If you are a woman of any kind, chances are you’ve had your fair share of run-ins with toxic men. You know the kind: Arrogant, belittling, misogynistic, and entitled. These men often act as if you owe them something and treat you differently because of your gender – ugh! Anytime these men get put their place is a great day. If you’re feeling frustrated by these men, then you’ve come to the right place. These are 20 times that women clapped back at toxic men and it is oh-so-satisfying.
20 Times Women Put Toxic Men In Their Place
Tired of the men constantly sliding into your DMs or giving you unsolicited advice at work, the gym, or elsewhere? Let these women’s comebacks to toxic men inspire you for your next interaction like this. Ladies, it’s time we start putting these unfortunate examples of men in their place.
1. A New Way To Say No To Nudes
Raise your hand if you’ve been asked to send nudes to someone who you were not dating and who you most definitely don’t want to send nudes to. I wager that the majority of women reading this article have been asked this question. Whether by someone they know or a random creepy dude on Instagram, we’ve all been there. Saying no often doesn’t cut it – take this as your inspiration to get creative and also make him feel almost as frustrated as you.
2. Yes All Women, Not All Sharks
How crazy is this statistic? The sad reality is women should be cautious around men. Of course, not all men are rapists or simply gross creepy dudes who say degrading things to women in the street. The problem is that a lot of them are and you don’t necessarily know until it’s too late. If you know any men who are offended by women being cautious or fearful of them, show them this statistic. It’s hard to argue with numbers.
3. Mike From Physics: We’re Not Here For You
I don’t know about you, but I don’t know very many women who take on a mountain of debt and put four or more years into post-secondary education to get guys to notice them. Mike from physics clearly needs a reality check.
4. Grandma’s Taking Out The Trash
You’ve got to love it when the older generation has your back when it comes to toxic men. This woman’s grandmother knew exactly where her ex belonged – in the garbage bin! We all need this person in our lives who will pick us up, pat us on the back, and say “don’t worry – I’ll take care of this for you”.
5. Toxic Men: Stop Asking Us To Smile
Getting asked to smile is one of the most infuriating parts of the female experience. We don’t care if you think we’d look prettier if we smiled – we’ll smile if we want to. Another great response to this question is: “Why?”
6. Explain Yourself Please
When someone says something misogynistic or sexist to you, one of the best things you can do is ask them to explain themselves. Watching them get tongue-tied and frustrated because they don’t want to admit that what they did or said wasn’t okay is the best.
7. Super Speed Weight Loss
8. Education > Boyfriends
Ladies: Never give up your dreams just because a man (or anyone) belittles you for them. Anyone who degrades you or drops you for working hard and going after your goals is not someone you need in your life. Your life is far too valuable.
9. Not An Anxiety Disorder
The people we spend the most time with have a big impact on our mental health and well-being. Their impact isn’t always positive. These people we should just cut loose – life’s too short and toxic men aren’t worth it.
10. Catfishing With A Cause
The FBI should probably hire this girl for the sacrifices she is making for her country. I guess this is a great way to take advantage of the overly confident toxic men who we often run into in online dating situations. Normally catfishing is with looks, but this is on another level.
11. Not All Men
Toxic Men: Take notes. This is how you support your partner when she needs you! That’s right – not all men are terrible. This literal lizard, however, is better than the host of toxic men out there preying on women everywhere.
12. Boys Will Not Be Boys
This idea that boys just have this unspoken permission to say or do things to girls and women is, frankly, disgusting. This is an excellent example of how a male feminist can respond to all forms of sexism – casual or overt. Instead of excusing poor male behavior, let’s start calling it out – the early, the better.
13. A Real Happy-Ever-After
All of these classic Disney Princess movies focus on how the secret to a happily-ever-after is getting with a man. This girl is pointing out something that most of us have found crazy since the beginning: How on Earth could the prince only recognize Cinderella by her shoe, and not her face, voice, or really any other aspect of who she was? Truthfully, it’s rather absurd. A better ending to the film would have been if she had just politely declined the offer and moved away with all of her animal friends. After all, they supported her long before the Prince came along.
14. The Clothes Aren’t The Problem
One of the first things people ask when a woman is sexually assaulted is “what was she wearing?”. Any woman can tell you that the clothes she wears does not have much of an impact on the amount of harassment she receives while out. This person (another great example of male feminism in action) makes a very excellent point. Clearly, the problem isn’t what the girls are wearing. The problem is that these toxic men don’t know how to be respectful and, well, not terrible.
15. Less Sex Shaming More Rape Shaming
Odd how quick toxic men (and toxic women, too!) are to call a woman a “slut” for her sexual activity but how silent they are when they or someone they know sexually assaults a woman. This ladies and gentlemen is toxic masculinity at its finest.
16. Stop Making Excuses For Boys And Men
Society for a long time has made excuses for men, starting from the time they are just little boys. It doesn’t matter how “immature” boys are – it doesn’t mean bad behavior should go unaccounted for. Image if the script was flipped the way this tweet shows. We might just finally have a generation where the majority of the men respect women and see them as equals.
17. Oh The Hypocracy
Talk about a double standard. Clearly, this dude is just upset because he wants to date but can’t get one. Rather than blame himself for not being able to get a date (which is likely more due to his personality than anything else), he’s chosen to blame women. Hmmm… this guy definitely needs a wake-up call.
18. Proof That The Male Threat Is Real
This guy has hit the nail on the head: Women often have fear of men and therefore are more cautious when becoming friends with straight men. This is in part due to the threat of male violence, of course. It is also from the inherent pressure that can often come along with male-female friendships. Women are nervous about giving their male friend the wrong impression or that the friend will at some point want something more. Then they have to go through the awkward and difficult experience of turning them down and potentially losing that friendship. With girls and gay men, it is simply less complicated.
19. What Even Are “Daddy Issues”?
It’s amazing how toxic men can turn something that other toxic men have done or caused into something bad about women. Women who had bad fathers are not to blame for the psychological damage that caused them. Single moms are not to be shamed because someone else didn’t want to take up their part of the responsibility. Let’s start putting the blame on who it belongs.
20. It’s Time To Share The Responsability
Teenage pregnancy is often a complicated issue. One of the biggest problems, however, is that it is almost always the girl who is shamed and looked down upon, where the boy (or, as this tweet points out, man) receives none of this. Naturally, part of this challenge is because the girls can’t hide what happened. Whatever decision she makes about that pregnancy she has to go through the physical aspects of that. As a society, we need to stop shaming teen moms and instead start asking ourselves what can we do better to ensure that this doesn’t happen. It starts with education for both girls and boys.
Women have put up with misogyny, societal, and system sexism for far too long. It’s time we start calling it out when we see it and putting an end to these archaic ideas and problems.
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