Today is International Women’s Day. While the posts on social media telling us to enjoy the day are nice, we need more. We need allies and advocates.
There are numerous ways you can advocate for women. Here are 7 to get you started:
- Stop believing women are more emotional than men
- Acknowledge that abuse against women is ignored
- Figure out why you are intimidated
- Stop making “jokes” about women being aggressive or crazy
- Acknowledge that society encourages abuse against women
- Acknowledge that the odds are against us in almost every area
- Know that both men and women have biases against women
Stop believing women are more emotional than men
The idea that women are more emotional than men creates a stigma in which women are perceived as weak and vulnerable. Women are then treated with less respect by both men and women. They are given less opportunity and are thought of as not being able to “handle” difficult things.
But it has been scientifically proven that women are not more emotional than men. The idea women are more emotional is crafted to control and keep women down. You can help women by acknowledging scientific fact and rejecting false narratives.
This looks like acknowledging that the man who is angry and screaming is just as emotional as a woman who is crying. They are just expressing different emotions.
Acknowledge that abuse against women is ignored
Did you know that because of domestic abuse, concussions effect more women than men. Yet, studies are largely for NFL players.
Jimmy Carter believes the mistreatment of women is the number one human rights abuse. Every day, 3 women are killed by an intimate partner, sometimes in front of their children, like this man who ran his wife over while their 3 children were in the car.
To put that in perspective, that is about 1,095 women a year, which is higher than the number of women killed in 9/11 and the number of people of all races killed by police per year. When a man is killed by police, there are riots. When a woman is killed by her husband, there is silence.
Figure out why you are intimidated
Some say “she’s not intimidating, she is driven.” The more accurate statement is, “she is not intimidating, you are intimidated.” If you think a woman is intimidating, shift the focus to yourself and ask why you are intimidated. Ask yourself: if a man acted this was would I be as intimidated?
Stop making “jokes” about women being aggressive or crazy
Women can be just as aggressive and dangerous as men, the first school shooting was by a woman, but women typically aren’t as aggressive due to societal training. While men are typically the aggressor, jokes about women “killing their husbands for not bringing home chocolate” make their rounds on social media and get likes and laughing comments.
This creates a lightheartedness around the fact men are aggressive towards women. It makes women out to be the aggressor and allows abusers to hide behind a false narrative forwarded by “jokes.”
Similarly, jokes about women being crazy are rampant. Women may call your phone repeatedly, but a man is more likely to come to a woman’s house and murder her. That is the craziness.
Acknowledge that society encourages abuse against women
1 in 5 women are rapped, 1 in 4 severely abused in their lifetime.
Rapper Eminem wrote a song about telling his baby’s mother that he was going to kill their daughter in front of the mother, then kill the mother and tell police the mother killed the daughter so he had to kill her. He won a Grammy. I call it the “Kim” excuse, child and wife murderer Chris Watts used it.
Do you think a cop who wrote a song about murdering a black man would win a grammy? No. No, he would not… for obvious reasons.
This may sound intense and grim, but a reality form many women is that society does not support them or care when they are abused and murdered. In fact, abuse against women is encouraged… “I used to love her, but I had to kill her.”
Acknowledge that the odds are against us in almost every area
Women who make more money than their partners are more likely to be cheated on, gender defamation is rampant on social media with people like Andrew Tate who advocate that women should be used as objects to make men money, and the number of women executives is decreasing every year.
Think of any aspect of life and there is a statistic or proven fact that shows women are at a disadvantage. When a woman speaks up, she is told she is making herself a victim. We have learned to shut up, but it is not sustainable. 33% of teenage girls has had suicidal thoughts, compared to 14% of teenage boys.
Fuck, even my razors are more expensive because they are pink, and the charities that are meant to protect us like the pink foundation, make money off our suffering and knowingly sell products with chemicals that cause the cancer they say they are trying to cure.
Let us not get into how the majority of modern medicine is geared towards men and doctors dismiss women’s pain.
Know that both men and women have biases against women
Hearing all these things about women can make you uneasy. It doesn’t feel good to know there is a large majority of society who is being abused and mistreated, especially when people you love are women. Instead of feeling upset, we need you to acknowledge the biases, and then work to correct them within your mentality. Lead by example, speak out when you see them in others.
There are too many biases to list here. You can start learning about them by googling “biases against women” and reflecting on past times that bias was activated in your own mentality.
Things may seem pretty grim for women right now, but with your help we can turn this around. Thank you for your support.
Photo by Katherine Hanlon
what do you think?