I was raised in a family of strong women, working women when women’s jobs were to stay home and raise the kids. My grandma is a civil engineer, only a few other women studied engineering with her in the 50’s. She always worked and she raised four daughters, all of whom went to college and graduated as an architect, two engineers and a teacher. My mother, the teacher, the best teacher, got her master’s degree in technology for education. My great grandma worked in journalism and in public relations in the 40’s. My great aunt studied chemistry.
I have grown up seeing that women are equal, if not stronger than men. In my family, we make the rules, so I am always taken aback a little bit when I see and hear the things men say. I can’t believe men still think that way and I sometimes think they’re just joking, they don’t really mean it. And it keeps happening, todays my friend Gabriela said “Just yesterday a man in a crowd of people decided it was ok to grab my ass. In my fury, I turned and pushed him and yelled he wasn’t allowed to do that. He pushed me back. Today I can’t shake off the feeling of fury, disgust and sadness. A guy friend told me “Women should expect things like that to happen”. And I say today, NO, we shouldn’t. How many times do women, and men have to be victims of sexual harassment? Society still see things like this like normal. We need to start making a difference by re adjusting our mentalities. I’m glad Amber shared her experience. Let’s create conscience”. I have been sheltered just because I didn’t grow up hearing or seeing men in my family talk like that or doing that.
She also shared this article, https://unstoppablemaria.com/2016/10/08/a-year-and-a-half-can-you-believe-it/#more-8400-just-shared-her-own-personal-sexual-assault?bffbmain&ref=bffbmain&utm_term=4ldqpgp#4ldqpgp. This shows how men think it’s acceptable to just do what they want with us, when it’s not.
Hearing and reading what “that candidate” ( I will not mention his name) said about women is just completely unacceptable. I know he is a horrible person with less money than he brags so much about, horrible manners and no education or brain, but that is just gross, and we live in a world were some people do accept that. Men say those things because they heard them somewhere and they are accepted by other men. I hear that that’s the ways men talk in the gym, in frats and other places where it’s just guys, no women, but I say no; who cares if there are no women around, that is disrespectful, disgusting and what that candidate was saying is a felony.
As my grand mother says, “él no tiene madre” ( he doesn’t have a mother). He doesn’t have a grandmother, a sister, a daughter, an aunt, a grand daughter, either. Who brought him and other men into this world?
A woman.
It’s time for “locker room” talk to end for men start treating us as equals, with the respect we deserve, and for both women and men to stop laughing and accepting this.
Stop talking down at us, stop grabbing us places you only wish you could grab, or acting like you own us. You don’t.
Unstoppable María 