Hey, I don't think being a woman is so bad!

  There's a war on women going on everywhere. In America, the election is only 3 days away, and there're huge political issues regarding women in this campaign. To put it simply, Obama wants women to have equal pay and full rights over their own bodies. He knows that women are more than homemakers and he understands that rape is rape. Romney, on the other hand, refuses to say that he supports fair pay for women (a simple yes or no question), doesn't think women should have decision making control over their own bodies or family planning, and quite simply thinks that women belong in the home. His party's views on rape are absolutely appalling and it's shocking to understand why anyone would support any of these GOP candidates after hearing the thoughtless things that they say about rape. It's time to put an end to this. It's time to be proud to be women.   I don't think women are so bad. I'm not ashamed to be a girl. But our society seems to put so much shame on being female. In Emily Buchwald's essay "Raising Girls in the Twenty-First Century", she cites a survey done in Minneapolis in the nineties in which schoolchildren were asked whether they'd prefer to be a girl or a boy. Here are some of the results:   "The worst thing about being a woman is we get raped and killed. Women can get killed by their prettiness." - Girl, age 10   "The up side to being a woman is you can manipulate men with your body. There isn't anything a man wouldn't do for a gorgeous woman...Even though it might be fun to be a woman for a little while, I wouldn't want to be one full time. Why? Because no matter how you slice it, men are in control in today's society just as they have been since man and woman existed. That's where I like to be." - Boy, age 15   "The best thing about being a man is that I can do what I want, be as rude and disgusting as I want, and no one says anything." - Boy, age 16   The sad thing is, it's hard to read these statements without knowing that they're not entirely untrue. You wish with all your heart that these were just immature kids who don't understand the world, but that's not true. 1 in 6 women have reported being the victim of rape or attempted rape, whereas that is only the case for 1 in 33 men. As the 16 year old boy shows, men do view women for their physical being, and men do view themselves on top. And men really do believe that they can be disgusting and volatile towards people, towards women. These aren't new things. These are things that have been going on since the beginning of time. And this is sad. We should have transcended these shackles by now - these shackles of stereotypes and of male dominance.  

  What makes me mad is when politicians can say things like,   "Some girls rape easy." - Roger Rivard, WI, GOP   "I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I can to realise life is a gift from God. And I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that is something that God intended to happen." - Richard Mourdock, IN, GOP   "I've always adopted the position that the method of conception doesn't change the definition of life." - Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan, GOP, dismissing rape   How can these people seriously be elected into office when half the population is women? And when, I hope, that well over half the population fully understands the true horror of rape. How can these men still have power?  
I don't want to live in a world where I am raped and killed "by my prettiness." I don't want to live in a world where people think that I "rape easy" because of the things I wear, the places I go, the people I go there with. I just want to live my life as it is without men thinking that they have every right to judge me for how I am. I don't want to live in a world where politicians toss off my rape as something that God intended to happen. No, God doesn't wish rape on his sons and daughters! God didn't create women to be eaten, chewed up, and spat back out by the porn industry and its clients, or by warmongers who use rape as a tool of war, or by men who believe that they have the right to cunt when and where they want it. I am not on Earth for that. I am not a prize to be taken and won without my consent. I do not want men in office who are out there effectively saying that rape is okay - that it happens and we must live with it. NO. Where's the progress? Where's the humanity?

If there is one message, let is be this: I, as a woman, will not stand for this. You cannot tell me that I am raped because I dress like a slut (Constable Michael Sanguinetti, Toronto Police Officer). I dress the way I wish to, just like men dress the way they wish to. I want to quit being scared over the reactions that people have to what I wear. I want men to quit feeling like they have every right to say degrading things to me at work, at school, on the bus...simply because I am a woman. I want to quit being scared about staying out late, about riding the bus after dark. I want to quit being frightened to go on dates with men I don't know well. I want to quit hearing about rape in the news, in the media, from peers and from friends. I want to quit seeing rape in our movies, in our video games, in our advertisements. I want to live in a world where there are no more victims.
It's time for women to be proud of who they are. We are strong. We can think for ourselves. We can talk for ourselves. We have to stop being afraid of what the world will think if we say no. If we stand up and show that we can think, and we can act on those thoughts, and that we will not stand to be pushed around by men. Women, it's time to be proud. It's time to make a difference. It's time to get together and stop caring if men don't like us for being strong, for being fiercely proud, for being human and equal, for being more than a cunt and couple of boobs. There is no shame in protecting our bodies and our hearts. It's time for us to say no.