I've met many terrific men online. I find that about 55-58% of my fans are male, so there are plenty out there who are interested guys just going about their lives in regular ways who like to read what I write - whether or not they agree with all of it 100%, and make relevant comments. I love that!
Then there are the ones who just have knee-jerk reactions to a woman presenting herself in an authoritative way, particularly when she is dispelling some of the myths they are happy to cling to. There are others who are, as you say, just having a moment about something else and taking it out on me. There are even a few who seem to have a crush on me or at least want my attention, but who think I'll be most impressed with them if they show me how much smarter they are than I am. 🙄
The newest iteration is the casual anti-feminists who are armed with false statistics and erroneous impressions blaming women for not just taking inequality docilely. and gracefully and see that as an attack on men. They have a lot of empathy for incels, but not much for women. I tried to talk to one guy about why that was out of balance and he called me a bigot. 🤷♀️ That level of victim blaming is incredibly disheartening. In fact, it's terrifying to be approaching 60 and see things going backward at a brisk pace as far as views around women's equality, with younger men holding a lot of them.
And, I can't hold back the storm, but I can do my best to take care of myself so that I can educate others and continue to speak up about the things I care about without tanking my own well-being. So that's what I intend to do. The offensive minority is very loud and abrasive. We really need more regular guys to speak up against that stuff and to show that as concerning as that stuff is, it isn't mainstream. That would go a long way...
I'm working on a story on just that as we speak.
