Condoning into condemning

Picture courtesy of Microsoft

I had a seriously angry moment today when I read a post George Takei shared on FB.  Like many others, I am angry and upset over the things I have heard this candidate say about and toward women.  However, after reading this article, I’m angrier and upset with society as a whole (and the news) for allowing the reporting of this incident as a “comedic” piece.  

Yes, I know it’s from 1992 and it’s supposed to be funny, but Jesus Christ, really?  No wonder women have to walk around and be aware of their surroundings at all times and no wonder so many of us have learned to brush off lewd comments and sexual advances because it’s so goddamn commonplace.  Somewhere along the line we never shut down this behavior and it’s become the norm.  What the fuck, society?

I think about these poor girls who, at the time, were probably told not to worry about it and don’t think twice about it—words condoning the creepy behavior.  The sad thing is that type of behavior was so commonplace and as my husband so aptly pointed out, we didn’t have social media back in the 90s to be able to circulate the information and have someone stand up and say, “Hey, that’s not right and here’s why.”  Instead, we let it continue to happen over and over.  I recall being in high school and hearing about a certain math teacher that used to seat girls with big breasts in the front so he could look down their shirts.  I even had a science teacher that came onto me twice in ninth grade and I just ignored his advances instead of calling him out because I was never taught how to shut that behavior down.

As I was processing and discussing this latest commentary with my husband, I started to think about how this is probably what Black People and Muslims feel like when people treat them like second class citizens even though they are contributing as much, if not more, to our society.  So many groups of people have lived with this condoned behavior for so long.  We’re used to it and that’s scary because so many people seem to not have a problem with that, and instead circulate hate messages shaming victims.  No wonder victims don’t want to come forward!  I give a HUGE shout out to those that do—it takes a lot of courage to do so especially when you have people automatically calling you a liar.

Sometimes I curse social media because so much bullshit gets circulated around, but right now it’s bringing a lot of visibility to a topic that needs to be addressed and dealt with.  Seriously, we need to stand up and say enough is enough and that this behavior is not okay.  People are so impressionable and when they see someone in a very public light saying and doing these things, they think it’s okay to start doing so.  You’ll note I did not put a “young” in front of people because sadly, I’ve seen people of all ages doing this—condoning this bad treatment of others.  Seriously…if we want to be the intelligent species on this planet, we really need to start acting like it and rise up and focus on shit that really matters:  global warming, the economy, mental illness, incurable diseases…that’s the shit that should be important and we should start believing that everyone has something to contribute.