It was bound to pop up sooner or later. . .I am one after all but I also fit into a couple of categories. I make it a personal goal of mine to break as many stereotypes as possible. I'll focus on just one tic that always pops into politics--women's right.
You think after thousands of years on this planet, people would realize that people are people, that we have our strengths and we have our weaknesses. Seriously, some of the things I have briefly glanced at that politicians have said about women and their rights are ludicrous. I do say briefly glance because if I were to actually keep up with politics my blood pressure would be sky high and my faith in humamity utterly lost.
In a lot of Asian cultures, males are more valuable than girls. In India, it's not uncommon when a women is pregnant for families try to find out the gender ASAP so that if it's a girl they try to force her to miscarriage whether she wants to or not. That way of thinking is followed enough that there is a pretty large shortage of girls for each boy. I have heard it goes as high as 10 boys for each girl available but don't quote me on that as I have yet to check those numbers for fear of hearing it is true. Of course, in the news there were those stories of young females being gang raped, which only reinforced my feelings of not wanting to know how bad it is in that country. Please understand my desire to hide my head in the sand is not from not caring but from knowing that there is little I can do to change what has happened. Continuing on with that vein, the gang rapes here in the United States of teenaged girls as they passed out drunk have headlines. There are continued stories of sexual harrassment of women in the military. Seriously, women are not the play things of men. Women are not there for the taking, not to use for the sole pleasure of men. Women are your sisters, your mothers, your daughters, your family members, whether yours or someone else's. You wouldn't want another man to brutally violate your mother or your sister or your daughter. You wouldn't want it to happen to you if you were the victim. It doesn't matter if she's passed out drunk, or if she started out being ok with the situation. If she says no, it means no. If she can't say no, that is not permission.
Women are thinking, feeling creatures, as people are. We do not need to be put in binders. We do not need to be told what to do. We can make up our own minds, choose education, make decisions about our own bodies. Rape is not a choice. A woman does not choose to be raped like that. Birth control is a choice. She does not automatically become a second class citizen the moment she becomes pregnant, whether by choice or not. I'm not saying that abortions should happen a dime a dozen but there are situations unique to each person and should be considered carefully. A little bit of logic with a good bit of compromise goes a long way.
I could go on and on but I've made my two major points and I hope it's been food for thoughts.
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