nomorewaterthefirenexttime:

If you’re at a pool, and there’s some kids running, and the life guard shouts “No running!” do you interject with “EXCUSE ME, NOT ALL OF US WERE RUNNING.”

If you’re in class, and a classmate is eating, and your professor addresses his students, “There’s no eating in the classroom,” do you scream out “EXCUSE ME, BUT WE’RE NOT ALL EATING.”

The lifeguard and your professor are well aware who is doing what. There is no reason for them to modify their sentences because they realize you’re aware of who is doing what, too. They have enough faith in your intelligence that if they say, no running, or, no eating, you will recognize that if you are not already doing these things, you are in the clear.

When someone begins a post, “why do men do x,” they are not saying that every single man in this world wakes up and makes it a point to do x for the day, every day of his life. Nobody ever, ever thinks that. They exist around men and observe men on a regular enough basis to know that obviously not all men do x.

No. They are saying that they have witnessed men doing x enough that they would like to point it out. They are saying that in the whole group of men, there are men who do x, and they think it’s worth noting.

So there’s no reason to go “NOT ALL MEN” because everyone already knows not all men, and that’s why nobody said “all men.” They just said men. If you’re not the man it applies to, move the fuck on, just like you’d keep walking at a swimming pool or keep not eating in class.

If the words “some men” are keeping you from recognizing a post with very valid points, you’re the problem.