We are in this immense age of information. With internet search engines, various news outlets and even social media, there are a plethora of methods to obtain information. So why is it that there are topics of discussion where many continue to act completely ignorant in? With topics of racism, homophobia and sexism, there are still many debates and arguments centered around these issues. It is as if people are refusing to use this information or just ignoring that these are issues that we've dealt with for far too long. While I have many words for the racists and homophobes who send paragraphs back and forth with folks calling out their, quite frankly, crap, a story that more so encompasses sexism is what I'll be expanding on.
A now 28 year old Cyntoia Brown is currently serving life for killing her predator, rapist and overall coward at 16. She, a child who was robbed of her innocence, has been now criminalized for saving herself in a world that wasn't planning to. Quite frankly, this is the kind of piss poor results we receive from our justice system when is comes to girls and abuse. Girls and women aren't protected, but instead penalized for being exploited. All the while men constantly victim blame and critique women on how they should be conducting themselves. In the same breath they come out of the wood work to defend rapists. They come in full silence as their problematic homeboys perpetuate toxic masculinity. These men have the audacity to deem what is a "respectable woman" while never being a respectable man. I'm completely over it and have no room for their toxic ideals anymore. It's time for men to be accountable. It's time to do better, fellas.
It's almost hilarious hearing the jargon coming from these kinds of men. They are the same ones who cannot see how cat calling is actual violence towards women. They hear the stories of women who were murdered for not giving their number, dancing with or talking to a man. A man who decided because this woman didn't want to engage him that she was better off dead. Because so many men only still view women as sexual objects and couldn't fathom them in any other capacity. I hate these men. I want to fight and destroy all these men. I want to save women from the tyranny these men create. Unfortunately, I cannot. I can only be an unapologetic women. I can only show young girls that being a women is a lifelong journey of self worth and self respect. I can only make sure the women in my life walk their paths with confidence and assurance in self. I can only tell men who I see acting out in this gross manner to cut the garbage. We never were or ever will be yours. So learn to appreciate women they way you should; the day you are obsolete is near.
Navigating in an androgynous society is scary as a woman and stories like Cyntoia, quite similar to Breesha's reinforce this fear. While shifting the way men view women usually seems pointless, there is a clear effort being made. And this is significant, because it is coming from men, to men.
Seeing men, ones I know and ones on social media, call out their fellow men and start serious conversations about the trash tendencies within their community, brings me a peace I never knew. It lets me know that there may be a future where young girls don't have to avoid certain uncles and family friends when they come over. It let's me dream of the moment a young girl finally decides to call out her abuser, that police and family don't meet her with the question "what were you wearing?" It just let's me know there is a chance the women growing up in the next generation won't have to deal with the trauma that is abuse from men in a normative capacity.
I just really want men to stop using their platforms to perpetuate the mess about how women and girls should be. Just stop. Get your own self together. Make sure you're living up to the expectations that make a man a man. Or even better just acknowledge toxic masculinity is a thing and see how you can not project it.
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