In this last week, it has been expressed by President Trump that this era of time is "scary for men."
While Trump and his supporters believing this is their perspective– my perspective is that even though the conditions may be changing for men, women have always lived in fear– it's always been scary.
While men have the slight possibility of being falsely accused... being a women means that you have a 1 out of 6 chance of being a victim of sexual violence in their lifetime– which I think is terrifying.
Men could believe this era is scary because since the rise of the #metoo movement, men that are disrespectful, creepy, and cause harm to women, are finally being called out.
Men now need to take the extra time to think: "Is this wrong?" "Am I being inappropriate?" "Maybe she won't like it if I do or say this?" when speaking and interacting with a woman... a huge inconvenience, I know.
They may no longer feel comfortable doing what they think is right.
I've had guy friends that think they are helping a girl out, but in the perspective a female, it could actually be very uncomfortable, out of line, and be doing more harm than good. In the words of one friend, "It sucks that we can't do what we think is the right thing anymore, because it really might not be."
I understand that many men would never dream of intentionally harming women, but it's the ones that do, and get away with it, that you should be angry with– not the women pushing for change within society to protect themselves, and the generations of women to come.
In today's society, women have begun to come forward with stories of survival, stories of harassment, stories that may jeopardize the reputations of the men involved.
The accused will be the first to say that the accusation is an ill-motivated, false account of events. Some men have issues trying to understand how behaviors or words could be inappropriate or wrong– some men are completely reluctant to try and shift their perspective.
This is because the mistreatment of women has become normalized throughout history, and now in our modern society.
Looking back on history, women have had to fight for every right and every privilege they now have in America– while men, specifically white, upper-class men, have always been given them at birth-right.
The voices of brave women are the reason women are where they are in society. Women have demanded, fought, and yearned, to be equal to men. Women have had to use their voices to prove they can be just as intelligent, brave, strong, capable, qualified, and worthy, as men– which is something many men have never been doubted on.
Women have had to use their voices to be louder than the men talking-down on them, belittling them, and disregarding them, just to prove that they matter in society.
And now, women are using their voices to fight against the discriminations, harassments, and violations, that is done to them on a daily basis.
I think that is what's scary to men. Women's voices are beginning to be heard, taken seriously, and valued.
And I think it's especially scary to the men that are used to walking all-over women. The men who are used to having the ability to take advantage of women– harass, abuse, violate, without any previous consequence because of their status– they knew women were more likely to stay silent than to say something.
But women don't want to stay silent anymore.
An army of women's voices is emerging– communicating they will no longer stand by and let men continue their bullshit.
Women now have the resources, the platform, and the urgency to stand-up to men– and that's what's scary to men.
