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That Moment When
You find out someone you've been interacting with on Tumblr is a hetero male and you're like.
Oh no. Where did this person come from. Who let him into the house.
I was only nice to him because I thought he was a young woman struggling with a personality disorder.
ETA: In the cold and sober light of morning, I realize how sexist this sounds, but this guy was behaving like he came straight out of the Something Awful forums. It's funny to me now that I read his maleness as some sort of disorder. I'm not saying that masculinity is bad, or that women shouldn't perform masculinity, but rather that certain personality traits and behaviors come off as really upsetting when dissociated from the normative maleness that encourages us (or me specifically) to accept them as part of the not-entirely-metaphorical package.
A man aggressively picks a fight over some stupid nerdy detail for no reason, and I'm like, Whatever, he's just being a dude, ignore him. A woman aggressively picks a fight over some stupid nerdy detail for no reason, and I'm like, Maybe she just doesn't know how to behave, and probably she's young, so I should be nice to her.
This also sounds sexist, as if women are somehow deserving of kindness while men are not, but I see it more in terms of a cost/benefit analysis. Just about everything in mainstream internet society teaches men that they're supposed to act like entitled assholes, and the kindness of one stranger on Tumblr isn't likely to encourage them to be better people online. On the other hand, women are taught that everything in mainstream internet society hates them, and so the kindness of one stranger on Tumblr can make a huge difference.
Also I am prejudiced from my youthful days of attending anime conventions and having to deal with sad-panda and proto-puppygate straight white male fans, who are the absolute worst human beings on the planet. Like, the things I don't feel guilty about killing in FPS games are Nazis, slaveowners, zombies, and neckbeard anime fans.
Oh no. Where did this person come from. Who let him into the house.
ETA: In the cold and sober light of morning, I realize how sexist this sounds, but this guy was behaving like he came straight out of the Something Awful forums. It's funny to me now that I read his maleness as some sort of disorder. I'm not saying that masculinity is bad, or that women shouldn't perform masculinity, but rather that certain personality traits and behaviors come off as really upsetting when dissociated from the normative maleness that encourages us (or me specifically) to accept them as part of the not-entirely-metaphorical package.
A man aggressively picks a fight over some stupid nerdy detail for no reason, and I'm like, Whatever, he's just being a dude, ignore him. A woman aggressively picks a fight over some stupid nerdy detail for no reason, and I'm like, Maybe she just doesn't know how to behave, and probably she's young, so I should be nice to her.
This also sounds sexist, as if women are somehow deserving of kindness while men are not, but I see it more in terms of a cost/benefit analysis. Just about everything in mainstream internet society teaches men that they're supposed to act like entitled assholes, and the kindness of one stranger on Tumblr isn't likely to encourage them to be better people online. On the other hand, women are taught that everything in mainstream internet society hates them, and so the kindness of one stranger on Tumblr can make a huge difference.
Also I am prejudiced from my youthful days of attending anime conventions and having to deal with sad-panda and proto-puppygate straight white male fans, who are the absolute worst human beings on the planet. Like, the things I don't feel guilty about killing in FPS games are Nazis, slaveowners, zombies, and neckbeard anime fans.