Responding directly to the person in the comic
I hear you when you say that as a woman, you feel societal expectations of you can be harsh and contradictory.
There isn’t a way for me to experience the same things that you experience, but I can try to empathise with your experiences by comparing them with my own, and noting times when I have felt the same way. This means that I have to compare my experiences with yours. It isn’t done from a place of contest, but from trying to relate.
Cmon. It’s a straw man argument and the comic is intended to be polaeisiing.
Both sets of issues can coexist, and I strongly suspect that many issues have a common root.
The person you’re arguing with is called crocodile munted and the flag next to their name is Australian.
There is a slim chance they’re not able to vote in the us elections
I’m not sure if you’ve picked it up so to clearly spell it out: irritating other people for the simple pleasure of watching them becoming more irritated is a national sport in Australia.
Aka inconsiderate people
Wore a maroon coloured hoodie
The dude who asked me this also stared fixedly at the crotch of my board shorts and asked me “where’s your package, man?” upon me exiting climbing out of a (cold) plunge pool
I clearly looked confused, so he says “where’s your piece?”
Dude clearly spent a fair amount of his time cataloguing the outlines of flaccid penises through boardshorts for whatever fucking reason.
I was offended, ish, till I heard the growers vs show-ers thing. Mine retracts while not in use, it’s quite convenient.
Oh one more. Contagion. Made years and years before covid - pretty spot on tho.
Simultaneously made me want to try, and to never ever try, drugs
Once were warriors
If you’re employed, there is a compulsory contribution of 10% of your pay which goes into superannuation (retirement savings)
You can also do voluntary contributions which you get a tax benefit on.
The compounded growth over time and the enforced nature of the savings means that every person who works contributes to their own retirement.
Some companies match voluntary contributions up to a threshold. And you get a tax benefit from it.
Because it’s compulsory, it isn’t really considered part of your remuneration. Companies will talk about total rem but most employees talk about base pay.
Only issue is massive superannuation providers with a huge amount of market clout. But you can be very prescriptive, or you can set up your own super fund.
Boring yes but easier to see, involved in proportionally fewer accidents, surface scratches are harder to see, remains cooler when parked outside, much easier to resell, always available, doesn’t attract attention, and the base white is normally cheaper…
I completely get it for a lease car. It’s a work vehicle, not a passion project.
Superannuation
Minimum 10% compulsory
Panic attack (I hope)
It’s awful
Sometimes the base level of aggression or the base level of inflection is way higher than what you’re locally tuned for.
Anecdotally I have found even business conversations with people from the US to be over the top. Especially through the sales cycle. There is a lot of hype that I need to adjust for in comparison to vendors in the UK, Europe and Asia.
It’s not a bad thing, it’s a social standard. I probably appear quiet reserved and shy by comparison.
I was young and naive, even a couple years later I would’ve done a bit of digging. You know, questions like what’s his name, how long you guys been going out for, shouldn’t he be here with you in your moment of need given your fucking dog is dead.
Mate I’ve had some cracker first dates that didn’t work out in the long run but were absolutely part of the tapestry which got me to here.
The number of good first dates far outweighs the weird and shitty ones.
Some of my most treasured experiences are those quiet intimate moments just between two of you. An experience that just the two of you share. It is profound.
We are our experiences.
Asked a girl out on a date. She invited me over to watch a movie with her at her parents house (we were in our late teens). I arrived; her recently deceased family dog and incredibly distressed mother were both in the kitchen. Dog was a really big golden retriever that had been euthanized, and the mom had bought him home? Not sure why? Maybe to bury in the back yard or something? Idk
Anyway I offered to leave but she was insistent that we watch the movie together, which we did, on the couch, with her mom crying in the next room. Halfway through the movie the mom screams he’s still alive, he’s still alive. Go into the kitchen, she’d gone to move the body and it had expelled air and made some noise. I had to explain, with my best year 12 biology, what had happened. Five minutes of this woman losing her shit with grief out of her beloved companion dying.
Girl insisted we watch the last 10 minutes of the movie, it finishes with us watching in silence, I get up to leave and said something stupid like hey I’d love to do this again sometime and she says “I have a boyfriend”
I’m like alright well that’s that then and didn’t put in any more effort. Stupid me, she was hot and I really liked her. Being a dipshit I wrote a song about it, using the three guitar chords I knew, which takes me to act ii…
…five years later, I’m at a party, exchanging worst first date stories with friends and fellow partygoers including a cute blonde. I wait my turn, tell the story, she laughs her arse off and then goads me into singing the song, accompanying myself poorly on the guitar. I absolutely fucking nail it, everyone is in stitches, sit down next to her and the night goes from there. We end up leaving the party for a walk down to the local beach, made out on the beach, things get frisky, jump in a cab back to my house, in bed together, have drunken sex…which results in a broken condom. She lives literally the other side of town so we have to wait till (a) I’m sober enough to drive and (b) pharmacy is open to get a plan b, then have the most awkward drive back to her house. Get there, offer to walk her to the door, she says no, kisses me goodbye in the car, then texts me…to say she has a boyfriend.
Tricky, theirs is a cover version, so the original would still exist.
There’s a movie about that scenario with the Beatles. Called yesterday.
Wooosh
What do you personally see as male problems? Without googling - just off the top of your head. Im intrigued as to what gets broadcast.
Off the top of my head for women - safety (both physical and psychological), financial independence, equality of opportunity, disparate domestic and emotional load, sexual objectification, gender pay disparity (overall), representation.
I won’t say reproductive rights because I don’t live in the US, and while body image is a problem, I think its also impacting a lot of young men too.