Thread by @eneketasen

A message to my Male followers:
When women like myself and others post info and resultant comments about our frustration with men and their actions, we are not incognizant of those men who stand with us, who support us, who carry our banners.

But try to understand that we all 👇

...have been dealing with this same old shit since we were first told we couldn't play sports, or get a certain job, or wear certain clothing, go to certain clubs, you name it. We have been made to be responsible for the poor, hurtful and even CRIMINAL actions of others for 👇

....SO long, told repeatedly that some men's ill or illegal treatment of us was OUR fault. Even when the laws started to attempt to protect us, we were screwed, either by knowing that using those laws to protect ourselves would see us out of a job or worse; or getting told 👇

...that we couldn't be hired because the boss didn't want to "lose all his good guys to harassment or discrimination BS".
We've been told that we need to act like "one of the guys" if we wanted to fit in...but then if we showed any ambition or drive, we were "trying too hard" 👇

...if we made it clear (even gently) to men giving us the 'come on' that we were not interested, we were told that we were "not team players", and for many of us, this resulted in the loss of a job.
Worse still, if we did well at anything and earned a promotion or pay rise, 👇

...we were seldom congratulated; it was inevitably bandied about by male coworkers that we had "slept (blown, f***ed, etc.) our way up", as though our hard work and ability didn't exist. Men were told that they "deserved" promotions and rises, while women were told that they'd 👇

...been "lucky", or that they were "tokens", picked only because our bosses were forced into it by "that damned affirmative action crap".

I could go on, but instead, just ask any woman you know over 30 who has ever had a job. I'd bet that you hear at least one story like 👇

...the ones I've included here...or perhaps, sadly, worse.

There's no question that things have gotten better over the last two decades by way of protections and regulations in the workplace; but you'd be wrong if you thought that this kind of crap had been completely 👇

...defeated.
In fact, over the past two years of this bizarre administration, it actually seems as though we are being pushed back, as though all of the rights and protections that so many fought so hard and sacrificed so much for are once again in peril.
Some young women 👇

...believe that the fight is over, that Feminism is neither necessary nor relevant today. Nothing, sadly, could be further from the truth. Every single day, another woman is either killed by a domestic partner, kidnapped, or brutalized, and that doesn't even take into account👇

...the discrimination & harassment still being suffered by women everywhere--in the home, the workplace, even in politics. The progress we've made gets trumpeted, though, sometimes by the very people who are violating it the most. We're told that the fight is over, they say 👇

...we've "won" and then we're told that, having "won" it's time to "get off our high horse" and stop standing up for ourselves...lest "good men" mistake us for one of "those bitchy man-haters", "ballbusters" or even "lesbians" (not the insult they seem to think it is).
A good 👇

...man understands that the fight is never done. He understands that the line between the "same ol' same ol'" and now is a thin one, requiring constant concern.
They know that, even when the virtually constant crap causes women to become overwhelmed to the point that we refer 👇

...to men as though we mean ALL men, WE DON'T.
Believe me when I tell you that most women know who their allies and supporters are...and who they are NOT. We also know that there are some women who allege things that aren't true...as some men do, as well.
While we don't 👇

...support that kind of crap from either side, please understand that when we say "we believe women" or "we believe victims", it's because we all know how the pain of being treated like second class citizens (or worse); we know the prevalence of bad, abusive and other criminal 👇

...behavior by some men, and so we choose to help that woman get her voice heard. So many of us never had that chance for so many years.

For centuries a huge percentage of us have been disenfranchised, hurt, even killed by men who very often avoided punishment, by virtue 👇

...of being family ties, marriage/sexual partners, business relationships; and sometimes for even more obtuse and vile reasons. Holy books of all sorts have been interpreted to claim that we came into the world stained with "original sin", and that "God's Law" made men the 👇

...heads of household, and made women subject to men. This crap has been used for centuries to justify rape, physical, sexual, mental and emotional abuse, even theft of property. The witch trials were largely concocted to get the property that had been inherited by some women

(from fathers, husbands, or brothers) away from them.

Some areas even passed laws against any woman inheriting money, other assets or property of any sort. Laws favored men almost exclusively, including laws governing divorce and parenthood. Under many legal systems, a man 👇

...could "put aside" his wife for the flimsiest of reasons, including failure to produce a male heir or not being a good cook. Women, however, were limited in their legal recourse to everything-it was as though there was one law for men, and another for women.
So...after this 👇

loooooonnngg rant, I just want to clarify that:
I'm not saying that no one else (inc. men) has ever suffered; I'm not saying that no one else has ever been harassed, discriminated against or abused. I'm just telling my truth as a woman, a truth that is probably far more common 👇

...than some of you realize.

So...we're not attacking the good guys, the one's who have our backs and who support us. We're not attacking ANYBODY. We are just trying to maintain the rights we've fought so hard to gain, and keep from losing any more. We're just explaining why 👇

...we're upset, angry, exhausted and fed up we're just setting the record straight.

So, all you good guys & allies-

We see you, we hear you, we thank you.

Just try to understand, please, that we have centuries-old wrongs still out there that we're trying to fix, and 👇

...stories to tell because we all can understand now that
SILENCE IS THE ENEMY OF TRUTH. We are not anti-men...we are anti-asshole, and being able to tell our stories and vent our frustrations helps to remind us that

we are strong...

we are survivors...

we are not alone.

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