I am so tired of being despised for my gender

If there is anyone out there who thinks that feminism is (a) not necessary or (b) something that has accomplished its goals, please take a few moments and experience utter disgust by the series of events described in this Feminist Law Professors post, which will also direct you to the work of I Blame the Patriarchy and Pandagon.

A whole lot of men hate women. Period. Some men think they don't hate women, but they do. Thankfully, some men actually do not hate women, and they are the ones who need to step forward, with women and girls, and stop the chronic abuse and humiliation of females.

Every time a woman or girl is raped or sexually assaulted, every time a female over 18 is called a "girl," every time a woman or girl who has sex is called a "slut," every time an assertive woman is called a "bitch," every time a hip hop song describes the assault and humiliation of women, every time a woman has to listen to unwanted remarks about her body, every time a qualified professional woman learns her salary is less than that of a man who is not as qualified, every time news personalities talk about a female politician's clothes instead of her policies, every time a pharmacist violates his own code of ethics and refuses to dispense medicine to a woman, every time the Bush administration or the people of California place a sex criminal into a high government position, every time Mike Tyson is praised and honored, every time men view photos or films of women and girls being humiliated and subjugated for "pleasure," every time women who turn men down are called lesbians or feminists, every time a woman with some power is called "shrill," every time a woman walks down the street and receives unwanted sexual invitations, every time someone talks about the "woman cop" or the "lady lawyer," every time an ad tells women they should be ashamed of not looking "young," every time a woman scientist or professor learns that vital professional networks have purposefully excluded her, every time a magazine talks about how women have to "balance" home and career, every time a woman's ideas are rejected and the same ideas uttered by a man are praised, every time a parent "warns" her daughter about birth control but not her son, every time a man assumes it is his job to propose marriage...every time these and dozens of other misogynist events occur, it wounds me. It wounds all women and girls. It wounds the culture.

In other cultures, it is even worse. Girls are murdered at birth because they are girls, they are mutilated, sold as sex slaves, sexually assaulted on public transportation as a matter of course, executed for committing adultery (and sometimes for being raped), and forced into marriages to HIV-positive men.

If you are a woman or a girl, speak up. If you are a man or boy who believes women and girls are human, speak up. If you are a parent, you will have to fight what is being taught, both overtly and covertly, by the schools and churches in your community. If you do not fight for your daughters now, they will never learn to fight for themselves.