Sexism against men- Does it rattle us?

New Delhi: As a society we seem to be greatly sensitized towards sexism in taking a stand against it. At least that's what appears from the various debates we see flaring up on mainstream media, social media and other public discussion forums whenever there's a controversial (howsoever true) statement said about women.

However, the moot question that arises is, as a society,are we sensitive towards sexism against men? Before, we jump to any conclusion let's have a look at some of the statements which have been made against men/boys:

"All men are rapists and that's all they are"

Marilyn French, Authoress; later, advisors to Al Gore's Presidential Campaign.

"All patriarchists exalt the home and family as sacred, demanding it remain inviolate from prying eyes. Men want privacy for their violations of women... All women learn in childhood that women as a sex are men's prey."

Marilyn French, The Women's Room, Summit Books, 1977

And these are some made by her Indian Counterpart, Renuka Choudhary former Union Minister of Women and Child Development.

"I will teach men what their mothers did not."

"It's time for Indian men to suffer."

These statements have been there for many years now, but do we recall any susceptible public outrage against these kinds of statements?

Does such a radio-silence on such anti-male statements vilifying the dignity of the entire clan of men and boys tell us something about our stand on sexism against boys/men?

And if these historical statements devouring the dignity of men weren't enough, we had a recent blow being slapped on boys by none other than Gujarat CM Anandi Ben Patel wherein she referred to boys as "rejected maal (rejected material)" while emphasizing on the importance of girls to get educated.

Recently, there was a huge uproar on statements made by the Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and an MP Naresh Aggarwal about the misuse of rape cases. We had seen the statements made by them being taken completely out of context and the leaders were forced to apologize and take their statements back.

Whereas, if we look at the statements holistically, it was in the right spirit given the current situation the way innocent men are trapped in false cases. Mulayam Singh Yadav had promised to review the rape law to prevent its misuse and Naresh Aggarwal talked about the importance of taking action against the accused only after investigation. However, we saw a flurry of comments flying against them just for making these statements.

On the other hand, we have a statement from the Gujarat Chief Minister which is directly sexist in nature and is abusive towards, yet we do not see a single condemnation from any media channel or social media except for the men's rights activists.

This is an extremely unhealthy social behavior wherein we are ready to jump on men and boys in the name of sexism but the society generally doesn't feel the need to initiate any debate when sexist statements are made against boys.

The eerie silence of the society on sexism against boys clearly points out the discrimination existing in the society against men and boys. One can only imagine the amount of backlash, had such a statement been made against girls. When Mulayam Singh Yadav talked about review of rape laws, society behaved as if it was an issue of national importance and it became the talk of the town as if it was the single most issue happening in the society.

Interestingly, such debates are facilitated under the cute carpet of "Gender Equality", however, one fails to notice the same equality being applied to boys when it comes to someone making sexist comments against boys and that too from someone as prominent as the Chief Minister of a state. It passes a clear message that the society does not care about boys and men.

And in such a scenario, one needs to decide whether boys and men should also contribute towards the society, when the society is insensitive towards them or they should simply focus on their own lives. As more and more such instances of double standards against boys would come to fore, it would actually lead to boys and men drawing away from the society and should the society want men to contribute towards the society, its time the society develops sensitivity towards boys and men and takes a stand against sexism against boys.

If sexism against boys doesn't rattle us, it should.

(Writer is the Head, Gender Studies, Confidare Research)