I was actually thinking of you yesterday, when I was out and about with Ringo, and along these lines. We were strolling through the mall, and walking past Spenser's, which takes delight in being edgy and offensive, and they had the most appalling selection of shirts for young women prominently on display. They all had ridiculous slogans that essentially dehumanized them, or begged men to treat them like disposable objects.
It stunned me that any young woman or girl would even be brought up thinking that this was okay, let alone a joke. It distressed me as the mother of a son that he's going to meet girls who expect him to treat them like that, and may even think him unromantic or un-masculine if he doesn't threaten them or treat them like a second-class citizen.
At any rate, I thought of you, because it's EXACTLY the same sort of garbage. It's hard enough for women to be treated equally and fairly without being dragged back down by a segment of the next generation. I think about Malala, who was shot just because she wanted the right to an education, and then you get 15-year-old girls in this country who would give anything to be Bella from Twilight because it's so romantic to be stalked and abused BECAUSE HE LOVES YOU.
There are still girls and women dying so that other girls and women can be treated equally, and the fact that so many young women in this country honestly do not see the connection between promoting a rape culture and promoting gender inequality is probably one of the most distressing things to me.
It stunned me that any young woman or girl would even be brought up thinking that this was okay, let alone a joke. It distressed me as the mother of a son that he's going to meet girls who expect him to treat them like that, and may even think him unromantic or un-masculine if he doesn't threaten them or treat them like a second-class citizen.
At any rate, I thought of you, because it's EXACTLY the same sort of garbage. It's hard enough for women to be treated equally and fairly without being dragged back down by a segment of the next generation. I think about Malala, who was shot just because she wanted the right to an education, and then you get 15-year-old girls in this country who would give anything to be Bella from Twilight because it's so romantic to be stalked and abused BECAUSE HE LOVES YOU.
There are still girls and women dying so that other girls and women can be treated equally, and the fact that so many young women in this country honestly do not see the connection between promoting a rape culture and promoting gender inequality is probably one of the most distressing things to me.
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