Fight Like A Girl

Trump’s being president has led to even more anger regarding sexual assault, as he has sexually assaulted women, so many more men have been accused of acting in this way. There have been so many cases of sexual assault lately, as women are being compelled to speak out. For this reason, my school and many other schools in the DC area, have had sexual assault summits. At these conferences, there are leaders of the community who speak about how the world works in such a violent way and why it does.

At one of these conferences, Soraya Chemaly, a journalist, explained how gender affects media coverage of the issue and alters the voice that we hear in the media. Senior editors in newsrooms are mostly white males, so writers who want to get stories published have to convince white men to publish them. The stories are also, for the most part, being told from a man’s perspective, as men tend to edit them. These stories usually have language that focuses on the predator rather than the victim. I was struck by Chemaly’s observation that even the name itself — “sexual assault” – is a male-dominated term that focuses on the action of the perpetrator rather than the effect on the victim.  For the victim, such an assault it is not sexual.  The language used by journalists reveals a great deal about society’s attitudes toward this kind of assault.

One example, used by Chemaly, which struck me was the injustice women suffer every day. This happens as they are simply walking down the street, even when they are not victimized. I have always been told not to make eye contact with strangers, and when I am in a situation that feels slightly sketchy, my eyes are glued to the ground. This has become my natural routine. Chemaly pointed out that women avoid eye contact to avoid being harassed, but that’s not fair. It is unjust that women have been put in a position where they have to alter their everyday actions to avoid assault or harassment.

I have never questioned how the world works: we walk and look at the sidewalk so no one will attack us. We keep our phone on so if we are attacked we can react. We are skeptical of every stranger when we are alone because who knows what the person will want. This is our world and Chemaly made me realize that this should not be our world. We should be angry that there is an unfair power dynamic which means men’s physical strength and social leg up in the world makes women the prey. It is time for everyone, all genders, sexualities, and races to take a stand, be angry, and change the world.

Before Trump, there was complacency about feminism and the treatment of women, and at my school, Trump’s election and treatment of women have led to a more prominent stand on the act of feminism, but it is starting to slow down, and we cannot become complacent with justice again.