Treating All Men Like Rapists Won’t Solve The Problem
Recently, the hashtag #NotAllMen was trending on social media. Upon first glance, I experienced a tremor of hope that this might be a backlash against the perennial male-bashing propped up by corporations and feminists, male and female alike. Perhaps, reasonable people had somehow managed to slip through the algorithms to express dissent.
I quickly realized my mistake when I stumbled upon a meme on Twitter. It had an image of various ticks on it, and said something like “We know not all ticks carry Lyme’s disease, but we don’t which ones. It’s the same with men. We know not all men are rapists, but we don’t know which ones.” Its essential message is that treating men primarily as imminent threats is justified; it’s apparently reasonable to approach them as if their intent is to harm you.