Just because I'm a man doesn't mean I swagger down the street at night acting like no harm can befall me

I'm just as fucking scared as the rest of y'all.

I hate when people say that because I'm a guy I'll "never know" what it's like to walk down the street at night in fear. To me that's just the most idiotic thing - just about EVERYONE has that fear to some degree. It's just my fear is about dying or ending up in the hospital while women's fears are more likely to be about sexual assault. That's all.

I'm not a fighter by any means. I'm not trained, qualified, or confident in my ability to fight off someone who is being violent for whatever reason. Me being a man doesn't mean I'm imbued with crazy hulk-strength automatically, much less know how to use it.

So yeah, I walk down the street at night clutching the knife I carry with me, or my phone unlocked and on the call screen. Stop acting like men never know this fear because they are men. It's unempathetic and makes you look like you struggle to care about other people.

Edit: this is NOT a discussion about one side being worse or not. This isn't saying what men experience is often equal to women, just that it's shared. Be civil in the comments, please. All I'm saying is that guys don't live in a bubble of protection and I've been told that we do. Someone said it well - we just don't want to be written off as a footnote because we can be vulnerable TOO. Also, of course things are different if you're a guy or a girl, I don't deny that. I don't want to dismiss any fears that women have. It's just invalidating to portray guys as having nothing to fear, or holding them to a standard that makes them seem pathetic if they have fears.

submitted by /u/throwra_047esh to r/unpopularopinion
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