Believe Them.

You should believe women.

Think about how immensely difficult it must be to talk about sexual assault. Think about our society and how sex is still seen as this unholy, unspeakable act of hedonism. Think about how women are objectified in film and TV. It’s improving, but it’s still nowhere near okay. 

Think about women and how they’re taught to be demure, soft-spoken, to take up as little space as possible. Think about trans women who mostly don’t even get a fighting chance in this world because there is a violent resistance to their very existence. Think about how they have to operate differently in the world as women because people don’t understand how women can still be women in a nonheteronormative/strictly binary sense. Think about how these women don’t get common, decent respect. Think about how people won’t value them as people- HUMANS. We must be better as a society.

Think about all those things and then think about the reactions you’ve had/you’ve seen to sexual assault when even a shadow of a doubt is cast on the accuser. Think about how the first reaction is, what was she wearing. Think about how she’s instantly labeled something fiercely harsh and explicitly, negatively sexual because she was violated. Now think about why it may take so much time for a woman to think about all of these things, have to weigh the backlash for an assault on their bodies, and maybe think it’s not worth it while the men go on to assault their next victims. It’s because society breeds an acceptance of this behavior. It’s because it’s too much to think about and even more to remedy. It’s because we’ve grown so accustomed to letting men get with abusing women, instilling misogyny into the core of American values.

You should believe men.

Think about how hard it is in a society that embraces hyper-masculinity to a fault. Think about how men have been taught to ignore or suppress feelings so as to not seem like ‘a girl,’ because femininity is the enemy in a patriarchal society. Think about how men are assumed to be the aggressor in any situation, especially in a sexual situation. Think about the rigidity of male sexuality and the continued stigma of the expression of love between two men. Think about how this dynamic is problematic. Think about how men don’t want to come forward because of this blatant stigma. Think about the church. Think about the many cases of abuse that have been denied or paid off. Think about how these very instances have made men and boys not even involved with the church see how abuse isn’t taken seriously in a place where you’re supposed to feel the safest. If there’s no justice there, then why even bother reporting sexual abuse.

Sexual assault is not exclusive to gender, sexual orientation, identity, politics, religion, race, creed. It has nothing to do with political correctness or policing rights. It has everything to do with respect. It has everything to do with valuing a human as a human and knowing that basic human rights are being scrutinized, analyzed, conjectured, but not thought about as THE BASIC HUMAN RIGHT TO NOT BE MOLESTED, TO NOT BE TOUCHED, TO NOT FEEL UNSAFE. It’s a basic human right to privacy of your fucking body and to feel unsafe in any situation because someone doesn’t feel they need to respect your body is intrinsically unacceptable. No one- NO ONE should be made to feel sexual assault is allowable EVER.

So, when there are men/women being accused of sexual assault. BELIEVE the accusations. Yes, there is that tiny percentage that throws everyone off, but look at that percentage and think about the many women in your life. Would you rather immediately negate their accusations and continue this outrageous cycle of victim-blaming, or would you rather give that woman space and time to share her story without instant judgment?

All the women and men who have been so brave to come forward have been a true inspiration and I hope this momentum continues so we can all learn and grow from this blaring mistake of our past. Unfortunately, the leader of the land has yet to face any consequences of his actions, but I have hope that these other accusations will pressure the GOP to do something right and good for once.

Kanye (and that other guy), Sashay Away.

While minding my own business at brunch with friends my feminism was assaulted by some news I discovered about the infamous Mr. West and some guy name Future who put their pea brains together to create a game that has me solidifying my disapproval of the way women are sometimes represented in rap culture. I mean. WHAT THE BEEP.

So, this ingenious game is pretty simple (as is the entire team behind it I’m assuming). The object is to toss gold chains at women in bikinis on the beach to turn them into LITERAL TROPHIES. No, this is not a test. This is a real live video game that was sent through and approved by I don’t know how many departments and somehow STILL made it’s way to the masses without the bat of an eye. No, instead Kanye insists, this game “empowers women,” which is not surprising coming from the lummox who consistently compares himself to Jesus. Listen, He- crap, I mean he’s a musical genius and I get that, but he’s still a bit- er, how can I put this mildly, not so genius in so many other ways. I mean I know he’s like sad or whatever, but GET IT TOGETHA.

Ugh. As if it isn’t hard enough to keep men from objectifying women for walking down the street, now they’re being rewarded for capturing trophy wives with GOLD CHAINS. I mean, us women loooove money and being referred to as trophy wives, because we’re all vapid and shallow. Intelligent conversation?! NO! DIAMONDS FOREVER.

C'mon. I can’t.

On the real though, they got so much press cuz of this nonsense and sigh, it’s annoying that Kanye ALWAYS WINDS UP WINNING.

AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!