Personally, for me, I would be BEYOND FLATTERED if a man felt the desire to protect me. That would give me all the warm fuzzies, because no one ever tries to protect me.
Instead I have had a bunch of men tell me that I am unattractive for not "looking" (what the flying fuck) like I want to be protected. I've been told plenty of times that standing up for myself and being intimidating (even though I don't even try to? again wtff) and doing more physically demanding stuff makes me less of a woman. Even though I'm absolutely not trying to be anything more then an individual who wants to carry their own.
And I know, being taller and having a larger frame/stature (fatness aside, I am still a size 10 when super skinny) doesn't do me any favors, but I'm completely offended that men just assume these things. That only small and tiny women are attractive because they look helpless and "needy". I don't and won't act needy and like I need protection, but I have no problem if a man wanted to stand up for me and I wouldn't try to deliberately put them down or actively take away from their masculinity… whatever the fuck that is. I honestly don't understand it at all.
@trappedolphin:
Possibly irrelevant to what you guys are talking about, but I personally think that the desire to protect a woman is different from the belief that she needs to be protected. The first isn't necessarily a bad thing to me. And the latter might depend on what kind of environment/culture you're in.
That's all.~
This. I don't think that it's sexist at all if a man WANTS to protect you, it's if they EXPECT that all women should be protected and "stand behind the line", then it's an entirely different ballpark.
@GuetaMinute:
Thanks, trapped. I don't think it's necessarily sexist. I mean, yes, obviously, some women are strong, but biologically speaking, men are generally physically stronger than women, and I don't see anything wrong or sexist about that, because it's plainly the truth. Women have advantages in other things. There's also that whole deal with men using one side of the brain more while women use the opposite. forgot which one was which. Psychology class was a year ago and I don't remember a lot, lol.
Probably gonna get massively flamed for this one, tho.
This just reminds me of when i was a lifeguard at 16, I was a lot taller then most of the guys (hadn't hit their growth spurts yet).
At the end of the day, when we finished most of our clean up stuff they would tell the boys they needed to take the giant umbrella's down (which require even myself to stand up on a chair to reach) and the girls could go on and leave. I just "Later, assholes!"'d while they seethed at me. That was hilarious.
I also like how I scared one kid who liked to throw his figurative man-authority around, especially at the girls. He screamed at me over nothing in particular, and I raised my voice right back and towered over his short ass and scared the shit out of him. It was great
But naw what you said is GENERALLY, not always of course, but generally true. Men are generally built with more in the physical strength department then women. It's just how it works. Men and Women EACH have their strengths and differences, but if a man is physically weak and a woman is physically strong, those aren't things to nessicarily be ashamed of either. Not ever man has or wants to look like a power lifter, and someone women like to be physically in-shape and more muscular because they like it that way, wether it be how they look or just that they want to be able to do physical work much easier. Whatever, it doesn't matter.
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