How often to you hear that men are horrible, sexist, entitled, misogynist, and generally the worst of the worst?
And men on the Internet? OMG, don’t even get me started, they are literally the cesspit of humanity spewing constant regressive hatred out of their tailpipes!
Well, I’m here to lighten your day a little and bring you some much needed hope in humanity. And maybe inspire you a little to broaden your horizon and see just how many very decent men there are.
A while back, I wrote a text about the Barbie movie and Ken’s story arc in it — how he starts off being super needy and constantly craving Barbie’s attention and validation, but at the end realises that she doesn’t owe it to him and he doesn’t need it. He learns to feel Kenough — enough without female validation.
More recently, I turned it into a video, too, check it out if you want — I even do a costume change. It’s my favourite pink crop top.
Well, it’s my only pink one. I’m still working on my crop top collection.
Now, I’m working on my social media presence and want to reach out to men where they are actually hanging out, so I set up an account on Reddit. Yes, Reddit. The cesspit of human hatred dominated by young boys and men who just love to revel in toxic discussions while sitting in their parents’ basements growing their neckbeards.
Or is it?
I started a discussion wondering what people actually thought about the film and Ken’s story arc. I simply asked how they liked it and frankly was expecting to get some heat and comments saying that the film was horrible feminist crap and it has nothing of value for men. You know, some Ben Shapiro level bs. But mostly I was just expecting that some people will pour shit on me but most will not even bother to look at such a pathetic topic.
Imagine my surprise when within 10h I got a frankly insane 2 million views, 5.5k upvotes, and 1.5k comments, with the post being at the top of the r/movies subreddit for hours now.
And the overwhelming majority of these comments are very positive! The top comment which got 4k upvotes so far, says:
I loved it. Especially as a dude who grew up thinking he was a loser for not having a gf in school. Would’ve loved something like this as a kid.
The next most popular comment (2k upvotes) says:
You could be a stereotypically male dude, and like stereotypical male things, and that’s fine. The important part, is whether you’re still staying true to who you are, and of course, not being sexist while doing so.
Wait, what?!
Wait, are these…? But didn’t you say…? What?!
You’re men, but you’re nice?
You dis sexism?
On Reddit?!
The world isn’t as bad as you think
If you want, please don’t hesitate to check out the whole thread and the responses there. I didn’t cherry-pick the good ones. It is literally full of men saying the most amazingly kind, self-reflective, wholesome things ever, of guys saying super kind and supportive things when someone says they’re struggling with self-worth, of bringing up toxic male tropes just to say how ridiculous and pointless they are…
It is honestly heartwarming.
Sure, there were some few people making more toxic comments, but they got massively downvoted and received a whole load of replies telling them to abandon their regressive views.
The men of Reddit have absolutely exceeded my expectations and passed this one with a glowing sparkling A+++.
Reading this thread brings back my faith in men and in humanity. And if you are one of those people here who are submerged in the constant Men-Are-Horrible discussions, I cannot recommend it enough that you go to Reddit right now and read this thread, because it might just be the healthy detox you need.
