Everyday Sexism

I follow a Twitter account named @EverydaySexism. The account description reads, "Documenting experiences of sexism, harassment and assault to show how bad the problem is & create solidarity." NARAL, Media Matters and Amanda Marcotte also follow.

They retweeted a message from the account @sportswomenIRL that read, "today the Sunday times sports section had 84 male pictures and 4 female in its 17 pages." There are a couple of reasons why this may be obvious. I hesitate to respond on Twitter because feminists are known to be touchy and would rather block or ignore than debate.

One reason is that men's professional sports bring in virtually all the revenue. Collegiate sports have to subsidize money-losing women's sports teams with money-making men's teams. The school I attended wouldn't even field a men's football team because of Title IX.

Another reason is that a lot of female athletes are kind of gnarly. Seems like lesbians dominate most sports. And if an attractive woman is featured in a publication, it will be said she got her picture in because of her looks and not her talent. The cry of SEXISM would issue forth from aggrieved radical feminists.

@EverydaySexism also has a lot of tweets that I would describe as unwanted sexual attention. Twitter user @Imogennatalie used the hashtag to tweet that "More good news - the van driver on my walk to work approved of my outfit! Imagine my relief!" This is a moral gray area for me.

I completely empathize with this woman, and I understand that comments like this are usually unwelcome. Some women are afraid that they will be followed and sexually attacked. That is one reason I limit my attention to appreciative glances. And for me, there was always a chance that the woman would go get her big brother or male friend to beat me up.

Perhaps she would feel safer if she were carrying a concealed weapon.

Because what are the alternatives? The account @EverydaySexism and the Change.org petition they are promoting will help bring attention to the subject, and make people aware of the issue. I'm okay with that. The day when radical feminists control all aspects of society are a long way off. Until then, employing brain scans and visual stimuli to screen potential rapists out of society is just a pipe dream.

I'm not okay with criminalizing speech. There are already speech codes on campus and sexual harassment codes for the workplace. There shouldn't be in the street. If the speech crosses the line and becomes menacing, there are criminal codes for that.

What's important to remember is that human females present themselves as ready for sex every day of the year, even when post-menopausal. Human females are the only mammals capable of projecting capability for sex while not in estrus.

Radical feminism has pretty much subtracted men out of the family. It would be considered slut-shaming to point out that women's clothing choices affect how they are perceived and interacted with. It would be considered regressive to point out that a woman travelling with a male companion would cut down on unwanted sexual attention. The solution is to ask women to accept responsibility for their hard-won agency.