I have a 21-year old daughter. I’m so excited that she is coming of age in the era of “Mister’s Last Stand.” This new generation of girls on the brink of adulthood is not going to be silenced or even nudged into any submission at all.
I think you would be hard pressed to find a single woman of my generation that hadn’t been sexually exploited in some way or another. In fact, it was just a fact of life — not even something you thought was a choice. The neighborhood boys groped all the girls. Bosses called employees into their offices and closed the doors. Friends brothers flashed their penises at sleepovers. And that was the little stuff.
I don’t know many women my age that didn’t suffer at least one serious sexual assault. Most women in the workplace of the ‘70s and ‘80s suffered constant sexual harassment at work. Again, we just didn’t talk about it. You shrugged off the hands sliding across your rear. You smiled at the crude jokes. You barely managed at the holiday parties, usually drinking too much just to get through it.
The upcoming generation says NO!
No pink tax…
No body shaming…
No disrespect…
When my daughter came home from school for the holidays, I asked her why she had man’s deodorant. She told me about the pink tax and I wondered how I had not…
