Generally speaking..

I recently came across this rant in the comments section of a video on the internet:

""You must pay no attention to the things I say."
See this is how men get in trouble. If a man takes a woman at her word and holds her accountable for the things she says then he is reminded by the woman that she is just a silly woman who says silly things.
But later, when she wants something else she expects to treated as if she is fully competent and responsible for her actions. If a man remembers that she's "just a woman" and can't be relied upon to be accountable for her actions then he's a sexist. And yet this is exactly the message that women tell men again and again when they want to get away with their cruel and abusive behavior."

The dialogue in question was from an episode of Downton Abbey where two of the main protagonists are flirting with each other. The man reminds the woman that she didn't have a very high opinion of him in the beginning and that's when she says these words. They merely imply that she's changed her mind about him, and they kiss. Surely anyone can see that? I guess not. A woman, especially a character in a period drama, has no right to expect that her words will be taken in context. How utterly silly and unreasonable!

There were, of course, a series of replies calling the commenter above a misogynist. There were also some replies from other men and a woman too, about how this is true. But "Cruel and abusive behavior"? What about when women are killed for the crime of having an opinion and daring to voice it? What about when a woman can't even take public transport without fear of being gang-raped and mutilated? What about a female child being denied the basic right to life? Are all these things a figment of a "silly" woman's imagination, leading her to say "silly" things, because she is "just a woman"?

Admittedly, this person might have faced some problem with a woman, hence the online rant on what was actually quite a romantic scene. But it doesn't justify the sweeping generalization that women want to be taken seriously only when it is to their advantage; and want no part of any responsibility for their actions. In fact, all sweeping generalizations are untrue. All men are not bastards, literally or figuratively. All women are not weak; all Indians are not mathematical geniuses with funny accents; all Caucasians aren't patrician snobs.

There, I made a sweeping generalization about generalizations. Of course, sometimes generalization helps people to put things in order, like a mental filing cabinet; but they shouldn't become hard and fast rules. That's where bigotry starts, and there's usually no way back up from that bottomless pit.