Laura Bates Quotes
In the 21st Century, I'd like to think women have the right to live lives free of both sexual violence and daily harassment, as well as any other form of inequality.
The idea that men 'lose control' around a woman in a short skirt is insulting to men, completely relieves perpetrators of responsibility, and erases and ignores male victims.
In order to achieve that end goal of equality it is a very gendered oppression primarily affecting women that needs to be tackled.
While not all men are sexist, all women face the impact of sexism in some way, so the point is there's a massive problem to be solved, and you can be a big part of the solution.
If your compliments are making women feel uncomfortable, scared, anxious, annoyed or harassed, you're probably not doing them right.
We can't create a shift in normalised attitudes and behaviours without everybody on board, so not being sexist isn't enough - get stuck in and start tackling sexism too.
Turns out, this 'whatabboutery' is a classic way of silencing women when you don't like what they're fighting for. Don't panic, feminists are quite capable of fighting multiple battles at once!
If a guy is put off by you being a feminist, you need to ask yourself how put off you are by someone who doesn't believe in equality for women.
I quickly learned, however, that a university education is not a prerequisite to reading Shakespeare. After all, his original audience was not college-educated. Neither was he.