Don’t Get Distracted by Their Hate
American women can’t afford to lose focus
As much as a writer needs to grab the attention of their readers in the very first sentence, I refuse to start here with an incendiary, misogynistic quote, one of the many I have seen men advertise on their social media feeds or in the comments of female content creators’ videos and essays.
To do so would undercut the point I want to make — and would give amplification to the voices of a large and growing demographic who have always had the privilege of being amplified.
But not here. Not now. This is my space for my voice.
It was not an easy choice to make. After all, abuse in all forms must be named, must be spoken aloud, if we want to have any hope of continuing to identify it and look out for it — and ideally hold someone accountable for perpetrating it.
Right now, however, in this vulnerable, post-election moment, I think we’re all seeing these words and the women here can guess what they are even if they haven’t. And we know that after what’s just been decided in the polls, there will be no accountability.
In this moment, what’s most important is our staunch resolution to distance ourselves from those who are actively seeking to harm us — and for me, that means choosing, at least in…
