I have spent a lifetime trying to keep up with you. How to blend in and be treated with the same respect at school and at work. A lifetime wondering how to be equal.
I tried wearing your clothes. Your jeans and sweaters as camouflage. I wore baseball caps and Adidas and learned how to change a tire. I cut my hair. I put my emotions in my pocket and flashed your bravado instead.
At a high school party, I elbowed past a group of you peering under the hood of a car. I grabbed the jumper cables my father put in my trunk, and brought the useless vehicle back to life while you watched. You didn’t pat me on the back.
I learned to like the taste of beer. I declined the offers of White Zin and Peach Schnapps, and asked if you had any whiskey. You laughed and handed me a warm Budweiser.
I avoided physical contact; anything that would make you realize I wasn’t one of you. I laughed at your jokes. I learned that the dirtier jokes made for bigger laughs, and I learned to tell them with ease. You shook your head and told me I was cute.
The power you were born with was harder to duplicate. I was not granted your ease, the way you breezed through life, expecting privileges. Eventually, I learned that this strength was also your weakness.
I did not want to be you. I wanted to be better than you.
I grew my hair. Bought a skirt. Got a degree and a job in your field.
And while you sat back and expected that promotion, I stayed late and studied hard. I became your boss. You called me a bitch.
When I fired you, I cried in the bathroom. That is my power: I can be strong and I can feel. I can do your job, I can do it better, and I can laugh and cry and be human.
Look me in the eye when I talk to you. Shake my hand firmly. Don’t censor yourself because I am in the room. I am here, and I am proud. I am a woman.
—
Photo: Getty Images
Women have the privilege of divorcing their husbands for ridiculous reasons such as ‘he doesn’t satisfy me anymore,’ and may proceed in taking half, or more, of his belongings. Women have the privilege of expecting others to come to their aid whenever a man even lays one finger on her. What happens to that man? He gets his ass kicked. Women have the privilege of ruining a man’s life by telling others he raped her. It doesn’t have to be real, but she will be believed. And even if the man is proven innocent, he still has to sign himself… Read more »
Lol what a load of crap from more delusional women who think they have an inkling of the male experience.
“I have spent a lifetime trying to keep up with you. How to blend in and be treated with the same respect at school and at work. A lifetime wondering how to be equal.” Interesting thoughts for discussion The first question is why, but more importantly, is the understanding that a woman cannot truly be equal to men as long as she maintains, or is granted the safety net of female privilege. I’m not expressing vitriol here at all, but trying to explain this failed experiment, and this failed society that claims to seek equality. See, a woman cannot understand… Read more »
Women want to be like men. Why do they want to take a step down – Henny Youngman. Tell me about it. It seems the only time a woman considers being like a man is a step up is when they whittle away all the difficulties of being a man until all that’s left is the absolute best case scenario. Women don’t want to be like men. Women want to be like the most successful, powerful, richest, most influential men that don’t face any hardships and everything is handed to them on a silver platter. In short they want all… Read more »
Well in my simple little life I have never wanted fame, or (the societal seterotype of) success, or lots of money or any of that, but you know what would be nice? If the many musicians that frequent my home to work on projects with my boyfriend I don’t looked me in the eys when speaking with me, or maybe didn’t talk over me as if my stories aren’t engaging or I’m ot welcome to join in on the “fun”, or my favorite, when they leave, they all give my boyfriend high fives or “dabs” but not me. Never ever.… Read more »
For some reason I’m thinking of Admiral Ackbar here.
Your privilege is that you assume you know what our lives are like better than we do.
Sit. Down.
”The power you were born with was harder to duplicate. I was not granted your ease, the way you breezed through life, expecting privileges. It’s funny, working in an average-size, rather advanced engineering-manufacturing company, two thirds of the middle-management bosses are women, compared to only 20-25 percent of the overall workforce. Yet they are the ones with the final decision on new recruitments, and keep on bringing in a majority of men. Every guy I grew up with knew how to study hard to get somewhere in life. None of them, none of us expected any kind of privilege. We… Read more »
Fantastic post! Love it.
Great post.