Blog Post: Letter to a Daughter

[sesmo]

You know spies, they’re a bunch of bitchy little girls.” - “Burn Notice”
Dear daughter-
You should know that you are hated.

I’m not sure why they hate you. You didn’t do anything to them. You don your princess crown, take up your sword, and pretend at Pokemon. You read your books and you learn how to draw comics and dragons and you play piano and

Comments

OP

[lickety_split]

Fix your cut and space the paragraphs, please.

Re: OP

[sesmo]

I hate LJ. Sorry about that. Fixed.

[astridmyrna]

“I gotta say, you are the prettiest little girl I ever did see!”
“Thanks!”
“‘Thanks?’ You’re awfully matter of fact about that. I guess when a boy tells you how pretty you are, you’ll come home and be like, ‘Oh MOM! He said I was PRETTY!’”
“……..”
- An older man and my daughter, this weekend

WTF.

Also, many applause for this letter. *applause* It almost sounds like my own parents wrote this. XD That girl is very lucky to have a supporting parent!

[little_rachael]

Yes, that conversation is fucked up. I don't know how old she is, but that's extremely inappropriate regardless of age. And I've noticed that older men can be utterly fucking creepy around underage girls.

[maladaptive]

I can't make heads or tails of that discussion. First it sounds like he thinks she's conceited by thanking him ("you're awfully matter of fact") but then it sounds like he's mocking her because when a boy says it she'll go home and be all excited?

[little_rachael]

That was an excellent article, except for one thing.

I get that it's hyperbole and the author is looking for another way to say "whether you're a boy or a girl," but I wish she wouldn't use "penis or fallopian tubes." Some girls have penises, and some boys have fallopian tubes.

[dncingmalkavian]

I hardly think the author was aiming to discriminate against hermaphrodites.

[thecityofdis]

Are you missing the point on purpose?

[dncingmalkavian]

No. I'm suggesting that a poor choice of words doesn't always demonstrate an intent to offend or exclude anyone, and it probably shouldn't be immediately leaped upon and torn to shreds until some effort to educate the misinformed has been made - like, for example, mephisto5's comment to me.

[dncingmalkavian]

This whole letter = awesome.

[maladaptive]

I'm glad this is here, because where else I've seen it (coughcoughBoingBoingcough) the comments were full of dudes going "society doesn't HATE women! It's just not fair to them, it's different!" or QQ about women and our victim complex. I know the comments here won't suck, though, because it's a great letter.

[maladaptive]

Because it's not hate that causes women to be paid less (and other examples of misogyny). Employers aren't all "lol fuck chicks, man, they suck. Here make 75 cents to the man's dollar, that'll show you." Sooooo it's not hate, it's an unexamined bias!

Because they don't understand what "hate" means in this context.