Comments | emily_arete: A review of the basics: sexism in America*

emily_arete

A review of the basics: sexism in America*

Jun 15, 2008 05:30

In America, 1/3 of women will be sexually assaulted at some point in their lifetimes. 1/4 will be in an abusive relationship. Those of us who are lucky enough not to have either of these things happen will still be "kept in line" (kept in fear) by sexual harrassment, catcalling, rape jokes, the continuous acquital of those few rapists who ever do ( Read more... )

Comments 4

way2in2tv June 15 2008, 18:18:56 UTC

AMEN SISTER.

Thank you for articulating this so well and helping to put down in words all the things I notice but still haven't found appropriate words for.

I want everyone to read this.

Would you mind if I "shared" this on facebook?

emily_arete June 15 2008, 22:45:04 UTC

I think I'm going to turn it into a facebook note; I'd prefer to do it that way rather than have it linked. Although it may be too long for a note...

galith June 16 2008, 01:36:34 UTC

I'm really impressed with this post. I like your expository posting style. Thank you very much for writing it.

You seem like the type of person who doesn't want to just catalog problems but also wants to do something about it so I have some follow up questions. I like your conclusion, that since the thousands of little things make up the system and the system is the problem we can each make an important difference by tackling the little things when we can. I do have one question though: how will we know when we are 'doing enough' and how will we know when we are successful?

emily_arete June 16 2008, 05:29:44 UTC

*grins* Well, that is one of the eternal questions, isn't it? I find it pretty difficult; I pretty much always feel like I'm not doing enough no matter how much I am doing, but am also highly susceptible to taking on too much and getting burned out. So, my generalized answer would be to take on as much as possible while paying attention to yourself and knowing when to take a break. The things in daily life and the more activist things can have limits pretty independent of each other; I may not be burned out on calling people out on things while I am burned out of doing organizational work, or vice versa. As for how we'll know when we're successful - do you mean how we will know when we've eradicated sexism? I think that's an important, valid question, which we have to think about in order to know what kind of future we're aiming for, but I also think that it's not going to happen in our lifetimes. I haven't got a complete answer, but one important part is that being genderblind is not part of it. It's necessary to "see" gender ( ... )