Teen Sexting
In Tanenbaum, L. (2018, January 18). What Teen Sexting Reveals about Women and Sexual Coercion. Time.com http://time.com/5108384/teen-sexting-slut-shaming-me-too/, we hear about the intense pressure girls feel not only respond but to comply with the request of boys.
Girls’ as young as 12 years old
Is it universal? Do all girls experience when pressure from boys?
There is a collective and historical oppression of girls and women. Girls as young as 12 years old tell stories about how they felt cornered, or how someone’s brother chased them for a kiss. What starts off as teasing or flirtation, can quickly become threatening and serious.
Feminism
There have been three waves of feminism stating in the 1830’s. How are we still here being chased down by boys and men? Have we not learned anything about empowerment, standing up for our personal boundaries? Have we not taught our children how to respect their own bodies and others?
The three waves of feminism (1830-1900’s, 1960-1980’s, and 1990-today) addressed the right to vote, reproductive rights and gender equity. How do we continue to be perceived and ultimately subjected to the oppression of boys and men?
Compliance as our greatest enemy. Compliance has a crippling effect on our girls’; this is personal and must be the impetus for change.
Adolescence
As a feisty adolescent, I was told to act “like a girl,” to be “lady-like.” I was “too loud”, “too opinionated,” and way “too vocal.” Sequestered by a boy, I froze. My training kicked in, I was quiet and conciliatory. My mild protests were crushed by the desire and dominance of the boy.
The imbalance of this power or dynamic left me feeling further silenced.
Girls are conditioned to comply; it is part of the subtle and not so subtle education of being a girl. We don’t know how indoctrinated we are until we are confronted by a situation that requires a strong, “NO“ but we fall silent. This is not only my experience, but one echoed across generations, across continents, and across all social divides. To be a girl
We don’t know how indoctrinated until our girls are confronted by a situation that requires a strong, “NO“ but fall silent.
This is not only my experience, but one echoed across generations, across continents, and across all social divides. To be a girl has meant to be compliant. This is enraging.
In my adolescence, I too felt like I had to just take it. If a boy liked me, I was supposed to feel lucky, special, but those feelings never came. I felt pressured, pressured to kiss the boy with the chapped lips and pressured to let the boy feel my non-existent breasts.
Women in the Military
Then same scenarios play themselves out as an adult woman. In fact, as a United States Marine, we were explicitly trained to, “Look pretty for the officers.” We were each given a box filled with make-up, labeled by hair color, blonde, brunette, black and red in their “Image Development” class.
The Duality of being women
Duality is being trained as a hard-charging, M-16 carrying, camouflage face paint wearing executioner and defender of our country and a blossoming feminine flower, was a mind fuck.
