There's a Legitimate Reason Why Men Are Angry, Too. It's Time We Stop Denying It.

"American men are angry right now. American men are frustrated: with women, with feminism, with social justice, with politics, with seemingly everything. We all feel it on some level. Whether it's online or on a political podium, their anger is raw, visceral, and everywhere. They smell something awful and hypocritical in the world but have yet to find the carcass. They know something is wrong; they just can't quite locate it."

"Instead of helping them place their anger, I'm afraid we've denied that there's a stench in the first place. We've told men, en masse, that the anger they feel is from nothing. Is illegitimate. That there is, in fact, no cause. That the stench they think they're smelling is all in their heads. In spite of how much we protest when they gaslight us, I'm afraid we've chosen to gaslight the living hell out of them."

American men express widespread anger and frustration directed at women, feminism, social justice, politics, and broader cultural shifts. Their anger often feels raw and visceral but lacks specific articulation or clear targets. Many people respond by dismissing or invalidating that anger, telling men it has no legitimate cause and thereby gaslighting them. The dismissal echoes historical patterns in which women's diffuse dissatisfaction was ignored, exemplified by Betty Friedan's description of 'the problem that has no name.' Recognizing and translating diffuse male grievance into specific, addressable causes could prevent further alienation and escalation.

Read at Slate Magazine