"Women are just good for cooking. They can't drive, or play sports to save their lives."
That's what another student in my engineering class said to me. He's a guy, and he's delusioned as many of my other fellow students are.
I once was walking out of a classroom when a senior boy came rushing around the corner to get to homeroom. In his reckless wake, he nearly slammed me to the ground. I practically toppled. When I irritably told him to "watch where [he's] going" he chose to respond with "f*** you, little bitch". A teacher stood in front of the whole spectacle watching, but he said nothing of it.
If that's not enough, less than a week later as I was minding my business rushing down the school halls, a small crowd of clearly older students catcalled me. They said loud enough for any in the vicinity to hear, "oooh, nice ass". His other friends chose to make strange noises and provocative gestures. For any fans of catcalling, this made me so embarassed I had to rush into the bathroom once I got to class I was so disgusted.
Our culture and media tend to tell us that feminism is a raging machine that is devastating our gender roles and our society. Many claim that we have progressed far enough and women are no longer discriminated against. Yet somehow, countless times I have been degraded, insulted, mocked, and harassed by my male fellow students.
On my bus, guys behind my seat have ongoing discussions about how all the girls in my school are sluts. They discuss the best busts on women or how big their 'tits' should be. Every day I have to listen to this on the way home from school. They're loud, and my earbuds don't block all that out.
It's never been just me. Another girl I know was headed to art class. Suddenly a guy walked up behind her, and groped her waist with both hands. When she lashed out, the teacher told him to "knock it off" and said to her "you shouldn't try to hit people when you're angry". Another time, she was asked by a guy two years older (over 18) if she'd come have sex with him. She'd never spoken to him before.
In my friend's french class, each class a girl asks one of the classmates to "leave [her] alone", but rather than stop, the boy scoots closer and closer. He mocks her voice and repeats the phrase.
In our culture, this is acceptable. A perfume ad in 2007, for example:
which depicts a gang rape.
That aside, for all our discussions of erasing bullying, the lack of gay rights, and racism (all of which I don't criticize) what of a simple respect to 50 percent of the population that are in our schools?
There's far too much derogatory descriptions used by adolescents around me. They make foolish and insensitive claims about things they can never experience and will never understand. I don't feel safe at my school when these people open their mouths. According to my peers, they don't either.
In the words of Meghan Trainor, "treat me like a lady." I'm not "[your] bitch" as many of the students that surround me call their girlfriends or friends. I am a person. If your search is for a girl that can give you what you need, then it's not about her bust or her looks at all. It's about her personality. I don't have to prove it. Intelligent women are smart enough to ditch a guy that is stupid enough to make women in the kitchen (or in their pants) jokes. Strong women will do it, however hard it may be.
We don't deserve that pathetic treatment, and I won't take it. Not anymore. Treat me like I deserve. Treat me like a lady.
