Women's rights are human rights.
Trending hashtag #YesAllWomen caught my attention several weeks ago. #YesAllWomen is a hashtag that reaches out to all women who have gone through or are going through physical, mental, and sexual abuse. The hashtag is meant to make people aware of situations that many women face, bringing these situations to light. Many people, including myself, have participated in the hashtag movement on Twitter.
Some of the big issues that have been brought up are issues that women face every single day. Some of these issues include having lower pay wage, being harassed, being afraid to walk alone at night, being told what to wear to not get raped; and the list goes on. I asked several people on Twitter if I could use some of the tweets they created using #YesAllWomen to prove that real people are being affected by the way our society is set up.
As a feminist and as a woman, I can say these are issues that have affected me as well. It disgusts me that women are cut down and viewed as lesser than men because we don’t have a penis. Women are as equally hard-working, educated, experienced, knowledgeable, and capable as any man, and we deserve equal rights.
Women consistently have to live in fear, which is not okay. As a college student, I am always worried about my drinks when I set them down at a bar, about walking alone from campus to my apartment, because I could get attacked, about how I present myself, because I could be raped and then blamed. We are forced to live in fear because society teaches women that they are not respected by men instead of teaching men to respect women. (This is not based off of all men, but a large chunk of society that statistics can prove.) According to the New York Times, one in five women has been sexually assaulted in the United States, and one in six has been stalked. These numbers are scary, and ghastly. #YesAllWomen is trying to show this and put a stop to it; unfortunately, that is only one issue of the many that this movement is addressing.
Women are frequently being slut-shamed, kicked out of school for showing too much skin, losing job opportunities because it is a “man’s job," feeling obligated to cook, clean, and take care of children all on their own, and so on. I think many people, men and women, forget that cleaning, cooking, caring for children, working, education, clothing, and so many other things are not gendered. Society has made up this notation that women have to be feminine and play certain roles, and males have to be masculine and play certain roles, and that there is no in-between. This is false information, and as a sociology major, I see this nonsense gender labeling every day. Sadly, this gender labeling is being taught to children at such a young age, so that we all grow up to find it "normal." This is exactly why people are joining this #YesAllWomen movement to break the cycle.
#YesAllWomen is an empowering movement that allows women to voice their opinions over social media. We are good enough, we are meant to be treated equally, and we will continue to fight for our rights, because we are women, and we are strong.
