When I’m around the men in my family/friend group, they tend to make little sexist remarks that make me feel small as if I as a girl/woman don’t matter. I would give them credit for being gentlemen tho. They don’t sexualize, slut shame anyone. They also respect women’s privacy, put women first and all text book stuff gentlemen.
But when they say, women whine a lot, all they do is gossip, basically, they believe most things we spend our time/effort on are unnecessary and worthless…I feel the gentlemanly nature they show is just for themselves to feel their manhood, feel like they actually did something with the manliness that they were given. At the end of the day, they don’t care about my opinions, likes dislikes.
But when I’m around women, family or friends(mostly friends), I feel safe, I don’t feel a need to show them I’m brave. I’ll say I’m scared and they’ll say they’re scared too. They won’t ridicule my gender for being scared. I’ll put effort in my looks and they won’t complain about the time I took for getting ready. They’ll only compliment or add to it because they know getting ready is a ritual, sometimes it’s far more important than the event itself. Around right women I feel heard, understood, seen.
Of course I like hanging out with my brothers and cousins and uncles. But without my sisters and friends, I’d be nothing.