I have constantly stated that if I ever fall pregnant I would spend every waking moment hoping that I am gifted a boy. When I tell people this and they ask me why I feel so strongly, I jokingly tell them it was because I was a terrible teenager and I couldn't handle a little girl just like I was. This is only half true. The real truth to my desire lays in one simply fact; this is a mans world.
We live in a world where instead of teaching men not to objectify, we teach woman to not be objectified. These men (though I struggle to even classify them as such) who spew their remarks at a woman, probably think we are asking for it. They are paying us the highest compliment. For every woman wants to hear such eloquent words being spat at them, our hearts a flutter. They are doing us a favour.
I don't want my little girl to have to deal with this.
I want her to live in a world where she feels free, where she is more than two breasts in a tank top. I want her to work hard and be rewarded for it as much as any man would be. I want her to go out with men, without feeling like she owes them anything physically. I want her to wear what she wants to wear, and do what she wants to do. I don't want her to worry about being labelled a prude, I don't want her to live in fear of being called a slut, I just want her to be her. I want her to know her decisions are her own. I want her to be a boy.
I want her to be a boy so I can make sure he is a gentleman for someone else's little girl. So he can be that boy that the old ladies rave about. I want him to be one of those men. The men that seemed so hard to find amongst the cat calls, the men who offer a lady's father a firm hand shake and who promise to respect every inch of her mind, body and soul.
This idea has been so heavily on my heart recently due to the events that happened in Isla Vista. Elliot Rodger was a sick man, on many levels, with sick world views that may sadly fester within other boys all over this slightly twisted globe. That is distressing enough, but that is magnified 100% when you scroll through the comment section of any article on the topic.
Somehow, even though this man (again struggling with that word) slaughtered other human beings, it is still somehow the woman's fault.
"Maybe if woman weren't so shallow"
"It's kind of true though, If you aren't over 6 foot and hit the gym, woman don't pay you any attention."
It's littered with comments just like these. Comments from boys who grew up believing they are entitled to a woman's body, boys who I wouldn't want anywhere near my little girl.
Something needs to change...everything needs to change.
