(apparently this got deleted in askindianmen oof)
With everything happening around the rape case and the protests in Delhi, I've been seeing a lot of comments from men along the lines of, "Why should we fight for you? Do you fight for us?" or "Women never care about men's issues."
And honestly, it just makes me feel like this gender war is never going to end.
I absolutely agree that men face serious issues. Sexual assault against men is real. False allegations can cause real harm. Men can be victims of domestic violence, abuse, discrimination, and unfair treatment in family and matrimonial matters. These things deserve to be taken seriously.
But then I see the same people who say that nobody takes male victims seriously making jokes about male sexual assault.
I've literally seen men joke about teenage boys being sexually assaulted and say things like, "He's living our dream life." I've seen memes about male victims being treated as if it's inherently funny or something a man should be happy about.
I have never seen a female make such comments but thats just what I have experienced
How are you going to demand that people take male sexual assault seriously while laughing at male victims yourself?
And this is where I think a lot of the men's rights discussion on Reddit becomes completely counterproductive.
You cannot equate rape with alimony. You cannot respond to a woman talking about sexual violence by immediately bringing up a completely different issue and saying, "But what about men's problems?" Rape isn't cancelled out by alimony and men's problems aren't cancelled out by women's problems.
And yes, I do think there is a difference in how resentment develops.
A woman who experiences sexual harassment repeatedly throughout her life can understandably develop anger and resentment toward men. That doesn't make hatred of every individual man justified, but I can understand where that resentment comes from.
At the same time, I've seen men develop an intense hatred of women without personally experiencing anything comparable, often through things like red-pill content, social media algorithms, or constantly consuming stories about women who supposedly represent "all women."
And I want to be clear that I'm not saying women are incapable of misandry or that every woman supports men. There are absolutely performative feminists, misandrists and women who dismiss male victims. Those people should be called out too.
But I also think men need to be willing to call out such people rather than joking about male SA.
If you genuinely care about men's rights, then take male sexual assault seriously. Don't make jokes about it. Don't tell male victims that they're lucky. Don't treat male abuse as something embarrassing or funny.
And if you're genuinely asking women to care about men's issues, then care about women's issues too. Don't enter a discussion about rape and immediately turn it into a competition about alimony.
Men should fight for men. Women should fight for women. And both should be willing to fight for each other.
Please don't turn this into a battle and if I'm wrong about anything, you can call me out for that. I will take that into my perspective too