When you read this blog, you read all the movie and book reviews, stuff that pertains you (I know you don’t own a large makeup collection, not follow my tutorials). I know you are an educated bunch. You are kind and generous, and a blast to hang out with. You have many qualities and you never need to go through life proving you deserve your role in society. Sure, you have to prove you have certain abilities, skills and competences, depending on the context you apply to, but you are men. You will automatically earn more money and be easily accepted in a leadership role. You always have a choice on what you want to do with your life: you can have an education, you can start a business, you can get a job. Your body is a temple. No one will ever come to you and dictate what must be done about it. Your biggest challenge in life is to try a be a man and all that respresents.
I’m not here to tell you you have an easy life. I’m sure you struggle in many ways and you wish a lot of things would change and improve for you. But your status quo is never up for debate. I should know because, you see, I am a woman, and that automatically means based on my status quo, I’m screwed.
I am a priviledged woman. I was fortunate to have a university education and a high skilled white collar job. Yet I’m very likely to be paid less than a man in the same position. Starting a family means in many places, the end of your career because when the time comes to attend an important meeting and caring for your sick child, most women will choose the child. And God forbid you choose the meeting; being a bad mother is not the standard you should live up to. Highly successful career women have had to do so by living up to the same standards as career men: devoting your lives entirerly to the job and relying on a partner or even strangers to raise your children. Some women decide not having children altogether only to be judged by a male society (and even some of their fellow females) on denying her biological resposibility.
And no priviledge is ever going to make me feel safer walking at night in a lonely street. In the best case scenario I will be screamed inappropriate comments about my looks, or suggestions of what they may want to do to me. In the worst case, I may be raped and killed. And I live in a relatively safe place. In some less priviledged places women are constantly harrassed, no matter how demurely and modestly they dress. Something as simple as a bus ride may take you to your grave.
I’m lucky I live in a place where have full control over my body. In some places young women are subjected to genital mutilation and in other places male politicians think they know more about a woman’s vagina and uterus they want to restrict access to contraception. In some cases even as far as discouraging other men from using condoms because they will cause AIDS. Don’t get me started on the abortion stance, even in some so-called developed nations (hint: the same country with that birth control debate).
That’s the fate some of us women who get to be born. A lot of baby girls don’t even get that chance. So you see, my dear men, we are all well aware of the ordeal that being a woman can mean. We are fighting everyday to change it all. What are you going to do about it? Recognize that we are not your superiors, nor inferior to you. We are equals. Join us and spread the word!
Men, the ball is on your court…
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