I am so impressed that you wrote this, Lindsey. I admire your bravery beyond words. I do know how difficult it was for you to say anything.
The day has to come, it just does, when work is only about work and all genders are treated the same. In reality, not only empty words.
The only way we get there is people like you speaking out. And all the huge lists of others doing the same.
Recently, in a movie, a female college executive moaned about the difficulty of addressing all the complaints she received from women students about harassment, abuse, assault and rape. She said something like: “We cannot ruin the careers of these boys and men because of these women speaking out. There are just too many reporting these offenses for most of them to be true.”
Huh. Really. I know it was a movie but: mirror of real life. My response to that dean would have been: 1. What about the careers of these women? Why are they less important? And 2. There are so many reports from women because almost every woman has a story to tell about at least one of these offenses. The problem is…we are afraid to do so. I’d be willing to bet the dean also repressed a story or two about her own experiences.
If women continue to be valued first and foremost as pieces of meat; families, careers, lives and more will continue to be irreparably damaged.
Thank you again
