I figured I would come here and write a post before I headed out for some (very) early morning errands. I’ll be back with at least one more before I end up crashing, but let’s get this one banged out. I read a column from yesterday’s edition of The Telegraph that had me laughing pretty hard. It’s not even that incendiary, I guess it’s just the title that had me cracking up. It’s not often I see something this unintentionally funny.
Take a look for yourselves:
“Sniff them out?” I shudder to think what that might entail, but let’s not go there. Also, I don’t believe this construction actually exists. It seems more like the author, Emma Barnett, wants more rad fems like herself and is trying to shame regular men into joining her cult. It’s not good enough that many men are nice to you, even with your obvious mental deficiencies. This woman wants to bully them into political submission. Maybe I’m wrong here. Admittedly, I am unfamiliar with this Emma’s work.
Here’s an excerpt from the post…
All women know at least one. Usually they are pretty decent to their female colleagues and acquaintances; buying drinks down the pub, smiling when they speak and nodding furiously in agreement. Except they aren’t listening. Not really. And never will…
Handily there’s a neat label for these chaps: nice guy misogynists (NGM). There’s a surprising number of them around. Lurking. You can’t see, touch, or ever really get a purchase on their bias – but it influences their every interaction…
My approach is to sniff it out and where possible confront the offender. As I discovered with a former colleague, he had no idea how differently he treated me from the “boys”, until I highlighted it while he was mid back-slap with one male compadre. Luckily for me, he took it well and we now joke about his NGM status (he more nervously than I).
Perhaps he was treating you differently, but I suspect he eventually just decided to nod his head in agreement with you and now makes sarcastic jokes about the situation that you’re failing to detect. This might be because you are a woman, and as we all know, women suck at comedy. Never mind. You likely missed that one as well, Ms. Barnett.
I’m just not sure what she’s proposing. It sounds an awfully lot like some sort of witch hunt for men guilty of wrongthink. Believe it or not, men are allowed to favor traditional roles for women. I happen to think ladies should do whatever they want, including seeking a career in the workplace. Still, not all men agree and maybe they even want a stay-at-home wife. Does that make them misogynist? I don’t think so. Difference of opinion on how to treat members of the fairer sex certainly doesn’t warrant a “sniffing out,” at any rate. If they are guilty of some kind of legitimate harassment or something like that, then I don’t support it. That’s not really what Barnett is talking about here, though. The whole column just sounds ill-thought-out and stupid.
Then again, maybe I’m just being misogynistic. :^)
