#YesAllWomen, #ViolenceisViolence, and Why This Should Matter

#YesAllWomen - this trending Twitter hashtag has been turning the world on its head, spearheading a a topic that must be desperately addressed and creating a public forum for women to publicly express their contempt for the prevalent misogyny and sexism that is in our modern society. This hashtag was a response to the tragic shooting near the University of California, Santa Barbara campus. One look of this hashtag and my heart just crumbled at the heaviness of it all. These are testimonies to real-life incidences that many women have been victim to or, at the very least, have been a witness to such victimization. So much of this happens on a daily existence, and most of us laugh it off as a joke, dismiss it as a rant, or worse yet, do nothing at all.

Below are some excerpts that I found online, but I won't post their Twitter handle, for the sake of anonymity:

• "#YesAllWomen because boys at my school think it's okay to touch me in any way they like and even when I say NO they just laugh and try again"

• #YesAllWomen should be able to make choices without coercion, discrimination, harassment or violence."

• "Because every single woman I know has a story about a man feeling entitled to access to her body. Every. Single. One. #YesAllWomen"

• "I shouldn't have to hold my car keys in hand like a weapon & check over my shoulder every few seconds when I walk at night #YesAllWomen"

• "Girls grow up knowing that it's safer to give a fake phone number than to turn a guy down. #yesallwomen"

In an appropriately timed video, ManKindInitiave released a video that highlights such inequality - in the first half, two actors portraying a couple act out a fictional argument, where the man is overtly aggressive against the woman. In a matter of seconds, a small crowd flocks about the woman in need. It's pretty straight forward. What's interesting is how the same crowd (or at least the same environment) reacts when the roles are reversed. Rather than flocking to the couple to support the man, the cameras capture many people laughing and ridiculing the man for not being "a man." Many people look on, smile and laugh, and move on with their lives, not aware that such a portrayal is quite accurate of men in abusive relationships. Overall, this video tries to teach its viewers that "#ViolenceisViolence, no matter who it's aimed at."

So, why does this matter? It's easy to see in our modern, progressive, and "Politically-Correct world that there is still much inequality between the sexes. More importantly, both men and women are still falling victim to abuses that shouldn't exist anymore.  Such tragic incidences reveal such inequality, even if this outcome was a by-product, not a direct. Our UCSB shooter had blamed women, believing that he was entitled to have a woman to call his own, rather than seeing that he possessed characteristics that women (by chance) found undesirable, which is why he was rejected. His online manifestos and videos (those you must find on your own) support this. So I challenge you, dear reader, evaluate your behavior: do the women in your life feel safe around you? Do the men in your life make you feel safe? If not, what needs to be changed?