IF IT HURTS, SWALLOW IT. ©

Lauren was at looking outside the window. It was Saturday morning. She had done already all her work she had, although there were more exams left, she decided finally to take a rest.

At the end of the day she was too tired of doing so much and she had to reward herself by doing something more convinient. It would probably go for a walk in the city center. But it was still 2 pm and it was too hot outside, so she thought of staying inside until it was at least 6 pm, when it was a nicer weather and most people went outside.

Before she could do anything else. From where she was sitting she grabbed her mobile phone and started to scroll through social media, trying to find any new topic or news that were currently important. As always, she didn’t find anything new rather than the typical teenagers or people posting random stuff or videos, that they were pointless to her viewpoint... It was very difficult to see a good topic rather than the same videos over and over again which just let other teenagers and young people just drown in a different world without benefiting from things that actually lead them to success and self-discipline at least...

All this was until she saw a post that proved her arguments: that too much social media and less reading, in most cases, was leading people to think the very first thing which was told to them and be less critical and more manipulated...

It was a video of a man who was likely his thirties. In the video, he was stating arguments that clearly showed he had no idea of what feminism was... He was trying to brainwash everyone who had “his same culture” by covering at the same time his hatred arguments with “first-seen logic” ideas that covered his extreme opinion and made it more “pleasant and convenient”.His ideas where the following summarized:

“Good reasons on why women should cover is to prevent any kind of harassment... specially street harassment. That’s why when a woman is harassed it’s mainly because of her clothing, she should think that...”

“There are some women who dislike men who think that they should cover up... and like the ones who tell them to don’t... Don’t you see that the ones who think you should cover are the ones who would be less likely to harass? And the ones who encourage women to not cover up, are the ones who are more likely to harass? You should think that we just want the good for our females...”

“Religious women shouldn’t be feminists, because when they are being so, they are going against religion which made women and men differ and have different roles.”

“If feminists think that men with extreme ideas, are non worth... then why you try to be like them in terms of getting a degree, having a job, and starting a business...?”

This was a sick message clearly full of fallacies and could literally manipulate anyone at first sight who “had the same culture” as the man. At first, he tried to convince his audience that if you have my same culture, you should believe this so ”we can all get along, we are all the same people and we don’t want any harm to no one" . He tried to manipulate not just any person, but he concentrated his beliefs to a particular audience and act with a “good and appealing behaviour” so he can really attract the person who is listening, even though the person might have a completely different opinion.

His first attempt was manipulate by using kind words and by playing the victim role so people can give him a chance even if they are completely opposite to his ideas.

Then, proceeded to say that ”it was a woman’s fault to get harassed“. Let’s even give you a chance here: Okay it’s a woman’s fault so she should cover even though she didn’t commit the crime, she was the victim... but what about the man who commited the crime? Aren’t we going to talk about educating men and our sons in their early years, or are we going to wait to random people in the street to do it for us? And on the other hand, even covered, there are countries where literally most women 90 per cent of them are covered or dressed modestly, and still get harassed... Now whose fault is it? And on the other hand, there are other countries where they have a culture of dressing with more “reavealing” clothes, and they don’t get as much harassed as other countries... There are huge number of statistics and studies that literally show that it mostly comes from education. Nothing more, nothing less. If there’s a sexist surrounding and a sexist society, everyone will act like that, even people who are not sexist, will likely fear to act or to defend someone who is suffering from it. Because if they do, they will proabably be attacked verbaly in the best cases. And it is a chain that only ends in a circle of never acting up, and therefore keep silent and promote the normalization of discrimination and sexism in some countries.

Even there are cases in societies where this discrimination is unfortunately normalized, even they reported abuse to the police, these they did literally nothing.

The third point he said was, that “women should actually dislike men who encourage them to not to cover up, rather than those who think they should cover”. Where is it written that anyone can tell a grown woman what to put and what not in the first place? Aren’t people aware that they put to much there noses where they do not belong...? To the point it blindly got to what fabric and how much fabric should cover your skin according to what’s between your legs? When was the last time there was a debate about what a man must wear and mustn’t?

