Answer:
Because he envied women as they are socially accepted to be interested in literature and arts but men were not.
Step-by-step explanation:
In his essay, "The Men We Carry In Our Minds", Scott Russell Sanders shares his thoughts about the gender roles in the society during his time. In his time, Sanders share that men were looked like a working horse, who just work all day without spending time on other things. During his time men in the society were expected to work only as factory workers and soldiers. The purpose of his essay was to assert that it is not only men who go through hard times in their life but women too.
In lines 135-153, Sanders shares that in his childhood, he used to envy women because they had the privilege of choosing arts and literature but men do not have such privileges then. He used to think that it is "tough being a man ". He said this to support his idea of how tough it is being a man.