To the man who said that I can make sexism nonexistent if I just "laugh it off" every time someone makes a sexist joke. Humor can conquer everything if you consider everything a joke.
So I just need to laugh it off. See the world's sexism as humorous.
When I was 12, I needed to laugh it off that two men shouted come-ons at me from their car, and I didn't understand why my mother got so upset.
When I was 15, and I was sexually assaulted for the first time. When I looked at my closet and couldn't wear the clothes that I wore when it happened because I felt so ashamed
When I was 16 and I had a close friend tell me that I was a terrible person because my main priority was to have a high powered career and not to get a husband and a family?
When I was 18 and sexually assaulted for the second time, I should have seen it all as one big joke on me. When my mother told me that she hoped I would learn better for next time, that she didn't know what victim blaming was- I wasn't laughing, so that's why I was having such a hard time.
When I was 19 and thought that my boyfriend of three months was going to rape me because I was still coping with the scars of being sexually assaulted twice.
Every single time that I've gotten upset that a man has touched my body without permission, only to have him get angry that I wasn't enjoying it.
Every time that I've been called a slut, or a whore, or a bitch
Every time I've been cat-called while walking in public
Every time that I've felt my body pulse with adrenaline because I'm walking to my car at night and I'm scared for my own safety.
I just needed to laugh it off.
To the man who told me that if I want to make sexism go away, I should follow the advice of Morgan Freeman and "stop talking about it"
I need to stop talking about the fact that the media uses women as objects?
that they are posed semi nude in front of cars and burgers in order to seem pleasing to the male gaze?
I need to stop talking about the Steubenville High School rape case? When the boys recieved their sentencing, that it was "Incredibly difficult to watch what happened as these two young men that had such promising futures...literally watched as they believed their lives fell apart...when that sentence came down"
I am not going to be silent.
I am not going to sit down.
I am going to talk about it.
I am going to continue self-proclaiming myself as a feminist.
This is not a joke, and this is not going away.
The communal ignorance that has led to such rampant sexism can only be combatted with educated discussions from feminists- both men and women- who realize that the status is NOT quo
We are not equally paid. We are not equally represented.
Until the victim blaming and the slut shaming stops
Until we start seeing justice for women
I will not laugh it off.
I will not turn a blind eye.
I WILL NOT BE SILENCED.
