The Times Are Finally Changing

I have always been very outspoken about the way men treat women in this world.   It was of great interest to see and hear the "#MeToo" tag grabbing the attention of the popular culture back in the day. Practically every single woman I know has one of these stories, and some of those stories are just horrifying.  Most of them made me angry. In this day and age, old men think that their behavior is okay, because they are men.   

Times have changed.  

Women have been told to look pretty and smile, with the "or else" remaining unsaid.  We are patronized, from the tone of voice to the occasional pat on the head.  We are grabbed at, pulled at, and sometimes we are surrounded. My life has been one of harassment and abuse, just like every other woman out there.  I  had to deal with catcalls, invitations to "party", and demands that I smile.  To paraphrase Oprah in The Color Purple, "a girl child ain't safe in a world full of men." 

Times have changed.

I grew up paying attention to everything, because things could become unsafe way too fast, and I am an anxious person.  My teenage years and college were full of boys and men constantly telling me to "smile". Or complaining because I was smarter than they were, which just wasn't "attractive".  Having to play "dumb" around men because it hurt their feelings when a girl corrected them in public left a bad taste in my mouth.   When I finally got out of school and entered my chosen career, the superintendent of my school district made up a funny-not funny nickname for me and announced it at a district-wide meeting.  I was expected to just smile and get over every little comment, every little pat on the head. If I would have made a big deal about it, I knew that I would not have had a job. 

That was just the way it was. Except now it is not.

None of what was happening is pretty, or even decent.  If men ever experienced a fraction of what their wives, mother, sisters, and daughters have to go through daily, in some cases, they would lay down and die. Women do not lay down and die, however. We are, at our core, survivors. 

Now, maybe we can thrive. I have seen shoots of female greatness sprouting in the fields where we live, and I am inspired. All women can look to Vice President Kamala Harris for inspiration. Or Amanda Gorman. Or our mothers, who brought us into the world. Or our daughters, who will carry us into the future.