When I woke up this morning I didnt think Id start my day off defending white male privilege.
Its an excellent article and you should read it.
After reading the aforementioned article, itd be impossible for a decent person not to be bothered.
Those messages are disgusting.
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Were not playing girls versus boys: Were playing decency versus evil.
I cant understand it.
TAKE A HINT, BRO #byefelipe
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And lets not even start on my white privilege.
Life cant be that bad.
Just lean in ladies.
But thats not the story is it?
Ill go on the record saying I believemostmenaretrash.
But and this is the big point Im trying to make notall.
I think its dangerous to say we are.
Look, if I can be candid for a second here, Im in an awkward position.
And thats not what I want at all.
Specifically, my outrage is because I feel that in saying all men youre excusing that behavior.Its genetics.
Were brought up that way.
Boys will be boys.
Thats not locker room talk nor is it guys being guys.
People who say the types of things the original article talks about are trash.
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And I never saw it either.
I wouldnt tolerate it from my friends, family members, or anyone else in my life.
My point is: Im not defending men, just decent people.
One of the best things about working for TNW is that we dont always have to agree.
If one of our colleagues publishes something that we have a difference of opinion on we often writecounterpoints.
Sometimes we writecounterpointsto counterpoints.
And some of us are so opinionated that we writecounterpointsto our ownpublishedstories.
But, this is about whether all men are trash or not.
Lets stick to that.
To be clear: Im not picking on my colleague.
I continue to respect her and her work, and consider her a valuable member of the TNW team.
I remain proud to work with her.
I didnt ask to be born a man anymore than she asked to be born a woman.
A male colleague of mine tried to explain that, in a way, weareall trash.
Im paraphrasing him, but I think Ive captured the gist of his assertion.
I compared his argument to the Christian idea of Original Sin.
It says humans are born into sin and thus we are sinners.
Men are born into a world where men are scum, and thus we are scum?
I dont believe that.
It sounds a bit too much like boys will be boys to me.
I cant help but benefit from my privilege, I dont have a choice.
But we all choose our conduct.
They can stop being trash by changing their conduct.
But we need to remind them of that.
Its an argument with almost no chance of effecting a positive change.
I wouldnt eat rancid meat on purpose because it would disgust me.
And I wouldnt say awful things to a person for the same reason.
Im sorry that it seems like most men are trash.
Hell, I believe that most men reallyaretrash so fucking many of them choose to be reprehensible.
But Im trying to teach my children that nobody is born trash, or scum.
Were not all trash.
And the men whoaredont have to be.
