1. Suspicion
Moms give me side-eyes when I attend my son’s swim practice and watch from the bench. Sometimes they even approach my child in the park and ask, within my earshot, who I am and where his mom is.
2. Attraction
How attractive women find me is at least 50 percent influenced by my income. When I earned well, I had options; after losing my job, no one spoke to me. Now that my own business is thriving, my family and friends are eager to set me up again.
3. The Lecher
I bought a unicorn hairband for my little girl at a costume jewelry shop when my wife, waiting in the car, told me two young women came out and overheard them saying how "awkward it is that the old lecher is shopping for his girl." They never even considered I was buying it for my daughter!
4. Unwanted Touch
At an indoor skydiving session, we wear tight suits in the freefall simulator. As a 28-year-old athletic guy, I can’t count how many times women touched me without my consent.
I didn’t like it when I was single, but after getting a girlfriend, I really hated it. I reported it to supervisors, but they said I should just enjoy it. I never understood what I was supposed to enjoy about being groped by women I wasn’t interested in. The last straw was when a middle-aged woman slapped my butt, and when I told her off, she complained to management. That’s when I quit.
5. Breadwinner
For the first 15 years of our marriage, I was the breadwinner; my wife only took occasional jobs after our son started school. Luckily, we didn’t need her to work full-time, and I know raising a child and managing a household is plenty of work.
During the Covid pandemic, I lost my job and helped with my wife’s business for a year. Together, we grew it so well that now I run it full-time alongside her. Since then, people still call me a “kept man.”
6. Male Caregiver
My sister, wife, and I opened a private kindergarten. I completed all the necessary training and understand male caregivers are rare, but the daily hostility I faced was shocking.
My mom and sister mainly cared for the kids; I was more of a fill-in. Once, a mom who hadn’t met me refused to leave her daughter with me, choosing to wait in the car until my mom arrived. A year later, her child adores me, but the mom still treats me like a serial killer.
7. Pannika
One of my female colleagues is in love with me. I know because she drunkenly confessed at last year’s company Christmas party. I told her I appreciate it but have a fiancée. The problem is, Pannika doesn’t care.
She keeps making sexist remarks, telling me which pants make my butt look good and notices when I go to the gym. She calls me “Honey” in front of everyone and declared I’m her “work husband.” Everyone laughs it off—even the boss chuckles—but it’s getting increasingly uncomfortable for me.
When I told coworkers to imagine if I acted like this toward Pannika, they agreed HR would have been involved for sexual harassment long ago—but they still brush it off, telling me not to take it seriously.
8. Masculinity
I had just finished a project at a company when my wife got promoted, so I went on parental leave. This is normal in Scandinavia, but here, everyone nagged me for years. Even my own parents and friends treated me like I’d lost my masculinity.
9. Alone
10 things you need to know if you’re a single mom I’m a single dad, and eight out of ten women treat me like I kidnapped my child. (His mother is an alcoholic and can’t care for him.)
