Every single woman is all too aware there are gazillions of creepy men -- and on top of that, the creepy women who support the creepy men thinking it is in their own self interest.
Men who "depreciate" women. Men who objectify women in drawings, words, events.
Men who sexually and domestically abuse girls and women.
Men who simply don't listen to women. Men who "mansplain" to women in every public meeting -- even when the woman is the leader. Men who will bypass every woman wanting to speak in a public setting until they can't anymore.
Men who still work to keep women out of the room where it happens, if they can.
Men whose bad and unprofessional behavior is tolerated at levels that the same behavior from women never would be.
Men who devalue women's labor, and continue to operate companies and a national economy in which women are paid 20-25-30% less, depending on our race, than white men.
Men who are advocating once again for women to leave the work force, discard their career and creative and independent dreams, and stay home and have babies.
We live in a creepy patriarchal society -- despite all the advances we as women have fought for and made.
By now, there are tons of you out there who are either making apologies for creepy men; saying it is not only creepy men, but creepy women too; or that gender doesn't matter anymore.
I call BS. The data shows differently.
Most importantly, our hearts and souls KNOW differently.
All of us who apologize for and condone and accept and live with and in all ways tolerate male creepiness are part of the ongoing problem of male toxicity in this culture.
Some of it comes down to dependence on male salaries, male protection, male co-parenting.
I get it. I know it is not easy. Almost every day I have to choose to either sit through or address in some way male creepiness in the public realm.
Male creepiness is a constant. Male creepiness is tiresome.
And for many women, male creepiness is dangerous. Murderous if not of bodies then of souls.
This is only going to change when we together decide, once again as we did with second wave feminism, that enough is enough and together make a huge push for the next wave of societal change.
We need to raise and educate all of our children differently.
We especially need to let boys know that the people who should be role models in high leadership posts in government and elsewhere are the opposite of role models: their behaviors are to be condemned.
This can and should happen in schools, as women in homes are often too compromised by the constraints and dangers of patriarchal families.
Enough is enough for me.
I've had enough male creepiness in the first two days of this week alone to join the revolution.
Time for the next wave.
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