We could talk about the new war with Iran today, but international politics isn’t exactly my bag (history, yes, but this is different), so why not instead talk about something that will trigger the usual suspects?

There are a lot of really good men out there who truly care for their families and friends, look out for those who might need support, and are always good for a dad joke or 12 (thousand); we absolutely love those guys.

Then there are the others.

These are the ones with fragile masculinity who are constantly offended by uppity women (who are, frankly, amused that they feel threatened by a woman who speaks up). They’re the ones who, when confronted with their bad attitudes, misinformation and name-calling, basically pat those women on the heads and say, “Well, I hope that your mouthing off made you feel better,” and then usually claim that they’re being victimized because someone had the audacity to call them on the carpet for their behavior. And they really hate it when attention is paid to traditionally marginalized people, such as when Blacks, women and the LGBTQ+ community get months of their own.

Men like this are why women like me buy things like Hairy Farmpit Girls’ soap, such as the one labeled “Salty Tears of Mediocre Men” (it smells delightful, by the way) because it amuses us. Plus, goat’s milk soap is good for the skin, soooo …

When’s White Men’s History Month? Every. Single. Month. Sheesh. You really don’t get what marginalized means, do you?

People who’ve never really had to fight for rights don’t see that they have privilege. I have privilege because I’m white, straight and Christian, but not to the extent of a straight white Christian man. For some, that’s fine with them because that’s the way it’s always been, but others realize that it’s not fair by a long shot. I mean, if we’re going to truly judge on merit, then race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, etc., have nothing to do with it. Why not truly measure job candidates, political candidates, and others on their skills, knowledge, expertise and command of relevant information rather than what group they might belong to? Well, because the system was devised by the very people who benefit most from it, and they don’t want someone with more knowledge or skills who’s different from them getting a position over one of them.

So why do so many get their knickers in a twist by the concept of equal rights for people that aren’t like them? Do they think it’s pie? (Mmmmm, pie …)

We’ve just left Black History Month, and have now entered Women’s History Month. These aren’t times to lord our presence over everyone and make them praise us, but to recognize those who fought for the vision of equality. It’s taken a lot of time, but we’re closer to that ideal every day, long past the days of the vote being just for white male landowners. Still, under this administration, rights are under threat, whether you’re a person of color (so many instances of Black men and women killed or injured by authorities, immigrants being detained, often wrongfully, by ICE, etc.), a woman (laws limiting reproductive choices, especially strict abortion bans that have resulted in deaths) or LGBTQ+ (laws such as Kansas’ new one that not only regulates bathroom use in government buildings, but also invalidates transgender people’s licenses if they don’t reflect their gender at birth).

We celebrate men (especially white men) every day, often to the exclusion of anyone else who might have made a contribution (men invented the car, but let’s overlook the fact that women were behind safety and design innovations like windshield wipers and turn signals, and that a woman—Bertha Benz, wife of Karl—was the first long-distance driver, among other accomplishments).

If it weren’t for women like Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Alice Paul and so many more, women in the U.S. wouldn’t have the right to vote, and without those like Hattie Caraway, Shirley Chisolm and Hillary Clinton, we’d be content to let men run everything. (How’s that workin’ out?)

If it weren’t for Marie Curie, so many medical innovations wouldn’t be available today. Without Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson and other “computers” like them at NASA, we might never have made it to the moon.

If Hedy Lamarr had just stuck to acting, she might not have come up with the frequency-hopping system (initially meant to keep radio-controlled torpedoes from being jammed) that formed the basis of modern Wi-Fi technology. And if Ada Lovelace had stuck to the frippery of English society rather than seek to further her education in mathematics and other areas, Charles Babbage’s analytical engine might not have advanced past being a calculator.

And then what would all our current keyboard warriors do? They’d have to talk to the people they constantly put down in person, and maybe face quick consequences for their actions and words. Egads!

Women’s History Month owes much to feminist Laura X, who organized a 1969 march at Berkeley for International Women’s Day, which had existed since 1911 but was mostly forgotten in the U.S. Around that time, she founded the Women’s History Research Center, which pushed for recognition of women’s contributions to society. Her efforts, along with that of other activists and organizations, helped pave the way for that recognition.

Jimmy Carter was the first president to recognize Women’s History Week, noting in 1980, “Too often the women were unsung and sometimes their contributions went unnoticed. But the achievements, leadership, courage, strength and love of the women who built America was as vital as that of the men whose names we know so well.”

In 1987, the National Women’s History Project (now the National Women’s History Alliance) petitioned Congress, which designated March as Women’s History Month. Since 1995, each president has issued an annual proclamation.

That includes the current one, though not yet at this writing, despite his treatment of female reporters (ahem, “Quiet, piggy,” for one) and jokes about the U.S. Women’s hockey team (which has a much better record than the men’s team; since women’s hockey was included in the Olympics in 1998, the women have brought home three gold medals, four silver and one bronze, medaling every Olympics, while the men have made 25 appearances in the Olympics since 1920, winning three gold, eight silver and one bronze medal).

But sure, they’re just silly little girls. They don’t deserve respect, do they?

So, no, you’re not imagining that you’re getting the stink-eye when you patronize a woman, downplay her work, or even take credit for what she’s done. It’s the stinkiest of stink-eye, and it’s spreading.