Originally a comment by maddog on You’ve never been.

… because you’ve never been denied any area of expression, there’s a lot women take for granted. You’re not punished every time you act in a way that is feminine. You don’t know what it’s like to be forced into a lot of toxic male social dynamics that feel terrifying. You don’t know what it’s like to feel your brain malfunctioning on testosterone.

What a liar.

Women “have never been denied any area of expression”? In what world? Women have for centuries been, and continue to be, denied almost every form of expression until relatively recently, and then only partially permitted, and only in modern Western democratic countries. Women in Afghanistan aren’t even permitted to speak in public, and not even in their own homes if someone outside could imaginably hear their voices. Women take what for granted, now? On account of “never [having] been denied any area of expression?

Women are “not punished every time you act in a way that is feminine”? Are you kidding me? The stereotypes of femininity imposed on women because of their sex are the punishment for having the audacity to be born female. That’s precisely why many women rebel against “act[ing] in a way that is feminine.”. Of course, women are also punished for not acting in a way that is feminine. The stereotypes of femininity are designed to oppress and to punish women. Submissiveness, subordination, relegation to unpaid domestic labor, and the like are promoted as proper standards of femininity because these qualities keep women powerless. Women’s fashions are created — largely by men — to keep women vulnerable. Women’s shoes? Modern footbinding. A woman couldn’t run in those shoes to save her life. Skirts for women but not men? Gives men much easier access to women’s private areas for humiliation or rape. Tight skirts, like pencil skirts, aren’t as easy for men to penetrate, but they restrict women’s natural stride. Again, women couldn’t run to save their lives if they had to. Women’s clothes deliberately designed without pockets? Burdens women with an auxiliary appendage (purse) subject to easy loss or theft, rather than allowing women to keep their valuables on their person and hands-free, unlike men. Women being forced to “act in a way that is feminine” is the punishment. Don’t tell me that women don’t know this and don’t feel this.

Women “don’t know what it’s like to be forced into a lot of toxic male social dynamics that feel terrifying”? As if women don’t see those social dynamics up close and personal? As if women don’t suffer the consequences of ” toxic male social dynamics”? As if the “toxicity” of male social dynamics isn’t comprised of misogyny? As if women aren’t terrified of and terrorized by “toxic male social dynamics”?

There may be a point that women “don’t know what it’s like to feel your brain malfunctioning on testosterone,” but that’s pretty rich coming from a man. Women are commonly accused of being crazy, or “having their brains malfunction” from estrogen. That’s why women are called ” hysterical”; this supposed illness is used as a bludgeon against women to dismiss what women say, to ignore what women feel, to overlook women’s concerns, to keep women oppressed. Now you want to claim ” testosterone brain poisoning” as an excuse for male behaviors, as a reason not to hold men accountable for their testosterone-influenced actions. “Crazy hormones” is deployed against women, but proffered as a mitigating factor in favor of men. Classic double standard, that.

TL;DR: You lie. There’s a lot you “take for granted” that you don’t know about what women really experience.