Do men need a license to be allowed socialise (MOD NOTE IN OP)

I think what people are genuinely missing here is that when someone makes a negative statement and applies it to a demographic - any demographic at all - that, by all modern metrics and certainly by the standards of the kinds of activists who are currently making such statements about "men", qualifies as hate speech. And the vast majority of us have grown up in a world in which we were (rightly) raised to believe that any hate speech - any generalising, any sweeping statements about this or that demographic, any negative sentiment whatsoever towards people because of which demographic group they belong to - is socially unacceptable and wrong. 

The reason men are angry about the word "men" being used as a pejorative without the word "some" before it is because this is literally how we were raised to view the world. And it has been, in a large part, feminists who have pushed for this over time - "women are not a hivemind", "you cannot hold all women accountable for the actions of the bad ones", etc etc etc.

I for one agree entirely with the latter - as I say, it's how I was raised to view the world, in a gender-blind, colour-blind fashion wherein any statement that makes literally any assumption or ascribed any adjective whatsoever to "X group of humans" without qualifying that I don't mean everyone in that group because they are all individuals, a bigoted, hateful statement which is socially unacceptable and which mainstream, "polite" society will rip me to shreds for. Which it does. Rightly.

People like myself are simply angry that, for much of the last decade, the demographic of "male" or "man" is somehow exempt from such social rules around hate speech. That's it. Nothing more, nothing less. That's what it's about and that's why people are angry about it. Rightly.

Hate speech against me and people like me has become socially acceptable in mainstream media and society, where it remains unacceptable towards any other demographic checkbox.

That is a double standard - and there is no such thing as a justified or acceptable double standard. You either believe in human egalitarianism or you don't. Hold everyone to the same standard, or you're a bigot. It's that simple.

It really isn’t. It’s not one bit necessary to waste your time being afraid of something that will never, ever, happen.

I haven't read through most of this so I may be repeating what other's have said....

One thing men can do, and society in general, is to make it socially unacceptable for men/boys/groups of teenagers to jeer / shout/ comment/ even compliment women when they're out for a walk or run or just going about their day. There'll always be that tiny percentage that are liable to sporadic violence, and unfortunately there's not a whole lot we can do about that but if we can at least put an end to cat calling and the likes in public then that would make it a more pleasant for women on their own.

You know exactly what I mean. A woman walking down the street and a man says "Looking gorgeous today", and that's the most pleasant version of it. It's unwanted, that often makes people feel uncomfortable. Ask any woman about their experiences going for a run and they'll have had beeps from cars, comments about their arse, looks etc.. This stuff needs to stop. When I was a teenager and we were in groups, often someone in the group would shout something at a girl or woman, and we'd all laugh - that's what needs to be made unacceptable

Some of the media stuff is tiring alright but what else do we have to deal with?

There's an ad at the moment, showing a woman out running and encountering differing scenarios, all of which are unwelcome and uncomfortable.

If someone is having a crap day, you don't want to be told, smile, it will never happen, that type of nonsense. You dont know what's going on in that persons life, they could have just lost someone due to COVID, lost their job and yet here is this pain in the hole expecting a smile because he's not happy with your face.

Another man put it very well on another thread, an excellent post, a man would never say these type of things to another man so why think you can say them to a woman.

If you get off twitter and boards then you can be oblivious to 90% of that - in going about your day to day life, men do have it easier in my opinion.

Ironically if a man is convicted of murder here, he will be receiving bundles of fan mail and marriage proposals from women, killers like Ian Huntly and Graham Dwyer being examples , so to keep in tune with the thread of irrational grouping and stereotyping, do women need to do better? , #notall obviously

Not having to deal with **** being shouted at you when out for a run for one. Not getting groped etc. in nightclubs and pubs. Every woman goes through that stuff. And I know it's only a small amount of men that do it but we can do more to reduce. I was in groups when I was late teens early 20s where there would be one or two lads that would push it too far, but we never said anything. That can be changed.

I agree that Ireland is not unsafe and I was pissed off with that narrative too, but speaking to my partner and listening to other women - it's the feeling of being unsafe that's the issue. And whilst serious random attacks are rare, jeering and people shouting comments is what causes this feeling of being unsafe - rather than it being backed up by data

Not everyone wants unwarranted attention of strangers. I'd imagine to a woman it'd be intimidating if one of a group of men makes a passing comment. Jesus, my spidey sense goes off if someone makes a passing comment to me on the street, especially if there's a group.

It's not hard to mind your own business.

It'd swing the other way too. I've been accosted several times by hen parties and ultimately felt violated. There'd hardly be a law passed to only suit one section of society, it'd be a general catch all regardless of gender or identity.