I usually feel overly conscious of myself when I post on social media. The urge to delete my post comes immediately after I hit the post button. Then, I begin a mental war with myself. Leave it. No, take it down. No one wants to hear what you have to say. Your thoughts sound uninformed. The person currently reading your post is laughing at you. You should be ashamed of how you have exposed yourself.
Like you, I agree that these thoughts are brutal. We wouldn’t say these to other people, would we? Why should I then have those thoughts about myself? This is how I know that they are not mine… at least not from the real me.
So, I will share my thoughts, learn, improve the way I think, and all other positive stuff. As much as I want you to know this, I am also letting myself know that it is unfair to shut myself up, especially when I truly believe in what I want to say. So, I won’t.
Not shutting myself up means I have to tell you what got me shaking today. It’s the audacity of people to tell me that I am worth nothing for no other reason than my being female. They tell me that I should submit to a human being like myself; a man. They inform me in no uncertain terms that my time is limited and should be expressly used to tend to a man. It is hard to stay calm when I hear claims like this.
Let me show you what I saw today.
There you go. I am most upset because a woman posted that. Here’s my social media reaction to the post:
“This is such a dangerous way to think. How can you think yourself so valueless? It’s sad that ideologies like this exist and are actively being passed down to younger generations. Don’t believe this. IT IS A LIE designed to keep you, a girl/woman, from reaching your potential as a human being. The essence of being female is definitely NOT to be an object that submits to the will of another person; a male human. If you think like this, it is time to escape this mental prison.
Practically, you must actively pursue financial independence. This is one of the tools that is used to subdue women. Alongside this is taking ownership of your mental and emotional needs. Be satisfied with what you can do for yourself at the moment. Know what you want too. It even makes it easier to manage your relationship with others.
Possess some common sense so that you can rationalise silly propositions like this idea of women being unequal to men. It shouldn’t even be an argument. There shouldn’t be a need to explain “what kind of equality” is being referred to. We should not have to explain that equality and equity are two separate concepts that coexist for an optimal human society to thrive.
It breaks my heart to see women believe that they are lesser beings.
Such injustice they do themselves!
It is even worse that they teach this to younger girls. Don’t we realise that this destroys the confidence of innocent girls? This is indeed a sad ideology that has managed to destabilise humanity.
It infuriates me.
The woman said a man at 50 can conveniently get a girl… A GIRL of 16/18 years old?
Does this not make you feel sick?
This is the kind of sick power relegated to men.
The bone I choose to pick today is with the women who encourage such behaviour by telling girls that they are commodities who should be decorated and preserved for the enjoyment of boys and men.”
I wrote this paper last year… grudgingly. At this time, I had resigned from gender issues because I found the societal reality of gender highly distressing. Every day, I would see people engaged in “gender wars” and did not want to be a part of it. My thought was (and still is) that I should not have to explain to anyone why I have equal rights as another human being. Being made to defend my rights seems undignifying.
How dare you proclaim that I am a lesser being because of my gender? Arguing with you is a waste of my valuable time.
So, I washed my hands off any gendered arguments.
However, I realised that choosing to stay quiet simply equates to contributing further to the rotten ideology. If you or I do not tackle skewed gender propositions, we allow them to thrive and infect generations upon generations.
These are 500 words (or more ?)! Talk to you tomorrow!