I’M all for feminism, except when it goes too far, which it does all the time. Here’s how being turned down by a date makes me, and all men, victims of sexism. By James Bates.
We’re judged on looks
Women constantly complain about being judged solely on their appearance. If that’s the case, why did my date Carolyn keep banging on about how I looked nothing like my photo on Tinder? Sure, in my profile picture I’ve slightly more hair, weigh a few stone less, and am about a decade younger, but what about judging me on my personality, eh feminazis?
Negative gender stereotyping
Political correctness means we’re not supposed to assume that women are pathologically obsessed with shoes, or can’t fly planes. So why did Carolyn assume that because I’m a man, when I invited her to my flat after dinner for coffee I just wanted sex? Whether that was true or not is completely irrelevant.
Objectification
I went all out for this date – shiniest shirt, Lynx Africa, fresh underwear. Yet throughout the evening I was disgusted that Carolyn completely failed to sexually objectify me. At no point during dinner did she seem close to being overcome with carnal desire, not even when I was eating that rack of ribs with my hands. It just felt unfair after all the hours I’ve spent objectifying women.
Provocative clothing
Despite having an amount of chest hair on display that would’ve made Tom Jones blush, my attempts to dress sexily for our dinner were labelled by Carolyn as ‘embarrassing’ and I was ‘putting her off her carbonara’. If my dashing, open shirt was such an issue, why was judging me on how I dressed? She’s the real sexist here.
Where’s the equality?
I thought fighting sexism was about creating equality between men and women, yet at no point do I remember Carolyn consulting me on my feelings about whether we had sex. It was assumed she was speaking for both us when she said it wasn’t going to happen. And she completely shut down my constructive discussion about at least wanking me off. I don’t call that respecting my views.
