From March 15, 2021: The hashtag #TooManyMen in memory of #SarahEverard was trending today. It’s a response to the hashtag #NotAllMen, an #inconsiderate & extremely #problematic #slogan that only serves to undermine fears that #women face everyday.
Saying ‘NotAllMen’ is just as bad & disrespectful as saying #AllLivesMatter last year in 2020. Saying that diminished the #BlackLivesMatter slogan with its specific ideas regarding the experiences of Black, Indigenous, and other People of Colour (BIPOC).
Ultimately, men must listen authentically & empathically to all of the women who are sharing their experiences right now.
Specifically, women need men to:
👂listen;
👀 understand the concept of “the male gaze,” which @wikipedia describes as being “... the act of depicting women and the world, in the visual arts & in literature, from a masculine, heterosexual perspective that presents and represents women as sexual objects for the pleasure of the heterosexual male viewer”;
🧠 understand how a look or a stare can come off as threatening because women can’t see inside men’s heads to understand where men are coming from, #thinking or #feeling; and
😨 understand the #fears they face daily on either an emotional, mental, physical or even sexual abuse (as well as any combination of the above).
Over the last year, I’ve used @Instagram as a forum to discuss:
💔 my lifelong battle with #depression, #suicidal #ideation & a horrible sense of feeling absolutely #unworthy;
😢how I have hated being an #empathic #INFJ-T, as I believed life would be easier if I just didn’t feel; and
✨how I’m trying to cultivate within myself #unconditional #compassion, #forgiveness, #gratitude, #love & #reverence for all life. To be more #mindful & #emotionally #aware.
👕 Ultimately, I know I need to do better. Yesterday, I wore a @youdecidewhoyouare shirt that said, “I’m not everything I want to be, but I’m better than I was, and I’m still learning.” Wouldn’t it be great if we could all strive for that?
This is post 74/365 in my #subverted #selfie project for 2021. The goal of this project is to be honest about my life.
This photo originally appeared on Instagram.
I included a copy of this image in my original Instagram post, which was posted on March 14, 2021 by the Choose Love Instagram page on their feed.
I also shared this, and I’m not certain where I found it, but it was written by Jackson Katz, who can also be found on Instagram.
#TOOMANYMEN
In March 2021, I started a highlight on my steveleeart Instagram feed, sharing other people’s TOO MANY MEN posts.
“Too Many Men” was a hashtag response to a trending hashtag in March 2021, “Not All Men.” Kayleigh Dray, writing for Stylist! Magazine, discussed the response to the “Not All Men” excuse, in her article called “Jameela Jamil just underlined the big problem with that “not all men” argument”.
Anna Matheson, in her March 2021 article for OK! Magazine, explains the TOO MANY MEN hashtag which had popped up at that time, in her article called “What is the #TooManyMen hashtag and why do women not feel safe?”
Bekah Legg, also spoke to the TOO MANY MEN response, for the Sorted Magazine, in her article called “#TOOMANYMEN”.