I once knew a girl who shaved her head bald. Her default response to "Does the carpet match the drapes?" was "That depends, is my head bleeding?"
My job includes doing a lot of events on college campuses, so I see a lot of t-shirts for classic rock bands. I see a Dark Side of the Moon shirt at nearly every event. I'm a huge lifelong musician and music lover, so I often ask if they've listened to that album. If they have, we have a nice discussion about Pink Floyd. If not, I encourage them to give it a listen, because it is an album that has literally changed people's lives.
One girl told me she hadn't heard it, but her GRANDMOTHER told her it was the greatest album ever made. First of all: Grandmother? That hurt. Secondly, I told her grandma may be right, go listen to that album.
Recently, someone was wearing an Abby Road shirt, so I asked. They turned out to be a huge Beatles fan, and we had a nice conversation about it.
OTOH, one girl had on a Kiss shirt, so I asked her, and she didn't even know that Kiss was a band. She just liked the shirt.
Not everyone asking is looking to start an argument. Often we are just older music fans who are thrilled to see young people embracing the great rock music of the classic era, and want to talk to them about it. Engage those older music lovers, they may be able to tell you about other albums or artists you might like, or tell cool stories about shows they've been to. In my case, I worked for many years on the record biz, and have lots of stories of personal meetings and backstage experiences with truly legendary musicians. Young music lovers enjoy my stories, but if you responded with "name 5 women who trust you," I'd just write you off as a defensive, confrontational jerk, and ignore you. No fun stories for you.
This is lovely and wholesome, but you're not the type of person the post is about.
Edit: sorry I just realised my comment was kinda glib, so let me elaborate. You didn't specify but I assumed you approached those women with a friendly air, having a genuine desire to have a conversation with them as equals, and said something like "oh I love that album, have you listened to it?" Putting yourself in their shoes, compare that to a guy who approaches them aggressively, having a deep seated resentment for all women, and lashes out with "pretending you like that band huh? Prove it then, name 5 of their songs!"
Thank you for a common sense response to my post. The problem is that ALL standard-issue white boomer men like me have become the enemy, and we all take the blame for assholes who would behave poorly no matter what their sex, age, race, etc.
I have become somewhat activist about sweeping generalizations about people. It isn't right when MAGA Nazis disparage undocumented immigrants as a whole, and it isn't right when young people or women, etc. disparage older white men as a whole. Most of us are decent reasonable people, it's just that the jerks are far louder, so they get the attention.
As a standard-issue white boomer man we should be mad at the assholes for being assholes and not the people who want to avoid the assholes.
Those assholes make us look bad, and there's not really anything we can do but speak up if and when we see it.
This was disappointing to read. This post was talking about a specific type of person that was not you, it was not about "how all older white men are the enemy," and you took it personally. When someone gently told you that you weren't being targeted, you doubled down and got even more defensive.
I'm sorry, but no one was making sweeping generalizations. We're talking about a very specific situation that was never stated to be all men.
I don't understand how your feelings are hurt by a post that had nothing at all to do with you. Judging from your comment, you were never one of the bad ones this post was calling out. It'll be okay. And there may be other situations where it makes sense to talk about blanket distrust of men that might make life harder for genuinely good guys, though it's not relevant in this post specifically.
But do you understand how offensive it comes off to equate MAGA Nazis on the same level as mens' feelings being hurt? The rule of law is being ignored, people are being disappeared, we're moving closer to Gilead, and the Lemkin Institute issued a genocide warning regarding MAGA blood libel and trans people. How are hurt feelings in any way comparable?
I wish we could have one post in a woman-centric community sharing difficult situations without one of the good men lashing out because they felt personally attacked.
I think the German saying „Der Ton macht die Musik.“ fits very well here. There is a massive difference between you bringing it up as an conversation starter and an incel jerk using it as a challenge.
The comments on this post are examples why there are so few women on Lemmy lol.
Yep
I'm so disappointed by these comments. It is a very specific situation, why do they all take this so personally and think it is an attack against all men?
