This is not a brag, and if you think that I’m saying this for show then I can only refer you to my closest friends and agree to a stress test. If I wanted to brag, I could name something better than this.

There is something about misogyny in particular that provokes intense feelings in me. My fingers tighten up, I clench my teeth, my respiration changes, and just hearing a slur can produce a tic in me. Sometimes I’ll sweat, and occasionally my nose will leak, too. (These all happened when I was arguing with a trans‐exclusionist on Fedbook years ago.)

I was tempted to write about this months ago when I was playing Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, because nearly every male character in that game is a misogynist. I haven’t thought about it much since then, but as I resumed reading Building the New Man tonight, this quotation of Nicola Pende jumped out at me:

‘And above all the so-called professions of the needle that include cutters, seamstresses, lace workers, milliners, doll dressers, and workers with artificial flowers and feathers. Here is the real and narrow field of female work, where women can reign sovereign and be truly in their right place.’

It isn’t even one of the worst examples that I’ve read, and I was already visibly tensing up and my hands were jittering while they were clasped together.

I guess that as long as I don’t take my anger out on innocent people or their belongings, consulting professional help would be unnecessary… but it’s uncomfortable and I am slightly worried that I’ll make a big mistake when it happens again.

I don’t remember always having this tendency, and I don’t know why this particular phenomenon gets this especially strong reaction out of me.