&gt;gender roles are complementary, benefitting and burdening one gender or another depending on context

lmao just.. keep showing off how you know nothing about how gender, patriarchy and society work I guess?

Gender roles were created by men in positions of power to oppress women and benefit men. The fact that patriarchy backfires and sometimes harms men who don't adhere to male gender roles doesn't disprove this. Especially since almost universally the things that you'd claim disadvantage men are gender roles and expectations that *men* put into place, *men* reinforce, and *men* punish deviance from.

&gt;The job sectors I named get far, far less female applicants than male

Yes. Because, for starters, men have spent the last few centuries and more forbidding women from even looking sideways at those jobs, let alone doing them, and that bias persists to this day - a lot of men in those industries won't even hire a woman. Furthermore, those industries are known to discriminate against, sexually harass and even rape women who go into them. Not exactly an appealing prospect. Men who go into those industries may be subject to hard labor, but they're by and large not being sexually harassed and raped on the job.

&gt;If women really disliked the high heels they would flock there

It doesn't *matter* if women "like the high heels" or dislike them. What matters is that **high heels literally DEFORM the foot and ankle** and most sectors of society require women to wear them in order to be considered professional. This is wrong on its face. The solution to this is not "if you don't like it, go get mistreated and potentially seriously harmed in a discriminatory industry", it's to *change expectations*.

&gt;Furthermore, women cultivate these clothing standards themselves

Women who were brought up in a patriarchal society often, unfortunately, repeat the brainwashing they were raised with. And fun fact: Most of these fashion companies and almost all the major makeup companies are owned by *men*. Women's magazines, too.

&gt;You ....cultivate the idea that women are passive, powerless victims

I do no such thing. I just find it unproductive and ignorant to pretend that oppression doesn't exist. Women can have power and agency while still living in a world that discriminates against, oppresses and harms women. Which we do.

Anyway, have a nice night. I'd rather not spend my evening discussing feminist theory with a guy who thinks "hey women go work on an oil rig in an environment where women are regularly sexually harassed and raped" is the answer to discriminatory and harmful dress codes.