Men-Centered Women: How Much Is Too Much to Tolerate?

Back from a night out, and I can’t sleep. I found myself googling, “Are there women-centered men?” because the sheer volume of men-centered women living among us is quite alarming. A phenomenon now called androcentrism. But how did we actually get here? How did we reach a point where a woman’s presence in public isn’t defined by her own comfort or existence, but by how she is perceived by the men around her? It’s a strange, hollow way to live. It’s the difference between wearing a dress because you love the feel against your skin and wearing it because you’re estimating the number of heads that will turn when you walk into a room. One is an act of self-possession; the other is a performance for an audience that doesn’t even have to pay for a ticket. We’ve reached a level of internalized misogyny that is so deeply baked into us (women) that we don’t even recognize it as a cage anymore. It’s the woman who can’t enjoy her drink unless she’s being watched. It’s the constant, frantic…