My AP Literature teacher, Mr. Mercer, once asked my class a serious question: why do women apologize so much? A thoughtful pause followed while the class, females especially, pondered the answer. My teacher elaborated with a short anecdote about a female student from a previous class: Mr. Mercer was standing in front of the doorway before class, speaking with another student. The female student approached the doorway so Mr. Mercer and the student courteously moved out of the way. The female student nodded and uttered a quick “sorry” as she hustled past them. At this point, my teacher stops and looks at the class. He appears utterly dumbfounded. “Why would she apologize if I was the one in the way?”
Women experience the effects of growing up in a patriarchal world every day, sometimes unconsciously so. Something as simple as an unnecessary apology is an example of the …show more content…
When little girls are sexually harassed for the first time, they are told “Boys will be boys” or even worse, “It just means he likes you!” Therefore, a young, impressionable girl is taught that her feelings of discomfort are not a big deal while also learning to correlate sexual harassment with admiration, both of with are extremely false. Being a boy does not equal possessing the ability to harass any girl they want; and being a girl does not equal needing to put up with that harassment. Boys and girls are first and foremost, human beings, and the only thing every human being should be is respectful.
Instead of teaching young women their bodies are naturally distracting and prone to some form of harassment, we should teach men to be respectful of women’s bodies. Men are capable of respecting a woman’s decision to wear whatever she chooses without using it as an invitation, because what a woman is wearing never indicates if she is “asking for it.” In fact, nothing a man or woman does justifies unwanted attention, sexual or
Women experience the effects of growing up in a patriarchal world every day, sometimes unconsciously so. Something as simple as an unnecessary apology is an example of the …show more content…
When little girls are sexually harassed for the first time, they are told “Boys will be boys” or even worse, “It just means he likes you!” Therefore, a young, impressionable girl is taught that her feelings of discomfort are not a big deal while also learning to correlate sexual harassment with admiration, both of with are extremely false. Being a boy does not equal possessing the ability to harass any girl they want; and being a girl does not equal needing to put up with that harassment. Boys and girls are first and foremost, human beings, and the only thing every human being should be is respectful.
Instead of teaching young women their bodies are naturally distracting and prone to some form of harassment, we should teach men to be respectful of women’s bodies. Men are capable of respecting a woman’s decision to wear whatever she chooses without using it as an invitation, because what a woman is wearing never indicates if she is “asking for it.” In fact, nothing a man or woman does justifies unwanted attention, sexual or