When I went to Winter Wonderland, one of my female friends brought a male escort with her. The guys who came along expressed their disdain toward the fact that the male escort came to an amusement park wearing makeup, dressing up, and styling his hair — they thought it was not “manly” enough.

At that moment, I suddenly felt very angry. Why is it that, according to their standards, when guys hang out with girls, they can be casual and unkempt, but if a girl goes out without makeup or dressing up, she’s considered disrespectful to the occasion?

Society keeps promoting the idea of gender equality, yet so many men who claim to believe in it still carry the arrogance of being male — judging women with a condescending, patriarchal attitude. I think this is extremely pretentious, and that these men are foolishly and mindlessly repeating what society praises, without ever daring to face their true thoughts.

Just as gender discrimination has infiltrated every corner of life, the inertia of patriarchy makes people almost ignore the unfairness that comes from gender differences. But everyone has become so numb that they just take it as something normal.