I have an apology to make. I made a mistake today, said the wrong thing. While inquiring about the teenager’s health and commending her for getting back to school after three days spent alternating between the bathroom and the dark recesses of her room, I commented that it was nice to see her “man up.”
*gasp*
How did this happen? Half of what I write about here is fighting gender stereotypes and how my daughters can do and be anything that they want. My posts have been shared by The Feminine Collective and The Literary Sisterhood. I voted for Hillary, am staunchly pro-choice and anti-grabbing strangers by the pussy. I think our ex-President’s edict that all female White House staffers “dress like women” was abhorrent. I own three Melissa Etheridge CDs for crying out loud.
The truth is that I probably am not quite as good a feminist as I’d like to imagine myself. I’m not sure if anybody notices, but on holiday dinners I make sure I sit at the head of the table. I still believe that women and children should be the first ones on the life raft of any sinking ship. When a man is out with a woman I think that it is his responsibility to make sure that she gets home safe.
I secretly wish both girls had older brothers to watch out for them at school. I hate that Thor, Wolverine and even Iron Man are all now female and wish Marvel would come up with some new characters instead of messing with the old ones.
My strongest belief is that all humans, male or female, black or white, gay or straight, should have equal political, economic, and social rights. It’s what I’m trying to teach my daughters and is what I will fight to help them achieve.
There are going to be times along the way when maybe I’m not quite as progressive as I’d like. When an odd phrase or old fashioned attitude is going to resurface. Some of my feelings about how a man should treat a woman and what his responsibilities are aren’t ever going to change and I won’t apologize for that.
We’ve come a long way, both personally and as a society, but there is still a long ways to go. I couldn’t make the marches but I’m right there with you ladies. Please don’t take away my card.
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Previously Published on thirstydaddy.com and is republished on Medium.
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Photo credit: Flickr
Perhaps saying ”ante up” instead, then the author might have felt better. Or is a gambling reference too obscure, or otherwise inappropriate? What about the phrase “skin in the game” – is that sexist or apropos? What about “emotionally invested”? Might that be inoffensive or no? And does that phrasing really convey the exact meaning intended for the situation? What about punctuating it with the phrase “Well, you know what I mean”? Because most of our our intimates do know what we mean, not just the semantics of some of less articulate words we may happen say on the way… Read more »