Men Against Patriarchy (Pt1)

Last night I went to the newly re-formed Men Against Patriarchy discussion and support group in Bristol. I came away feeling very positive about how it went and feel like sharing some of the points that came out of it. Of course, everything said in the meeting is held in confidence within the group so hear I’m just going over the general themes and ideas that came out of that discussion.

Nah-ah, I Called You Out First!

A couple of weeks ago I got challeneged on using a supposed “sexist” term. For the record I still maintain the term was not really sexist but hey, someone called me out on it, that’s their opinion and that is that. The issue I had was not that I was called out, but the accusatory and confrontational tone in which it was done. (I paraphrase) “What the fuck man, that’s so sexist, you can’t say that, you’re a sexist…”. This tone immediately got my back up and oddly the discussion ended with me challenging them on how they called me out. (I again paraphrase) “Dude, I appreciate that you let me know that this term was seen as incorrect, but don’t ever jump down my throat calling me sexist again, check yourself please.”

So this got me thinking a little about how you would go about calling someone out, how you would phrase it and how you would handle the situation if you were the one being called out.