Most men felt threatened by laws that protect women: Survey

Ten students of a south Mumbai college set out to find out issues pertaining men—in the form of discrimination, harassment, awareness and identifying their concerns

Equal rights and opportunities in the society for all has been a topic of discussion for many years now but how much of this concern has been towards men? Taking note of this loophole, ten students of a south Mumbai college set out to find out issues pertaining men—in the form of discrimination, harassment, awareness and identifying their concerns.

To their surprise, these students found out that not only is there a lack of awareness in the society but also many misconceptions.

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“This survey in no way claims to be against feminism but instead, highlights the problem of sexism and the lack of awareness surrounding the same; the fact that men also face humiliation or harassment/discrimination but because of the social misconception of men being 'superior', many refrain from talking about it openly,” said Avkash Jadhav, a professor at St Xavier’s College, professor-in-charge of this project. He added that students chose this topic, an all girl group, who wanted to find out the loopholes surrounding this societal problem.

One of the first questions asked to respondents was a basic definition of sexism and while 63.30% agreed that it was bias against any gender, 24.70% thought that sexism was discrimination against women only.

The survey brought about mixed reactions from people from both genders—when asked if it is okay to humiliate men in public, 61.65% people agreed to it. The survey highlighted how 63.85% men felt threatened in the face of laws that are aimed at protecting women. 66.35% of the total people surveyed believed that women misuse many of these laws. Over 51% of the respondents also felt that had this been a matriarchal society, men would have been treated the same way and 37.35% respondents thought it was okay for a man to hit a woman if the woman hits too.

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