Flowers and Genders

I use to work at a flower/gift shop. I made flower bouquets, I sold chocolate, I blew balloons, and make bouquets out of them, etc. My boss is an old guy. He’s nice, a third of the time (so when it comes, you just say nothing and enjoy it… while it lasts). He’s got an older mentality. I asked him the reason for never hiring guys, and I wasn’t surprised by his answer. He says that it wouldn’t attract clients having a man selling flowers. I asked one of my coworkers the same exact question, and she said: “It would be emasculating for the guy to work here” (emasculate means to be weaker, to lose strength) (fun fact about this word, it has the word “masculine” in it… so being a man means you’re strong… girl power? what’s that sh*t?). As you can see I work with open-minded people. When I got her answer, I realized that she was almost the exact same age as my boss (not judging older people, nor criticizing them, but at the time that they were our age, being a homosexual/a woman/or anything other than a white male was a bad thing). So, after that I asked a girl my age. Her answer was the most fantastic one yet: “He’s going to look gay! A guy selling flowers… you’re joking, right?” Basically, they’re all telling me that you've got to be born with a vagina and boobs to work in a flower shop.

You might be asking yourself why I’m talking about guys working in a “girly” shop, when it’s suppose to be a post about feminism. Let me show you the definition of feminism in the Thesaurus (I feel so fancy whenever I write or say thesaurus): “the doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men.” Meaning, finally being f*cking equal to men. It goes both ways. Wanting women to have the same salary as men, and men doing the same activities as women without being “gay” or “weak” (as if being homosexual was something to be ashamed of). The only difference between the two genders is the thing that is between our legs. In the past, women weren’t allowed to participate in certain activities like sports. Do you know why? Because our bodies were considered “too weak too function” (while writing this last phrase, I had a flashback to the magnificent work of art that is the movie Mean Girls: “too gay to function”). It frustrates me. When is it going to be okay for anyone to do anything these days? Everything we do ends up bothering someone. I’m proud to call myself a feminist. One last thing before I leave you to your occupations. Let me get something clear. To those who give us, feminists, a weird-ass look when we proudly say our status, read these few sentences carefully: there’s a difference between what we call “wanting equality,” and “wanting to be higher than men.” That’s called misandry. Not the same thing.

I do not write this to be treated with superiority, or to be placed in a higher “class” than men. I simply want to be treated the exact same as them. I want to walk in the streets without being f*cking cat called. I want to feel free going out at night without being scared, or without carrying my keys between my fingers in my pocket—you know, just in case. Just in case I fall behind a dumpster, and a rich white guy comes in to have “20 minutes of action” (I know we went from 0 to a 100 with this, but it’s important. We must talk about this. In fact, I will post about this soon).

Have a nice day, don’t forget to buy flowers ONLY from women, cause if it’s from a man, it’s shady as f*ck.

(Sarcasm people... sarcasm).