Title: Why men should care about gender stereotypes - The F-Word
Headings: Why men should care about gender stereotypes
Why men should care about gender stereotypes
Alex Gibson considers the harm done by stereotypes of men as beer-swilling, emotionally-stunted brutes

Content: Feminism encourages women to shed gender stereotypes and consider themselves as individuals. Men simply don’t think about gender. Why would you, when it rarely impacts in a noticeable way on your life? Very rarely is your progress barred because you are a man and it is true that male culture generally does not promote frank and open discussion of such issues. Many men aren’t feminists simply because it has never occurred to them that they should be: when you’re not faced every day with the challenges thrown up by gender inequality it is very easy to think: “ Well, we’ve changed the law so we have equality now.” I know it sounds ridiculous – you’d never hear anyone claiming that racism died when it became illegal to racially discriminate, for example, but it is a pretty common thought. If women are under-represented in highly paid jobs, it is because these changes take time to filter through, or because there were no female candidates qualified enough to take the positions, not because sexism is still endemic. I’m ashamed to say that I used to think like that: