On the topic of Social Justice Warriors and Keyboard debaters…
I recently felt compelled to comment on an old friend’s Facebook post because of the image he posted:
“Missing a comma. Not like they ran out of room for one………”
At first, I wanted to scroll past it and ignore it. Which I did, for a day or so. And then another person made the comment, “Prettier to who though? Everyone’s standard of pretty is not the same. It could also imply internal beauty.”
And opened the flood gates for dialogue.
Before I could comment, I had to do some introspective thinking about why this picture coupled with the insensitive comments bothered me so much. It’s not like I am slightly overweight like this girl or would even wear that shirt. I do try to be politically correct, but at the same time, I think our society has gotten too extreme about being politically correct. We live in a society where if you don’t know that gender is a spectrum or the full acronyms of LGBTQIA (seriously, idk what the IA mean…), some people may consider you ignorant for even having to ask. And dare I say it…. but… some people are just too damn sensitive. And this comes from a sensitive person. Essentially, worrying about hurting other peoples’ feelings can trap us in a box that close us off from facing uncomfortable situations. It can hamper dialogue by being too afraid to talk about culture appropriation, feminism, sexism, misogyny, xenophobia, climate change, and whatever fill-in-the-blank debatable, hot topic for fear of hurting feelings. These conversations are necessary to make people feel uncomfortable and deal with the why’s and how’s of that discomfort. That’s how policy change happens- through conversations about the uncomfortable. To say ‘I’m not alone in this, I’m not the only one that feels this way about X,Y,Z, and here’s why it matters/why it needs to stop…’
Back to the photo; I think it was the general cruelty insinuated in the original comments and poking fun at someone comfortable in their own skin. Who are those people to judge? It’s a golden rule, or at least a rule my mother taught, “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” It’s not our place to judge other people based on appearances. And is making fun of someone with brightly colored hair really going to make yourself a better person? Doubt it.
At first I asked “Why” my FB friend felt the need to re-post the image. His answer was that she looked like a modern day feminist, which he is adamantly against. He equated modern day feminism with man hating, and said “Women in America have the same equal opportunities as Men.”
:::Insert Deep Breath:::
And following suit, my SJW fingers got the best of me. Coupled with my innate ability to seek out the facts and numbers, this was what I posted next:
You may want to grab a drink for this…….
Yes, there are man hating feminists. And it’s subjective to say whether or not they make up the majority.
I identify as a feminist because women in the US still are not treated as equally as men.
Women in the United States do not get paid maternity leave, even when it takes a male and female smashing uglies to make a child. And forget about paternity leave… that’s even more unheard of.
Women have had to fight for free birth control and men complained about the side effects of male birth control that women have dealt with for years.
Before the affordable care act, being a woman, in and of itself was considered a pre-existing health condition and resulted in higher premiums… just for having female reproductive parts.
Woman are STILL paid 80 cents to every dollar a man makes… even when compensating for maternity leave.
On another topic, One in 3 women have been a victim of some form of physical violence by an intimate partner…. Not saying men can’t be victims of rape or sexual assault, but it’s much more common for women. And when we talk about equality, it doesn’t mean that ‘Oh so if I can hit a man, I can also hit a woman and get away with it’…. Dick head, abusive boyfriends still get away with it and are already hitting women. And as far as rape culture goes, we should enforce the importance of consent, instead of ‘Oh, we’re both drunk, it’s okay.’ Instead, we blame women for what they were wearing, or allowing themselves to be in a situation that could lead to a guy not being able to keep his dick in his pants.
And as far as political representation go, women make up 51% of the population, and 19% of congress… resulting in a bunch of old dudes deciding what women can and cannot do with their bodies.
So no, women are not treated equally as men. And women of color have it even worse. For example, the recent movie ‘Hidden Figures’ highlighted the struggles the women behind the NASA space launch faced. Despite being genius mathematicians, we are just now hearing of their story.
And human sex trafficking and genital mutilation, while they may seem synonymous with developing countries, still occur in America.
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35846207
So yes, other countries may have it worse than women in America. But America still has roughly 100 years ahead of us before men and women are considered ‘equal’.
I apologize for the diatribe. But this is something that resonates with me and is important that people see the big picture rather than holding onto their own beliefs. Yes, there are women hating feminists and they also deserve an awakening of their own. Hopefully, I don’t come across like that. I believe in the facts and I am skeptical about everything I see on the internet. My intent with this is to hopefully get you to ask questions about the world instead of assuming things you read on Fox or Breitbart, or listen to from Tomi Laren and Milo Yadayadayada…. At least check both sides of the story.
End Rant.
I clearly went overboard. But you know what? He didn’t threaten to delete me off his FB, he didn’t call me names (liberal insert blank word here, triggered, snowflake, ect.), and he didn’t dismiss what I had to say. He took a genuine interest in what I had to say, provided his own feedback. How is it that two people on social media can have a civil debate and consider each other’s viewpoints, but the members of the senate and congress cannot? Aren’t they supposed to be the professionals at this? Aren’t they the ones who are elected to decide what is best for the American people? Clearly, our democracy does not have our best interest in mind.
So the question then becomes, how do we engage in conversation with legislatures who have opposing viewpoints with members they represent? The answer is not easy. Online petitions don’t have much leeway. And they are a passive way to say ‘Hey! I support this cause! But only if I don’t have to do any actual work to support the cause…’ Research has shown that the best way to get results is contacting your representative through more direct means such as phone calls, letters, or emails. Yes, it takes a little longer, but the extra effort shows that the issue resonates with you at a personal level.
And when that doesn’t work, we march. As witnessed with the Women’s March (the largest protest in history, worldwide!) and this weekend’s past Climate and Science marches. America is great in that we can tell the man to suck it. Unfortunately, for right now, we have a man who leads our country with the motto of “America First” but little substantial actions to back that claim. If he wanted to put Americans First, maybe he should re-drain the swamp and actually listen to the Americans he is disenfranchising.
On that note, has anyone seen the new Heineken Beer ad?
#politics #SocialJusticeWarrior #SJW #Feminism #Misogyny #JoinTheConversation #DrinkCokeNotPepsi #OpenYourWorld