No, Men Are Not Trash

“Yoruba men are demons”

“Short people have an inferiority complex”

“Feminists don’t make good wives”

“Ijebu people are stingy”

“Northerners are dirty”

“Whites hate Blacks”

…and now “Men are scum/trash”

All of the above statements are only a few of the popular generalizations many of us are familiar with. They probably started as a product of one person’s personal experience(s), but have somehow gained traction and have now sadly become a fundamental part of our thinking. They are stereotypes which like many other fixed notions discourage an independent assessment of a situation.

Over the last couple of months, the #MenAreScum has become a regular hashtag on the streets of Twitter. It started as some sort of curious joke – A typical social media reaction to the endless tales of how men continue to “play” and mistreat women especially in romantic relationships. However, things escalated quickly, and what started as a joke has morphed into a man hating campaign.