Why is it that young women are criticized and ridiculed for indulging in their passions?

Jack Denmo, host of the podcast Good Bro Bad Bro asked in a recent episode if his listeners knew any girls who "actually have hobbies."

To educate this man who so firmly believes that because he has a microphone, he can say whatever he likes without consequence. Yes, women do in fact have hobbies we do have passions and interests however there is a reason that we feel like we cannot indulge in them as men so readily do.

I’d like to tweak Denmo’s question. Name a hobby a woman can have without being ridiculed.

Reading? She’s a nerd.

Roller Derby? She’s a lesbian.

Ballet? She has eating disorders and is a perfectionist.

Football? She’s a tomboy.

Art? She's an airhead, a "Basket case”.

Astronomy? Witch.

Pole Dancing? Slut.

Business? Bossy.

The list goes on and on and on.

Of course men are not free from ridicule when it comes to their chosen passions. Fashion immediately makes a man gay, and a love of Dungeons and Dragons makes them a geek. However, this is not an equal share of humiliation between men and women. Some example scenarios include:

A man and his mates go to see their team play a football match. They scream and shout for their respective teams going nuts when they score a goal and becoming equally feral if they lose.

Perfectly normal.

A young woman and her friends go to their favourite boyband’s concert. They scream all the lyrics, dance with their idols and chant how much they adore them until the show ends.

“Local media reports said several fans were so overcome with excitement when the group arrived that they fainted and received immediate medical attention- Goodness knows how they would have behaved if they’d seen their favourite pinups shirtless, sipping beer and larking around in the sea” Daily Mail reports on One Directions arrival in Sydney Australia 2015.

Men enjoy their movies such as Fast and Furious raving about the sleek cars, explosions and half naked girls. Missing the fact that they’re being exposed to impossible standards of masculinity and standards, shown by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Vin Deisel with their bloated muscles and inability to show much emotion other than anger. So rarely is this type of media ever put under the spotlight of being harmful to those viewing it.

While women try to enjoy a film like Legally Blonde for example, they are told its just another “chic flick” with no imagination and substance. When in fact it is centred around a young woman taking her life into her own hands and achieving “seemingly” impossible dreams, teaching young girls that they can get into Harvard Law School if they set their mind to it.

The fact that young women of today and constantly getting pierced by mockery and shame, as Denmo mindlessly does on his podcast, until they become a pincushion of anxiety and self-loathing breaks my heart.

Stop bringing down women for their interests and passions. Because you have no idea what that “hobby” might have done for them when they were at their lowest. How it might have been a candle to guide them through a dark world that many a time seems built against us.