Why I believe Feminism is needed and deserves to constantly be on the news
I saw this YouTube video and I completely agree with everything here. Catcalling serves no good purpose for any party. And these disgusting men need to be called-out.
But when I looked at the comments I was appalled. These people think that women dress the way they are to GET cat-called at. As if that's what women's main purpose in life — get the attention of men. These people (boys mostly) think they are entitled to give lascivious comments about them and their body and think that's ok. That that is acceptable. And that THAT is their right. Because why wear clothes that accentuate your female silhouette if not for wanting men to harass you on street? Right? RIGHT?
WRONG.
So wrong. Girls, yes I use the term girl not woman, because girls as young as 10. TEN. Get harassed. And do you think they wear provocative clothing? It's these pedophilic people who sexualize young girls. They're the ones who have a problem with girls, going about their day being girls. These people think that we should fix girls. We should teach these girls to be afraid of their bodies and cover them up and if they get harassed it's their fault not the harassers.
Another thing. Clothes. Women, regardless of what they wear. Hijab or not. T-shirt and pants or not. Dress or not. Still get harassed and/or raped the same. Why can't women wear whatever the hell they want whilst not being branded as a whore or a slut? Why can't we respect women and their decisions with whatever they want to do with their body?
Next is men thinking that they are entitled to catcalling, name-calling and harassment because a woman is right before them. They believe that it's the woman's fault that men react like that. As if women have a sign over their heads or on their clothes that says
"PLEASE HARASS ME TODAY! I NEED CATCALLING TO VALIDATE MY FEMININITY AND QUALITY IN PEOPLE ESPECIALLY IN MEN'S EYES."
They feel like these women compel them to act like beasts. No brains. No conscience. No decision-making capability of their own so they're swayed by their animalistic urges by what they see. Which makes them no different from plain animals.
Not only does it put the few good men out there in bad light but it assumes that they have no thinking capacity of their own. It teaches other people (men and boys) them that this is acceptable behavior. This is what men do to become men. This is what women and girls like. They act coy but they like it. Silence means yes. No means maybe. Pakipot lang yan. Ganyan talaga babae. Sa una ayaw pero magugustuhan ka rin nyan. Nyan. Like a thing. Like a thing to be whistled at if you what they see pleases them and put them down when it doesn't.
To people think it's just a normal greeting on the street, it's not to most women. People think most women are paranoid but when the odds are always against them who wouldn't?
When one goes about her day a complete stranger greets her or comments on any part of her is it supposed to feel welcoming? Would that be a compliment?
Because when a woman tried to respond to the greeting by saying thank you — since people think it's JUST a compliment — the stranger followed her, because he thought that because she responded, she was interested.
Tell me, how fucked up is that? She wanted to think positive. She thought it WAS just a compliment according to what people keep telling her. To just "take" the compliment.
If you don't respond = Prude, Ingrate, Paranoid, Bitch, Stupid.
If you respond = Interested, Slut, Whore, Asking for it, Stupid.
Either way you run the risk of still being harassed, mugged, raped, killed in any which combination if the attacker decides so.
It makes me so angry and so upset that people ,and not only men, who think like this. And then I see posts saying...
I'm so sick of people saying they're feminists.And then I saw this comment.
You're gay because you're a feminist.
Only gay men support feminists.
Femenazis are everywhere.
Ugly women made feminism.
Now, listen me out.
As a young, white, straight male, I approve of this. Also, I am amused by all the upset boys shouting "it's not fayre, wai iz talkin 2 a gurl on streat call street hrassment?!?!? not fair boohoo, fuk u radical feminazis! >:P".
Guys, you either are idiots, or have never, ever, in your life, talked to a girl about this - and similar - issues, in order to see her point of view.
Of course it's easy for us to say, "where is the beauty of romance, if this emerging cultural trend starts stopping us from whistling and beautiful ladies compliments in the street”? Well, that would sorta make sense in theory, but it's totally different in reality. A beautiful girl can be catcalled even 20 times a day just for walking on the fucking pavement. Every fucking day. That's her life in the big city.
Ok, you may say, she could dress more sober to avoid it - let's say it reduces the ratio to half. But it's still annoying and, plus WHY SHOULD YOU HAVE TO ADJUST YOUR WARDROBE, LOOKS AND LIFESTYLE TO FIT AN IMAGE WHAT CREEPS ON THE STREET ARE NOT ATTRACTED TO? That's fucking stupid, unequal, degrading and tiring. Let's imagine you had the chance to witness gender roles change for a month - guys acting like girls and vice-versa. Now, of course, the most attractive of you guys will be in heaven at first. Imagine walking on the street and being called out by different girls now and then. Going to the club and having a bunch of chicks grinding to you, fighting to get in your pants.
Guys, you either are idiots, or have never, ever, in your life, talked to a girl about this - and similar - issues, in order to see her point of view.
Of course it's easy for us to say, "where is the beauty of romance, if this emerging cultural trend starts stopping us from whistling and beautiful ladies compliments in the street”? Well, that would sorta make sense in theory, but it's totally different in reality. A beautiful girl can be catcalled even 20 times a day just for walking on the fucking pavement. Every fucking day. That's her life in the big city.
