In the name of EQUALITY

Think girls… what is the last thing you did to try to get a guy’s attention? Did you raise your voice five octaves? Did you give him the “please do this for me” look? Better yet, did you play damsel in distress to get your way?

Admit it! You do it, I do it, Sally does it, we all do it! Every single one of us has at some point tried to get our way by some annoying method or another. Have you ever considered what these cries for attention do to us?

They encourage stereotypes. You know, the bad kind… the kind where men think we’re weak, useless, slow, shallow, dumb; you name it, we encourage it! Every girl that raises her voice five octaves to get her way is another demonstration of why we are paid 30% less than our male counterparts. We all know these stereotypes against us are bogus. Not every woman is a set of walking breasts, as not every black man is a criminal! Why do men and women still think them? We are taught to believe this stuff!

Part of the reason we are still being treated as the inferior sex is because we are taught to behave like it. Every Brittney Spears out there takes a bite out of the work of Nellie McClung and those who came after her. We demean ourselves and somehow expect men not to demean us. Only the absolute self-denial of respect can explain the need for tube tops and micro-skirts. It’s not all their fault girls; we have to share the blame too! We are taught implicitly, whether by media or role model, to pout when men are around. We are told that men should open our doors and slide our chairs out, but never once were we taught about the consequences of these subtleties.

The next time you sidle up to a guy and whine for him to carry your purse, THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE DOING TO YOURSELF. You are telling him that you are weak, stupid, and incompetent, and he in turn will think that you are weak, stupid, and incompetent. See how this works?

The only way to have a man’s (or anyone’s) respect is to earn it. The next time one of your girlfriends plays damsel in distress; slap her upside the head in the name of all womankind! The next time you catch yourself letting a man carry a heavy box for you, go put on sensible running shoes and get a trolley! Yes, you too can change your own light bulb!

Show we are equals by being an equal. Respect does not come on a satin-covered coat hanger, it comes in a vat of elbow grease and you have to get to the bottom to find it.