THE SUBTLE MISOGYNY
Medium | 19.01.2026 20:34
THE SUBTLE MISOGYNY
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As a woman more often than not I am exposed to misogyny and this is an experience of almost all the women in the entire world….Let me say that again so it settles in your brain more, almost every woman faces misogyny in their lives and it goes from equal rights to get paid as much as a man is getting paid for the same work to criticising a woman and her clothes and blaming them, their body, their choice of clothes, their whereabouts and what not and there are so many major issues out there in the topic of misogyny which needs to have a lot of discussions instead of throwing them under the rug, there are even more problems (to put it as plainly as possible) which happen with subtle misogyny in everyday lives and it comes in the form of “jokes” which are actually offensive and not really funny, overshadowing women’s opinion about literally anything because it’s not really important in a group conversation which includes men, recently I have attended a marriage in my family and I have been told I look really good and it’s easy to find me a groom and the way that my body froze and the way I almost had a panic attack is something I will never forget because it made me so uncomfortable because an elder man saw me and thought that it’s a good thing to directly talk about my personal life which is my marriage while simultaneously talking to my cousin and talking about his studies and career who is younger than me, it’s not the first time but it’s something which made me feel so small and worthless as if a woman’s worth is making sure a man gets everything he wants….if that is what marriage and “companionship” is supposed to be then I will happily stay single all my life.
Whenever there is a discussion among group of people and this is something I’ve observed in my work environment and in marriages, functions and so many places is that most of the time when a group of people chat about something which also includes women it’s something among the men making fun of women not caring if it makes them uncomfortable or not, only talking about their boyfriends as if that’s the only thing worth having a conversation about, passing statements like “you don’t have to work hard for your career, you’re gonna get married anyway” and then say it’s a joke….a lot of times some men don’t even say that, they just laugh, again to make it clear I am not saying this is something that happens with all the friend groups, but this is what happened with majority of the friend groups from my limited observation….In contrast if there were discussions among men(dudes) it’s about tech, sports, business, money and in that realm as if they can’t have or include these conversations with women as if they aren’t capable or smart enough or interesting enough to talk about something other than boyfriend or pass offensive comments disguised as jokes…Again I am not saying this applies to everyone or generalising it…I also saw friend groups of different genders who were respectful and this doesn’t apply to everyone but majority of the time unfortunately I see women getting attacked in the form of jokes and them laughing it off uncomfortably or not knowing how to react in situations and it’s something happens subtly and not so subtly and this is something which still isn’t solved in the year of 2026, we still have a long long way to go.
Treating a woman or your opposite gender equally doesn’t make you look small…in fact it’s the opposite.Now more than ever we have to make the world a better place to survive and live for everyone irrespective of their gender, if we’re still talking about irrelevant stereotypes and passing dimwitted comments disguised as jokes will we ever grow as a society? Don’t ignore when someone is getting uncomfortable around you irrespective of their gender, take a stand, make your environment better and talk about important things even if it feels like no one’s listening. Human beings need human beings and we need to lift each other up and not tear each other down.
— shravika yerabati
