If you go by the amount of hashtag activism you see online, you'd think that to live as a woman in 2016 is to live in a constant state of terror and horror.
Almost every day it seems like it's something else they're screaming about. A partial list: #yesallwomen; #everydaysexism; #growingupagirl; #shoutyourabortion; #thisgirlcan; #notbuyingit; #solidarityforwhitewomen; #heforshe; #noceilings; #askhermore; #banbossy; #girlrising, #wheniwas, #survivorprivelege; #rapefcultureiswhen; #hollaback; #whyistayed; #dudesgreetingdudes; #tothegirls; #ilooklikeanengineer; #tampontax; #girlswhocode; and of course #genderpaygap.
Of course, we know this is mostly all contrived drama, since white American women -- statistically speaking -- do better and live longer than any other demographic. Perhaps what we're seeing here is women's need to be damsels in distress. And when there is no distress, they invent it.
Whatever the case, there's a new hashtag in town, and of course it's miraculously "trending" on Facebook. (Gee, it seems almost like they engineer all that, doesn't it?)
The new one for today is #maybehedoesnthityou. That connotes "emotional abuse" which is "a form of domestic violence that isn't talked about." And, of course, you have women (like this one) writing online about how they've been through "multiple relationships" where this happens.
Never mind whether this is being played up for attention or not. Does anyone think to tell these women that if they're being abused in "multiple relationship" then maybe, just maybe, it's their choices that are the problem? If more than one woman fleeced me for money and I brought that on here, the response would definitely be "You need to change!" Guess no one's allowed to tell women the truth.
The cumulative effect of all of this is that it's supposed to be "empowering." But I see it the opposite way. Years of this have made me realize that for women to keep pushing one victim narrative after the next, they must live continuous state of hysteria and drama. Or, they perceive the world this way. Because -- as I said -- it doesn't square with statistics (or what I witness day to day).
As such, the overall perception of what women are is gradually changing. And it's going to affect a lot of things in the long run. We might already being seeing the effects of this with people apparently not caring that Donald Trump is "offensive to women! OMG!" in his campaign.
Whereas in the 1990s, you had employers happy to bring in female workers, my guess is that nowadays bosses are going to be wary of bringing a potential Lifetime movie sob story into the workplace. Same goes for men entering into relationships.
After all, if everything about women's lives is a horror show, who is going to want to invest in them? Perhaps the hashtag crew should have taken a lesson in marketing from The Donald and accentuated the positive instead. Because what's happening now can't be doing them any good.
Almost every day it seems like it's something else they're screaming about. A partial list: #yesallwomen; #everydaysexism; #growingupagirl; #shoutyourabortion; #thisgirlcan; #notbuyingit; #solidarityforwhitewomen; #heforshe; #noceilings; #askhermore; #banbossy; #girlrising, #wheniwas, #survivorprivelege; #rapefcultureiswhen; #hollaback; #whyistayed; #dudesgreetingdudes; #tothegirls; #ilooklikeanengineer; #tampontax; #girlswhocode; and of course #genderpaygap.
Of course, we know this is mostly all contrived drama, since white American women -- statistically speaking -- do better and live longer than any other demographic. Perhaps what we're seeing here is women's need to be damsels in distress. And when there is no distress, they invent it.
Whatever the case, there's a new hashtag in town, and of course it's miraculously "trending" on Facebook. (Gee, it seems almost like they engineer all that, doesn't it?)
The new one for today is #maybehedoesnthityou. That connotes "emotional abuse" which is "a form of domestic violence that isn't talked about." And, of course, you have women (like this one) writing online about how they've been through "multiple relationships" where this happens.
Never mind whether this is being played up for attention or not. Does anyone think to tell these women that if they're being abused in "multiple relationship" then maybe, just maybe, it's their choices that are the problem? If more than one woman fleeced me for money and I brought that on here, the response would definitely be "You need to change!" Guess no one's allowed to tell women the truth.
The cumulative effect of all of this is that it's supposed to be "empowering." But I see it the opposite way. Years of this have made me realize that for women to keep pushing one victim narrative after the next, they must live continuous state of hysteria and drama. Or, they perceive the world this way. Because -- as I said -- it doesn't square with statistics (or what I witness day to day).
As such, the overall perception of what women are is gradually changing. And it's going to affect a lot of things in the long run. We might already being seeing the effects of this with people apparently not caring that Donald Trump is "offensive to women! OMG!" in his campaign.
Whereas in the 1990s, you had employers happy to bring in female workers, my guess is that nowadays bosses are going to be wary of bringing a potential Lifetime movie sob story into the workplace. Same goes for men entering into relationships.
After all, if everything about women's lives is a horror show, who is going to want to invest in them? Perhaps the hashtag crew should have taken a lesson in marketing from The Donald and accentuated the positive instead. Because what's happening now can't be doing them any good.