These comments remind me very much of the bear vs men "debate"
It's a vicious cycle.
It's a big reaso why !WomensStuff@lazysoci.al is women only, the misogynistic types can't come in and troll us. And they HATE that
Nice notion, but won't work.
Those people will happily list every women they know, however distant.
Many men don't even have a concept for this kind of "trust".
This sounds like a US thing.
People just don't go to other people saying some random shit where I'm from. Unless they're crazy, beggars, or tourists from the US. If you come to anorher person and don't start your sentence with "excuse me" or "sorry", you're getting ignored.
I live in fear of this type of person, especially as someone who listens to metal which tends to be male-dominated. I'm an album person and I'm not always checking the table of contents when I listen. There are bands I've been a fan of for over a decade that I don't have five songs memorized for. I love these bands and I don't think I'm fake for liking them or wearing a shirt.
Just remember you don't have to prove yourself to anyone. People that gate-keep like this aren't worth your time anyways.
"name five of their songs" questions person A's (the one wearing the band t-shirt) knowledge of the band.
"name five women who trust you" questions person B's (the one who asked the 1st question) relationships with women in their life.
therefore "name five women who trust you" is much more loaded than "name five of their songs", making it a response that is, perhaps, too rude and unnecessary. although, assuming person B asked person A to name the songs unprompted (this is probably what usually happens), this could be an appropriate counter-question as sometimes a ruder response is necessary when dealing with annoying people.
People who have only just met me typically ask if I have kids (even though they rarely ask my husband the same question). And when I say that I don't, 80% of those people think that "Why not?" is an appropriate follow-up. And about half of them will go on about how having kids is great and I should really do it and that someday I'll change my mind.
Now, I made a choice not to have kids. It's not a difficult subject for me, even though it's annoying to have strangers insinuate that I don't know myself well enough to make that decision. But I have several loved ones who have suffered miscarriages and fertility issues, and I know that they feel really uncomfortable answering that question.
So right around the time I turned 35, my standard response became, " You know, when a woman gets to be a certain age and she doesn't have kids, there's usually a reason, and she usually doesn't want to discuss it with strangers."
That usually stops those people in their tracks. And I hope it has stopped at least one of them from asking a really invasive question to a person who's overly sensitive about the fact that they can't have kids.
All that to say that humoring someone and naming the five songs (or saying that you can't) out of politeness just reiterates that they were correct to act as a gatekeeper. Pointing out how rude the question is might actually change their behavior in the future.
Its always fucking unprompted
I had it happen once with Eluveitie. Fuck me for not remembering song names in ancient Gaulish I guess.
Suddenly realizing how many women I knew have come out as non-binary "Uhhh, uhhh... Well my wife? Wait, no, um, my friend? No, they're not- uh,"
"I have not made any attempt to memorize song names"
"I don't want to share names of family and friends"
If I was asked to give names, I would strongly consider listing names from Mambo No. 5. While humming the tune to remember the names.
My sister was wearing a Harry Potter shirt and, in a grocery store, got confronted by some random girl that got super excited about it, and she showed my sister her tattoo of the Deathly Hallows. My sister had no idea what it was cause she never read the books and didn't finish the movies, but she enjoys the shirt cause our mom loves the Harry Potter universe. The girl got all sorts of upset and threw some judgy looks at her. My sister doesn't wear the shirt anymore.
Post just reminded me of that story, not trying to make a point or anything, just want to join in on the discussion.
Inb4 anti-JK Rowling commentary, you'd be preaching to the choir.
People who wear band shirts, does this actually happen?
Nope. Every once in a long while someone will say "Nice shirt!".
I've listened to Vital Remains' Let Us Pray once every couple weeks for the past 15 years and can't name one song off of the album. I can play the guitar parts along to it, half the time I can't even remember the name of the band. This is not vital info to my brain.
I would suggest telling them to go fuck themselves and moving on.
Bold of you to assume I associate with 5 people!
