Guys Are Saying the #MenAreNotVeryGoodAt Hashtag Is Misandrist

Updated Feb. 2 2020, 5:12 p.m. ET

It's the subject of endless stand-up comedy routines, films, songs, news articles, research studies, you name it: the fundamental "differences" between men and women.

To get into all of the ways this kind of reductionist thinking is "problematic" would take forever, and quite frankly I don't want to get destroyed for saying something about gender.

But there's a reason why there are constant conversations about the role of gender as it pertains to sex across the globe.

Although the nature of relationships are constantly being redefined, and the idea of gender is being expanded, there are still many people who view men and women as black-and-white polar opposite entities. And although sexual orientation is way more complex than that, again, generally speaking, the overwhelming majority of the world's population identifies as heterosexual.

And when it comes to heartache, there really isn't anything that cuts deeper than romantic relationships.

The idea of that "other", that man or woman who is the apple of your eye and sustaining a lifelong, meaningful relationship full of lovely, passionate, giddy, oh-my-god-my-phone-just-buzzed-let-me-run-across-the-room-I-hope-it's-them feelings is what really gets most people down at the end of the day. Whether they have that in their lives and are afraid of losing it, or had it and lost it, or only dream about experiencing that.

That's a very long-winded way of me saying what I think the root of all the outrage surrounding the #MenAreNotVeryGoodAt hashtag is coming from.

Now to pretend like misogyny doesn't exist is just ridiculous: People have, for a long time, and still do, use women as the butt of jokes. "Women don't know how to drive," or "shut up and make me a sandwich," and other dumb canned sayings meant to belittle the fairer sex are still prevalent.

So someone decided to flip the script and offer up yet another exciting chapter in the "men are trash" series by putting forth a long list of humorous stereotypes about men, using generalizations to highlight what men are typically "bad at." Once the hashtag started trending, it didn't take long for different types of people to latch on to it with different agendas.

Some used it to take political stances against changes in gender perception over the years.

Others used it to highlight an "inequity" between calling out "sex specific" deficiencies. Meninists jumped into the conversation crying foul about how harmful the hashtag was. Others thought it was a mean-spirited attack against all carriers of Y chromosomes and extended their consolations on social media with e-pats on the back as if to say, "hey, not all men, you're doing fine sweetie."

Then there were those who were clearly in it for the jokes. Some of them a bit more tired than others. Yes, men don't ask for directions. No, we don't get why paying $1,000-plus for a handbag is acceptable. Yadda, yadda, yadda.

Some made pretty good points about the plots of certain film genres. Others, again, ventured into lame, not-really-joke territory.

And for some reason, there were tons of embedded videos of K-Pop dance routines that had nothing to do with the hashtag or the commentary people were making in response to it. I guess that just means I'm getting old, or maybe I'm missing a #MenAreNotVeryGoodAt understanding Korean popular music and its place in Twitter memes somewhere.

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