Why is it only women who see sexism everywhere?

                              

                              

The other day a male friend met me for dinner looking pale about the gills and generally discombobulated. It transpired that, during his Tube journey, he'd been what can only be described as 'set upon' by a group of inebriated women who were on a hen night. As they shrieked an ear-splitting version of Beyonce's 'Who Run the World (Girls!)', two of them proceeded to sit on his lap, pinning him to his seat, while a third performed an involuntary (on his part) lap-dance. Luckily, they disembarked a few stops later (still screeching and flinging their arms around random male passers-by) otherwise my friend would have been trapped in his seat all the way to zone six. He couldn't make himself heard over the impromptu karaoke and didn't feel he could push them off for fear of appearing aggressive. So, he simply laughed along uncomfortably, praying the entire humiliating episode would, at some stage, come to a conclusion.

Now, answer me honestly - as you read the above (totally true) anecdote, did it even occur to you to consider that the womens' actions were motivated by sexism? Did you assume that they were wild, unreasonable misanthropists, hell bent on humiliating my friend because they view all men as nothing more than an object to be used for their pleasure? I suspect not. I suspect you thought they were probably just drunk and behaving like utter morons (as we all have, on occasion).
We're not typically programmed to interpret the things that happen to men in a gendered way. To name a few examples, suicide is the biggest killer of young men under 21 in the UK and nearly 90 percent of British vagrants are male, yet I've never heard either mental health funding or homelessness referred to as an issue of sex-bias, as they undoubtedly would be if these statistics applied to women.
Women, conversely, are seeing sexism everywhere. The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote of a 'blik' which in his native German translates as a 'way of seeing'. He described it as like a pair of goggles, through which every one of us will interpret the events of our lives. Consequently, our beliefs become self-fulfilling prophecies. It therefore follows that if I believe, as a woman, I am constantly being belittled and judged by men, I will find ways to confirm this belief. I am of course not suggesting that male-on-female sexism doesn’t exist. That's demonstrably nonsense. Simply that the sort of 'it's raining! Even the SKY is sexist!' ethos that's apparently being adopted in some feminist quarters is stopping us from seeing the wood for the proverbial trees.
Take, for example, the recent article by the Telegraph's own Louisa Peacock, who was turned away from swanky cocktail lounge/restaurant Sushi Samba, because the doorman deemed her inappropriately dressed. As a consequence, she complained of her 'sexist' treatment to the management and the doorman was fired. The entire incident was cited as evidence of widespread 'Everyday Sexism'.

Louisa says the doorman 'looked her up and down' in a way that made her 'feel' as though she wasn’t dressed sexily enough. This is a perfect example of a ‘Blik’ in action. There are myriad interpretations of a look and only the looker can confirm if they are accurate.
If one extracts all the conjecture and simply reads the reported dialogue, it appears the entire exchange lasted no more than a minute. The doorman says Louisa is not dressed smartly. She maintains she is. He refuses to budge. She turns on her (not high) heels, having labelled this as a 'sexist' incident. Some further communication could have confirmed whether this was indeed about gender, or whether it was snobbery, or missing a memo about what constitutes a 'smart' dress code.
If it transpires that all of Louisa's assumptions are correct then I will be suitably outraged (which is to say 'a little bit but not enough to spoil my day'). It's obviously unacceptable for entry to an establishment to be refused or granted according to how much the doorman wants to have sex with potential clientele. But I don't have enough information to make an informed judgment.
If I were a man reading the account, I can imagine thinking ‘hang on, I'm expected to care about feminism because women are being denied access to bars based on their footwear? How many times have I heard "no trainers!" in my life?' I'd probably conclude that there were more important issues. To which some feminist factions would counter 'but it's symptomatic of the underlying misogyny pervading our society!' (their particular collective blik). To which the response would be “Not All Men” and so the whacking great chasm of misunderstanding between the sexes would spiral ad infinitum.
In conclusion - we all face obstacles in our lives. Generalised unfairness happens every day to almost everyone and should rightly be stamped out wherever possible. But women should apply very careful forethought before pronouncing something to be an issue of sexism. Unless of course, we want men to begin doing the same.