Someone would be like “well it’s because a woman’s body is different...“. Does that mean you need to think how they should dress? Of course a woman’s body is “more attractive”, but that’s how they were built. If they are “appealing” then let them enjoy themselves being women. They deserve it, each one of us has something, why you have to feel bad of why a woman can attract more and have more attention? Why does it concern you so much, her body, what she wears, how she wears clothes, why she attracts, and why she has a job, or a business, or why she is more successful than you...?

Following the third point, it was written with another manipulative behaviour of the genre ”I say all this extreme ideas, but you shouldn’t dislike me, because there’s no bad intentions behind my ideas." The point is that if you discriminate anyone based on whatever, gender, race, religion, their appearance, their mental condition, economic condition, social status...etc, the most logical reason is that they should be against your idea or your discriminatory behaviour. Then, knowing all this logical statement that a 5 year old can understand, why are you expecting them to like you? And why are you playing a second manipulative role and the victim card by saying that people who think like you, are the ones who are less likely to harm someone? When your whole speech is adressed to discriminate?

The forth point he said “Religious women shouldn’t be feminists because women and men differ and have different roles.” This is more a cultural and close-minded typical argument to control a group of people. There are too many religious people who think this statement is wrong. Too many religious people, who think that actually females have the right to have studies and to get a good job... Because they believe that there’s a reason why women were endowed with a brain able to do anything and even have other abilities exclusive to women and proved scientifically. But again, if there are also religious people who have open minds and are feminists, and support equality in gender, race, beliefs...etc then, this shows that the only one who’s wrong here is you and people who have such narrow minds. And the fact that your speech is adressed to women and never (or rarely) mentions the education of men, clearly shows that your main objective is not to educate religiously, and rather control a group of people by brainwashing subconsciously their minds.

And moreover, what kind of statment or argument is that, that tries to prove that we must guide each one’s entire life, what they should do and what not, merely based on what’s between their legs...? Are you aware of the stupidity...?

And finally among other opinions that he said there was this one “If feminists think that men with extreme ideas, are non worth... then why you try to be like them in terms of getting a degree, having a job, and starting a business...?” Who talked about competence at any point?

Feminism is just to have SIMPLE equal rights between women and men. JUST such as having a right to study, a right to get a job, to have an equal pay for equal work, and to avoid harassment. And that’s it. No one mentioned anything against men (obviously except from those who commit crimes that violates any kind of human’s right). Why it makes you see it as a threat?

If you already know that, that’s the definition of feminism and you still see it as a threat to have basic human’s rights, then we are talking that it’s not the movement that caused a problem to you... But rather than you are the own cause of your problem. Because if you know that it’s about simple and basic rights and you still don’t like it... Or that what bothers you is seeing women success worldwide, with PhD diplomas, and with their own businesses...etc.If it’s that what bothers you and why you see feminism as a threat... Then it is actually you who’s the cause of your own problem...

Because you have to think one very sad truth and to let it sink deep down your brain, is that success is achieved when the person itself has pure intentions with everything and everyone that surrounds (and therefore good energy around himself/herself), if you keep with that destructive mindset about women, it will only damage you, not them... Logically, you literally have no control of the world, and all the millions of successful women worldwide... you have to think that you’re just a vulnerable human being who’s here for a while and who will be gone... So, it is better for you to get some mental cleanse about all the destructive ideas and because believe me, every single time you think something bad about women it will only perjudicate you, not them. Because as mentioned, you literally have 0 control about the milions of women worldwide and what they can do and what they can not... and like even if you had control... who are you to want people to act the way you want...?

Now, if you are someone who has seen it as a threat because they had a misconception of it... then that’s okay and it is time to change the idea and avoid bad behaviour patrons.

Lauren arched an eyebrow. Then proceeded to send the post’s owner a DM before going for a walk and enjoying the town center in a summer afternoon.