good) men are trash. This creates a specificity that was lacking before. Because women aren’t ticked off at all men, just the type of men who have hurt them.

Maybe it’s directed at male privilege

I’ve considered this. And yes, this is fair. I’m hoping that maybe this statement is directed at this very sentiment, actually.
I have watched the discussions across many platforms and it seems that it’s the masculine hegemonic system in which women have to function. The female reality tends to be plagued by violence – both literally and structurally, and most of this violence is the result of masculinity.
Therefore, I understand when women say ‘men are trash’ because men are the physical m

anifestations of this masculine force, that only serves to exclude and minimise them to bodies that must serve and applaud masculine mediocrity.
We have all seen or read the violence that has been inflicted upon the female body, especially in 2016. It has been shocking, that even now, these things are still happening. But it is on this backdrop, this historical petri dish of abuse and gender inequality, that ‘men are trash’ originates.
This article barely scratches the surface, but the true crux was exploring how irking blanket statements are.

These statements prove that something about this human experience is always longing to standardise everything. Not sure, maybe if everything is one colour, is it easier to process or internalise? All I know is stereotypes have not created harmony, they caused more harm.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: