My friend joined a car forum, because she’s into cars. She wanted to ask about car components, and the thread got about 14 pages in just a few days, but most people weren’t actually answering her questions, they just kept accusing her of being a man because the forum apparently once had someone “pretending to be a woman”. They kept calling her he/him, even though she said that she is a she (she’s cis). She’s 23 and most of the userbase on the mentioned forum are men in their 30’s and 40’s. She was being civil throughout the entire thing mentioning that it’s rude to misgender someone. Apparently the way she talked was too “proper” to be “girly” and people responded that her knowledge of car components was a “red flag” that she must secretly be a man. She pointed out that she doesn’t know why they’re so obsessed over a random stranger’s genitals and they replied back with “you’re the one who mentioned genitals, we think you’re the obsessed one here”. I wish that I was joking. Reminds me of the internet 20 years ago.

  • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    My friend joined a car forum, because she’s into cars.

    …and…

    Apparently the way she talked was too “proper” to be “girly” and people responded that her knowledge of car components was a “red flag” that she must secretly be a man.

    With this last comment right here it sounds like she is fairly knowledgeable about cars and the men on that community see “car knowledge” as their personal domain and expertise. If (gasp!) a woman knew more than a man on a car thing, then the man would be emasculated!! Since she was demonstrating knowledge, and perhaps more knowledge than some men, the men could only accept they were “beating” by another man and therefor they themselves wouldn’t be emasculated.

    tldr; the men in that community are terrified of being perceived as “less manly”.