As a guy who's never sent a picture of my penis to anybody (what an amazing person I am!), /u/SupaSonicWhisper seemingly implying that I need to be reminded that it's a bad thing to do bothers me a tiny bit.

I mean, obviously there are more important issues that need to be addressed. The incredibly frequent online sexual harassment of women by men who are desperate to show off their junk is a much more significant problem. But I do think that /u/SupaSonicWhisper could have made the same joke, the same point, without (unintentionally, I assume) implying that everybody with a penis needs to be reminded not to electronically flash strangers.

All that said, since I started reading /r/creepyPMs and other, similar sites, I've been astounded by the sheer volume of horrible, harassing messages women seem to get. I really hope it's just a tiny minority of men sending out a huge volume of filth, but I've come to suspect that a disappointing proportion of men might think what amounts to online sexual harassment is somehow acceptable. I am also distressingly aware that this sort of behavior (and worse) is not confined to just online.

So I understand, at least a little bit, where the inclination to talk about "men" as the harassing group comes from, rather than being more specific. And lots of times #NotAllMen gets brought up in situations where there are much larger and more pressing issues at stake, or where it's simply not applicable, because the conversation is (and ought to be) addressing all men. All the same, I feel like there are times when being a little more specific would make the conversation easier, and prevent the derailment from happening in the first place.

I can make myself the wording, which apparently includes me in the offending group, to the larger and more important issue. But it still bothers me a bit, and so even as someone who acknowledges the larger issue, I feel a slight pull to defend myself, to make clear that, no, it is not me who is sending pictures of his dick to strangers. For men who don't yet fully accept the reality of the situation that women are forced to deal with so often, the apparent implication that they've done something wrong (whether they have or not) makes it harder for them to accept the larger point.

I don't really fault anybody for talking about "men" as a monolithic group, but it does make the conversation a little bit harder than it needs to be.