I am lucky enough to have never been raped and told it was my fault. I work minimum wage, so I don't experience the wage gap that most women have to deal with. But that does't mean I haven't experienced sexism. It happens every day, almost to a point where I've stopped noticing. There are so many things that women have to deal with that men will never understand. Most men can go running without someone walking by saying "I would do you," as if you asked for their judgment. They've never had to experience being honked at from a car driving by, and the fear that the car will decide to slow down and stop next to them. That's because men aren't treated as objects placed upon this earth for the sole purpose of pleasure.
When I was younger, it was more of an annoyance than anything. I remember the last month of school, sweating through all of my classes in the un-airconditioned middle school building, because to dress for the weather would be a distraction to my male peers. PE class was separated by gender, because the sight of girls sweating might send boys into a fury. I suppose that explains the creepy comments and form adjustments from my male basketball coach. And of course that same, ridiculous dress code still applied. That was also the age where I was taught that girls braid their hair, shave their legs, and wear dresses. To choose any other path would diminish your worth.
As I got older, I became more aware of these kinds of things. I experienced girls staying in relationships where they were being taken advantage of, because a good girl doesn't say no. In school, no matter how good I was at science and math, I would still be looked over in favor of the obviously more intelligent male students. But despite this, I was still expected to get better grades and behave in class. It was fine if the men slipped up, because "boys will be boys." And there was nothing I could do about it. Instead, I had to learn to live in fear. Fear that the boy I turned down for a date would decide he didn't like my answer. Fear that I would no longer be beautiful after I cut my hair short. Fear that if I shared my opinion on a subject, I would be written off as an angry bitch.
So maybe lucky isn't the correct word to describe my situation. I am indeed grateful to have not experienced some of the horrible things I hear happening to women on the news as well as in my circle of peers. But to be lucky would be to not have to fear these things at all. Being a woman is like being of of the few kids in the class who hasn't caught the flu bug that's going around. Maybe you haven't been affected yet, but you know sooner or later something will happen to you. So when people don't understand that sexism exists, I get angry. Not because of the good-natured people who are oblivious to these happenings. But because we live in a world where this kind of treatment is so normal, it can be overlooked that easily.
