Don't Miss the #MeToo Point

Far from the idea that women are the "weaker sex," women have exhibited tenacity and bravery for centuries as they fight and die to claim the most basic human rights. In modern years, as the force of liberal ideas grew, women called themselves "suffragette" and "feminist" until critics added the words "man-hating" to the accepted definition. The words for demanding the right to vote or to determine one's own life outcomes have become shameful.

By shaming feminism, we discount the efforts that established most social norms in the modern Western world. Women refuse to call themselves feminists, yet think nothing of driving or owning property. Men have no concept of conforming to the very visible limits of one's "station." With ignorant disregard of history, we shun "feminism" as though people haven't ever DIED so that government decree would no longer determine their hairstyles and their fathers could no longer trade them like cattle.

A child of the 1970s, I grew up with the benefits of the birth control pill, legal abortion, and tampons. My great-grandmother (born in 1898) talked to her children about her first time voting—because it was finally legal for her to do so! In my mother's lifetime (she's a baby boomer), doctors thought NOTHING of denying birth control information and supplies to unmarried women.

Yet today, these undeniably positive social changes are removed from the philosophy behind them. The #MeToo movement is both supported and denigrated in the press. The presence of women in tech companies is undermined by hiring practices that promote anti-social personalities most often found in men. Most egregious, whenever anyone says "this is misogyny, this is abuse of power, this is wrong," they are called "snowflakes."

News flash: If demands for respectful treatment disturb you, seek therapy. If you are irritated that you can't openly display sexy images in the workplace, you need to grow up. If you can't understand why women can't "take a joke" about their appearance, then ask yourself if the joke is appropriate when asked of your daughter, your sister, your mother.

It is our duty to the species to remember that women's rights are human rights. Nobody should be shamed by an employer or co-worker, neither to her face nor subtly through unequal pay for equal work. It should go without saying that approaching women for sex is entirely inappropriate in the workplace, covering up such behavior is pathetic, and refusing to listen when rejected is intolerable. Boys will still be boys, but we must all act like MEN and end the acceptance of Weinstein behavior (sexual assault, date rape) and Uber "bro culture" (keg parties at work, corporate meetings at strip cubs).

By refusing to shut up and play along, by vocally opposing sexism whenever we see it, we make the world a better place. We are not imprisoned and starved to death for demanding to control an inheritance any longer, but we are not far from a society that condones confinement to the more gentle, locked prison of the veil. To anyone who believes that in the USA of 2018, the sexual revolution is over, all is equal, and the fight was won, please explain why there are so few women in the trades, and in science and technology, and in top management everywhere.

Short answer: Socially shamed for walking through the front door "as though they were men," women gave up and shut up. Uncomfortable and afraid of losing careers, it was so very easy. In just a few decades, the results have proven unlivable.

"Nevertheless, she persisted." This should be the slogan of everyone everywhere who is concerned about human rights. It only takes one person acting right for change to become reality. When many people act right towards each other, that change becomes a better society. Together, we can do this!