This campaign #metoo, should be your wake-up call, because it cannot be a surprise. You have recently read about the unnecessary insertion of fingers into her vagina by her pediatric doctor, the bloodbath in the car when she was raped in college, the way she tried to keep smiling at work when her boss joked about her breasts, but you have always known that women are denied equal pay, a place at the table, and physical safety.
Sexualized assault is commonplace to us from birth to grave. But this is our reality because too many of you, the good men, do not call out your friends, brothers, co-workers, bosses, fathers, or sons, even when you know the truth. Some of you, through some sort of magical thinking, can smile and refer to our sexual predators as “players” or “lady’s men” or may even say he was an “asshole” and shrug but never take action, and even maintain their relationship.
Some of you in denial, suspect the women who tell are nuts, and are making a big deal over nothing. Sadly too many of you tend to keep your heads in the sand and remain silent.
Some of you unwittingly practice micro violations of our bodies and minds. The humorous-but-ultimately-degrading-to-women social media posts, the comments about female co-workers’ appearance, the female applicant’s resume you don’t even pick up. All of this adds up to our culture, a culture that can rape, kill, or simply oppress women to the point that we may never reach our full potential.
Women, too, in an attempt to align themselves with your dominant power, will throw other women under the bus, just like every single woman who voted for an admitted sexual aggressor, Donald Trump. Can you imagine what this injustice feels like? Women are under attack and we have been telling you about it for hundreds of years. We don’t need our doors held open. What we do need is for all of you to check that you are not being complicit in the destruction of our lives.
Love,
Women.
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