Trigger warning–the discussion linked to below is replete with people’s experiences that may bring up your own. Please be prepared; my goal is not to cause you more harm, but to educate those who need to think about it more.
With that in mind, please read the #YesAllWomen discussion on Twitter.
I’m among the fortunate, because I haven’t experienced many of the traumas discussed there.
And now we all need to take a minute and look at that sentence again, because here’s what that really means:
I’m lucky, because I haven’t been raped.
That shouldn’t be lucky. It just shouldn’t happen. People just shouldn’t rape. Mass murderers shouldn’t be excused because they felt so entitled to women–and so deprived of them by their own problems–that they decide to kill women.
Read the thread. Be horrified. Question how you’ve perceived some of the things people talk about, including mine:
Mr. Sandwich says no one has ever asked him to smile, unless he was having his picture taken. People don’t accost men on the street and tell them to smile. Why do they do that to women? We have the same thoughts, the same range of emotions, the same variety of daily experiences–we’re not necessarily smiling at the moment we pass by you, and that’s okay.
The “smile!” command is just the tip of the iceberg. But it is the tip of the iceberg. And that’s why–ever since I was in my 20s–I would respond to the command with a big, beaming smile.
And also I would flip that person off.
#YesAllWomen deals with this. Please pay attention to their stories.