Podcast Host Says Some Of The Ways People Shame Women Are Reflective Of Failures Of The Men In Their Lives
Women have been blamed for men's actions for what feels like forever.
Olha Nosova | Shutterstock Terms like “single mom” and “daddy issues” are part of the common vernacular and are frequently used to shame women.
Yet, as a podcast host pointed out, these terms are not actually about women at all. Really, they're about men, and how they didn’t measure up.
The podcast host pointed out how some of the most common ways people shame women really just reveal how the men in their lives failed them.
Chloe Madison is one half of the duo behind the podcast "Unhinged." She, along with co-host Emma Paige, discuss "everything from relationships and dating to toxic families and careers," according to their podcast description.
Madison recently went viral on TikTok with a clip from the podcast in which she shared her take on "reframing" the most common ways people shame women.
“It’s kind of wild that so many common phrases used to shame women actually just indicate the failures of men,” she stated. “If you think about it, ‘daddy issues’ is made to feel like the girl can’t even keep her father around when really it’s that he abandoned her or mistreated her."
“A single mom,” she continued. “A man left his partner and all of the responsibilities of their child, but she’s stuck around, handles it all by herself, and yet is shamed for it.”
“A psycho ex,” she addressed next. “A woman reacting to being mistreated is made out to be irrational.”
“A trophy wife — somebody who is objectified and only valued by her looks, when really it says more about the guy who chose her because of that,” she continued.
“Or bad taste in men. A woman is criticized for choosing partners that harm or fail her when really the fault lies in the behavior of the person doing it,” Madison concluded.
Women are frequently blamed for the actions of men.
As any woman will attest, Madison’s point is entirely accurate. These phrases have become commonplace in society, yet they all have an undertone of shame.
Dr. Jessica Taylor is the author of "Why Women Are Blamed for Everything." The British Psychological Society spoke to her about the subject of her book in 2020.
“Women are blamed due to sexism and misogyny, absolutely, but this is only cemented by other factors such as rape myths and stereotypes, belief in a just world, individualism and collectivism, attribution bias, or own self-preservation, denial of personal vulnerability and even counterfactual thinking,” Taylor stated.
She went on to discuss how women are often used as scapegoats in legal matters and pushed to take the blame themselves when attacked by men.
If women take the blame for men when it comes to such egregious actions, surely they also take the blame when it comes to smaller matters, like a father abandoning his child.
Commenters were completely on board with Madison's take.
All of the women who came across the clip from Unhinged seemed to agree.
“I think my frontal lobe just developed,” one woman joked.
“They project instead of taking accountability,” another added.
A third wrote, “We’ve been gaslit our whole lives.”
Madison certainly seemed to strike a chord with her theory. It’s no surprise that so many women, tired of taking the blame for men, understood exactly where she was coming from.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.