In which @egg_ theorises about why so many men behave abominably towards women (see @Jill Hives and @riath 's posts in the "Your work situation" thread)
Basically in my experience of country pub situations, men's disrespect towards women has nothing to do with individual women at all. The men's audience is other men - essentially the pub is the stage on which they perform for each other. Individual women, and "women" in the abstract, are pantomime villains, and the men in a group gain status in the group by scoring points against the villain
I really don't think this has anything to do with sexual frustration among the men - I know a handful of as-far-as-I-can-tell happily-married men who play this game to some degree.
I also think it's a factor in why some of these men go off the rails - they know that the people they're disrespecting are real human beings, not pantomime villains, and they're ashamed of the way they carry on. Their selves in the game aren't their authentic selves, but the game is the backbone of their day-to-day social interactions, and they don't know how to stop playing
Anyway, there yiz go. tl;dr - all the world's a stage
Basically in my experience of country pub situations, men's disrespect towards women has nothing to do with individual women at all. The men's audience is other men - essentially the pub is the stage on which they perform for each other. Individual women, and "women" in the abstract, are pantomime villains, and the men in a group gain status in the group by scoring points against the villain
I really don't think this has anything to do with sexual frustration among the men - I know a handful of as-far-as-I-can-tell happily-married men who play this game to some degree.
I also think it's a factor in why some of these men go off the rails - they know that the people they're disrespecting are real human beings, not pantomime villains, and they're ashamed of the way they carry on. Their selves in the game aren't their authentic selves, but the game is the backbone of their day-to-day social interactions, and they don't know how to stop playing
Anyway, there yiz go. tl;dr - all the world's a stage