[KuraFire]

No dude, it’s fucking easy being a guy, twice so if you’re white, three times so if you’re straight. In fact, that’s so true it has come to be known as The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/05/15/straight-white-male-th...

You cannot argue that “it’s tough being a guy” and then say you weren’t comparing it to being a woman. What the hell else were you comparing it to, being a Tyrannosaurus? However tough you may think your position in life is, chances are pretty high you’re living it on The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is.

[mindcrime]

You cannot argue that “it’s tough being a guy” and then say you weren’t comparing it to being a woman.

Actually, I just did.

What the hell else were you comparing it to, being a Tyrannosaurus?

I wasn't comparing it to anything.

However tough you may think your position in life is, chances are pretty high you’re living it on The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is.

Great, that's not something I can control, now is it? Of course I have empathy for people on all the other difficulty levels, and want to help make things better for them. But I still have my own problems regardless of how easy anyone else thinks my life is.

Of course, none of this is really relevant to the conversation that started all this, and I'll probably regret replying to this comment later.

Again, to reiterate what I said before... what we need is more shared understanding, that goes both ways, and less antagonism.

[KuraFire]

You may not have intended to compare it to anything, but you were. The words “incredibly tough” cannot be used without being in comparison to something, because without the comparison they _lose all meaning completely_. So however you want to spin it, whatever, but your words were words of comparison.

1) A skyscraper is really small. A skyscraper is really big. 2) A skyscraper is really squishy. A skyscraper is really cuddly.

All of the above are implicit comparisons, but the ones in 2) are really dumb and make no sense. Are you suggesting you really meant to fit category 2 despite pretty clearly using terminology befitting category 1? It's really better for you to just own up and admit you made a small mistake, than to dig your heels in deeper and show your reluctance to listening, to being receptive to learning anything new.

Everyone has their own problems in life. The issue at hand is women suffering from problems caused by the very same people who repeatedly attempt to diminish the severity of their (women’s) problems and try to make it about men, instead. Again.

“what we need is more shared understanding, that goes both ways”

There is plenty of understanding of your position already. It's not a hard one to figure out. We're calling out the sense of entitlement, privilege, and refusal to stop whining about your problems every time we're trying to have a conversation about _someone else's_ problems.