Ok, you may say, she could dress more sober to avoid it - let's say it reduces the ratio to half. But it's still annoying and, plus WHY SHOULD YOU HAVE TO ADJUST YOUR WARDROBE, LOOKS AND LIFESTYLE TO FIT AN IMAGE WHAT CREEPS ON THE STREET ARE NOT ATTRACTED TO? That's fucking stupid, unequal, degrading and tiring. Let's imagine you had the chance to witness gender roles change for a month - guys acting like girls and vice-versa. Now, of course, the most attractive of you guys will be in heaven at first. Imagine walking on the street and being called out by different girls now and then. Going to the club and having a bunch of chicks grinding to you, fighting to get in your pants.
That's fucking rad. The problem is, that's fucking rad for 3 days. After that, you should be unimpressed. After a few more days you get bored. After that, you get annoyed. Near the end of the month, I guarantee you will be pissed, annoyed and more reluctant to engage in social activities than you were before. You know why? Because you'll figure that you are treated as a valuable good that everybody's trying to get their hands on and fuck. You won't even know how much of a likeable person you are, and after a few awesome raging orgies with 10 chicks in a row, the excitement of that will not cover anymore for the awkward feelings you'll get. Plus, nobody says only the hot and cool chicks will hit on you. Every category you can imagine, and especially creepy, persuasive chicks. And that, my fellow guys, is the life of a woman. That's all the shit she has to go through. Of course, most women don't hate men, but having to put up with all these preexisting barriers and especially filtering through them to actually meet / fuck / date a cool guy is a job we guys don't have. Nobody says that all of those cat-callers are actually dangerous sex offenders and maybe in a different situation they might have a chance on the girls.
It's just that they're assholes who weren't educated how to approach women, and so, they just perpetuate this fuckery, bullshit phenomenon that scares women. Stop fucking whining, the guys in the vid deserved it. Anyone who acts like that deserves at least that. You are not entitled to be offended and in say an innocent tone „I can't believe these rude girls, the guys were only complimenting them and look who is harassed". Stop that shit. We all know that's not how things work.
Putting up that sudden urge of equality and calling it ”talking” is hypocritical, either voluntarily or involuntarily. And in the context of a proportion of cat-callers being creepy, aggressive (sometimes rapey) males, it's totally off charts and just helps sustain the patriarchal discourse (we are allowed to catcall girls in all ways because we're males, indifferent of their stance). Their stance on this matters the most, because they're the one being catcalled. You're not entitled to define what's normal and acceptable when you're on the oppressor's side.
You're not entitled, as a boss, to say whether your workers are well paid and satisfied with their job. They are.You're not entitled, as someone who did wrong to someone else, to say "well, I said I'm sorry so you should forgive me. If you don't forgive me, you're a cunt, I did my best". They are the ones suffering the wrong you did and they can forgive you or not.You're not entitled, in any position of power between two parties, out of which the other party is affected by your actions, to have anything to say regarding how they should feel about your position.That's dictatorship, and it's fucking mental.
We, men, are still in a position of power in society, whether you like to admit that or not. There are many social encounters where I feel slightly privileged just for being a male - from the way I'm looked upon when I say something in class, to being appreciated depending on my ”sex count” - society mostly rewards males for doing whatever the fuck they wanna do, being powerful, hitting on chicks, fucking as many chicks as they want, being loud and confident and taking charge of things.
You're not entitled, as a boss, to say whether your workers are well paid and satisfied with their job. They are.You're not entitled, as someone who did wrong to someone else, to say "well, I said I'm sorry so you should forgive me. If you don't forgive me, you're a cunt, I did my best". They are the ones suffering the wrong you did and they can forgive you or not.You're not entitled, in any position of power between two parties, out of which the other party is affected by your actions, to have anything to say regarding how they should feel about your position.That's dictatorship, and it's fucking mental.
We, men, are still in a position of power in society, whether you like to admit that or not. There are many social encounters where I feel slightly privileged just for being a male - from the way I'm looked upon when I say something in class, to being appreciated depending on my ”sex count” - society mostly rewards males for doing whatever the fuck they wanna do, being powerful, hitting on chicks, fucking as many chicks as they want, being loud and confident and taking charge of things.
Whenever a girl, however, does one of that stuff, society tends to raise an eyebrow, laugh, dismiss her or „put her in her place”. It's not a fair game. And un unfair game requires unfair treatment to be equalized. If you deem that women come up with „more peaceful” ways of sorting this out, you're patronizing and still a sexist. You don't really reach out for the fair game, you just want your privileges untouched.
You want the women to make themselves heard in a way you're still comfortable in your position. That's neither tolerance, nor getting on their side, that's still following your own interests. And yes, considering the actual context, the women are allowed to be a little mean. Actually, I'm amazed they haven't yet organized riots, beating up random men on the street. They must be really peaceful beings. So, in the end, butthurt meninists, give us a break and take pull your heads from your asses. And start listening to what the women have to say.
To the person who wrote this I applaud you. Doesn't matter if you're an actual guy or not. These things really should be said — shouted even— out loud.
Because honestly, I don't want to live in a world where I have to teach my younger sister to cover her body up because it's dangerous. That having a female body does things to men that make them become brain-dead beasts.
xx,
2 Comments
I STRONGLY agree with this post! Ugh! I am sick and tired of reading and hearing comments that blame women when they get catcalled, even raped! Many guys kept saying that there's already equality between sexes, obviously they are not well informed about reality. *sigh* I'm not ashamed to say that I am a feminist and there are things happening until now that just gotta stop.
ReplyDeleteTsk tsk yeah. They're very ignorant. :/ Yay! Apir fellow feminist.
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