cougarmeat:

On Friday afternoon I was on the train on the way to see my boyfriend. It usually takes me about 3-4 hours and I change trains twice.
Anyhow, I was sitting by myself reading when a woman, her three kids and her own mother boarded the same carriage as me, no problem.
At least it wasn’t a problem until the kids started becoming public nuisances throughout the whole carriage, both upper and lower decks without any sort of parental control.

Anyhow, we pulled into a station. The mother pointed out a lady around 40, with dyed bright red hair saying she looked like “The little mermaid.”
The oldest daughter (she was about 11) scoffed and said “Hahah, little.”
To which the grandmother, the grandmother, the one who is supposed to be one of the mature members of the family, piped up and said “More like the big, fat octopus lady.”
The group of them burst out laughing.

There was nothing wrong with that woman. Nothing that that close-minded family saw. They didn’t know her.
Alright, I get that kids say things without thinking but it doesn’t help that the grandmother encouraged the negativity towards bigger people. And not to mention further encouragement with laughing about it. I implore you, when you have children, or if you already do, don’t encourage this sort of negativity towards others. It’s the same as raising your child to be considerate of others and understanding of other sexualities, races and backgrounds. Don’t raise your children to hate.

Equality for all.

cougarmeat:

“Sexism, also known as gender discrimination or sex discrimination, is defined as prejudice or discrimination based on sex; or conditions or attitudes that foster stereotypes of social roles based on sex.” - Wikipedia.

Prejudice or discrimination based on sex.. On any sex. That means that, believe it or not, sexism towards men exists!
Whenever you refer to all men as rapists and pigs you are in fact being sexist. When you claim that men have no right to have an opinion on abortion, based solely on the fact that they have a penis, that’s sexist. When you laugh at the fact that men don’t have issues, that’s being sexist.
You call men privileged because they’re born males… That’s something that is completely out of anyone’s control. Why should innocent men who are for women’s rights, who are respectful of women and who would never even dream of harming a woman in any way be made to feel like dirt because of the gender they were born. It’s my belief that that’s sexist too.

I believe in feminism and I am all for women’s rights, but on the same token I’m also for the rights of men because it’s not right to put down someone based on their sex.

Stop and think, some of the stuff I’ve seen said about men on Tumblr is incredibly sexist, if a man were to say it about a woman there would be hell to pay, but for some reason it’s become perfectly fine to be sexist towards men.

Equality anyone?

cougarmeat:

“Men feel the pressures of society just as much as women. Through my internet searches I have come across nothing that encourages body positivity in men. This needs to change.”

It seems a lot of you had different opinions in regards to my most recent post on male body positivity. A lot of you completely missed the point I was getting at, while a lot of you welcomed what I had said.
The main aim of the post was to bring about a topic that, believe it or not, actually exists in our society. Women are crushed by the pressures of society to be thin, beautiful, sexy, supermodel-esque and successful, we are constantly being force fed images of photoshopped beauties and stories on how to lose five kilos in three days, how to change our bodies to the way “they” think we should look rather than to learn to love ourselves just the way we are.
Now, I have to say that since the Body Love Movement has taken hold, a lot more people are aware that seeing “perfect” images of women is doing more harm than good for many women and girls, although, we still see body shaming glossy magazines and unrealistic expectations of how we should look.

Now, onto the men;
Some of you seem to think that men feel absolutely no pressure within our society, how they live in this perfect world where everything is just froth and bubbles for them and they have not a single issue in the world.
Well. You’re wrong.
You don’t think they get picked on at school for being chubby? Or teased because of their height?
Advertisements depicting men often show the typical “Hunky Adonis”. You know the guys, tanned skin, deep, dark eyes, carelessly messy hair, chiseled abs, almost completely hairless, and extremely well endowed.
You don’t suppose young boys see these advertisements and think that this is the way to be strong, sexy, successful, the epitome of a “real man”?

Isn’t it terrible when you hear about a young girl suffering from an eating disorder because she wants to look like Kate Moss? Of course it is. It’s equally as terrible to hear that a young boy has developed the same eating disorder because he wants to look like David Beckham.

Men deserve the same amount of respect and dignity in regards to their bodies as women do.

Men suffer body image issues too, and if you choose not to believe that, more fool you.
Society tells men they should tone up and get buff, apparently women don’t like like a chubby or a thin guy. Their penis size comes under scrutiny because for some reason that matters when comes to attracting a woman. It shouldn’t.
They need to appear well kept and sharp, not to be a slob.

Women feel bad when they see men oggling a stunning woman with an amazing figure, don’t you think men feel pretty bad when they see women drooling over Calvin Klein models?
Us women feel insecure about our looks all the time and it’s come to be seen as natural, but for men it’s different. They are supposed to remain indifferent to how they feel about themselves, insecurities and all. They suffer, for the most part, in silence.

Tell me again how men don’t suffer pressure from society?

Little girls grow up playing with beautiful and perfect Barbie, little boys grow up playing with G.I Joe, Action Man. Both of these toys serve as unrealistic ideals of the human body.
We are taught at a young age that big breasts, tiny waists and long legs are the epitome of femininity, men are taught that muscles equal strength and power.
Not all women wish to be feminine and ladylike, and not all men feel the need to be strong, masculine and powerful.
That isn’t to say that we don’t all suffer from some sort of body image issue at one point or another.

This brings me to something else I’ve noticed through my Male Body Positive Post.
A lot of people deemed the post sexist and then went on to inform me that there is no such thing as sexism towards the male gender, but it’s alright for a woman to discriminate against a man… If a man discriminated against a woman? Sexism.
I refuse to believe that sexism is a “woman only” term.
We frown on discrimination of all sorts from racial, ethnic, sexual etc but I have noticed that there is no such thing as anti discrimination towards men in general… To say that one cannot be sexist against a man is generalising him based on his gender. Isn’t that sexist? So by saying one cannot be sexist towards a man, you are actually being sexist…

I’ve said before that there are some God awful men out there (I know a few) but that is no need to generalise the whole male gender and say they are all bad human beings.
Having said that, there happen to be some pretty awful women out there too.
Women even get shorter prison sentences for committing the same crime as a man!

I refuse to believe that sexism does not exist towards men, because in my opinion it does. You may laugh or scoff, but just like all of you, I’m entitled to have my say.

As I stated on “THAT” post I have yet to find any body positive material for men online and what I have found on the daily pressures on the average are few and far between.

We all have the right to be loved and respected for who we are. It shouldn’t be a contest for which gender has it worse.

Discrimination of any form should not exist.

cougarmeat:

Female privilege is being prejudiced against all men for the actions of one.

cougarmeat:

We don’t know everyone, we don’t know what they’re dealing with and to tell a man that his problems are insignificant in comparison to that of a women’s… Well, that’s just fucking ignorant.
Go right ahead and say to a returned MALE serviceman (WHO FOUGHT SO YOU CAN LIVE IN A FREE COUNTRY) suffering PTSD, tell him his personal problems are nothing compared to that of a woman raised in a patriarchal society.

Everyone has demons to deal with, be nice, be kind and don’t make assumptions based on gender, colour, race or sexual orientation.