Call to arms

You weren't raped. You were wearing a short skirt and had passed out from drinking too much, and at a party, no less. What were you thinking? Besides, you knew the guy. Lots of your friends said you flirted with him. You got what you deserve.

The maddening election year discussions about legitimate rape and birth control followed by news of a horrific gang rape in Delhi, India has opened my eyes to women's issues in a big way. I decided I want to do something about it. It's become pretty clear that not only are women oppressed around the world, women's rights are still under attack right here in the USA.

The question is what, exactly, do I do? I'm mostly lost and already feeling a little overwhelmed, but for now I've decided to start with reading a book titled "Half The Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide," joining the Houston Area Women's Center Young Leaders and also starting this blog.

In the past I guess I considered sexism to be something that you had to deal with on the street, when men would yell cat-calls your way. In one recent experience I was bicycling home and a man made kissing noises at me at a red light. I was too angry and humiliated to even look his way, and kept willing the green light to come so I could get away from it. But mostly I considered these incidents to be funny stories to tell later about some loser who would never get a woman that way. I downplayed how demeaning it was in the interest of self-preservation, convincing myself that it didn't really reduce me, it was just the actions of some sad man.

For the most part I assumed that my gender equality rights had already been fought for and won by brave women of the past. I can vote, and I can work in journalism alongside men, and I get a respectable wage for it. I have yet to experience sexual harassment at work, I've not been raped and haven't been discriminated against because of my gender in any obvious way so far.

But following the election brou-ha-ha, I've realized that sexism is alive and kicking in America, folks. It reaches so far and so deep, and the more I learn the more I am horrified. Do not go gently into that good night. It's time to roll up your sleeves.