I just started noticing lately that so many people unintentionally assume women can’t do anything. For example, I’ve seen people applaud a girl after she dropped her motorcycle and picked it back up, as if they were amazed by it. I swear to God, people just straight up think that women are incapable of doing basic stuff. What’s wild is that I’ve met quite a few women who actually enjoy this. It’s so goofy because they are literally being viewed as less capable, yet they are happy about it. Then, you get criticized just because you didn’t treat them like they were less. I’m a dude, but damn, this situation kinda vexes me. I mean sure, enjoy chivalry if you want, but getting shit on for not assuming you’re less capable is so annoying. It’s not even that I don’t want to help, I mean I don’t mind helping, if it’s needed but like god damn, I can’t read minds.
I’ve seen this too and I’ve also caught myself making assumptions of incompetence for women and girls that I would not make for equivalent men and boys. We are programmed into this mode of thought by society and the conditioning goes deep. Viewed rationally, my mom is one of the most generally competent people on this planet, but even living with that example in my life did not prevent the culture from creating the pattern of assumptions in my head. I think the only thing an individual can do is be self critical and try to catch these patterns in their heads before they turn into misogynistic actions, because on some level I think that once the mode of thought itself is planted it’s never going to get changed.