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man, men stink

Sunday, February 28, 2016

None of the materials before me surprised me at all, and the hating of women seems to be growing more evident and stronger every day. Every single statistic had much shock factor, don’t get me wrong - however, I have been studying and recognizing these problems for years just by being a woman and experiencing things first hand and my friends’ experiences as well. What made me the most surprised, however, was from the Documentary Miss Representation, was that even though women were in high positions, they were still ridiculed and downsized to what they were wearing and their attitudes, and they weren’t criticized for their actions or ambitions. Particularly, it was the audacity of what people had to say. Sarah Palin was “masturbation material”, who cares that she was running for Vice President? Hilary Clinton did well after Obama because after Black History Month is Bitch of the Month, who cares that she was Secretary of State? Men never get these sort of remarks. There is clearly a difference. It’s so disappointing because even though we try to lift up women and encourage them to be more ambitious and go for positions that usually discourage them, when they’re there, they get put down no matter what they do. It’s a disgusting vicious cycle that we have implemented, and it seems as if it’s never going to get better. I take this stuff to heart so much because I'm going to be a woman all my life, and I'm not excited for the road ahead. I know there are endless improvements we can make.


I have tried to think about my personal experiences, but too many incidents come up that I don’t even know which one to begin with. Throughout years, I have seen extensive times girls being pinned against each other for a man’s attention and affection, myself being in those situations sometimes. If I channeled that energy into something much more worthwhile like my education or sleeping, I would have spent time so much better. A few weeks ago, MAC also had a picture of a black woman’s lips wearing one of their lipsticks, which led to numerous racist comments about how “too” big they were, and other outlandish observations. Monica Lewinsky couldn’t speak out in public until last year because of threats when she gave a TED Talk - 17 years after the scandal came out with Bill Clinton. Women bullied and bulliers in all these situations to no end. It’s shocking to see in particular that although a lot of backlash and ridicule come from men about women - but also women to women. Shouldn’t we be lifting each other up and trying to do the best for each other, rather than being enemies, benefitting men further? There are numerous skewed problems that seem so countless, that it seems hard for there to be a solution - if there even is any.

As Audrey Watters said: “the answer is not silence.” To me, the answer is to throw out every man in power and start fresh. That, of course, is not the best of suggestions, but being able to speak up and out about these issues should be something we really should seek to do. Self esteem is getting lower, and women are just being degraded further and further to the point of fear, insecurity, and disorders. However, how can we get white men to shut the hell up for a minute, listen, and understand that the world isn’t just their oyster?

3 comments:

  1. I love your title! I wish there was a simple way for us women to get the respect we deserve. We are constantly criticized for our looks but I think the first step is for women to stop putting each other down. Especially with the MAC picture, I read the comments and it was 90% females saying those mean racist things. I think this country and even worldwide has a long way to go.

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  2. Hi, though it is not easy for me to feel exactly the same way as you do, I still have some points that I agree with you.

    I agree with your point :"although a lot of backlash and ridicule come from men about women - but also women to women. " Yes, women's enemies are sometimes (or often) women. It is often the case with the Japanese society. We see growing number of women who stand out among male dominated professions in Japan. But whenever those woman seem to make mistakes, it is women that criticize those mistakes. They do so more harshly than men do. It is sad.

    I like you saying "If I channeled that energy into something much more worthwhile like my education or sleeping, I would have spent time so much better. " I want to sleep more.

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  3. I love the examples you gave.

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