Women have been told to dress a certain way since childhood, we see this being enforced everywhere such as in schools with dress code and conservative households.
We have been told since we were young that our bodies are distracting and that we need to cover up to be professional.
Wearing a short skirt, mini dress or a crop top isn’t an invitation for men to dehumanize and sexualize women for their own enjoyment.
Society enables the ill behavior of men and then projects it onto young women instead of facing the real problem.
The pressure of having to dress a certain way for “respect” is something we carry with us into adulthood.
Women shouldn’t have to conform to these unrealistic ideals when it doesn’t change the fact that men are disrespectful individuals.
An article of clothing shouldn’t change how women are perceived by people in society.
Once men stop with their perverted activities and control their sexual objectification against women, we can wear whatever we want and feel liberated.
Its gotten to a point that even being polite and having on a cute outfit will make you a target for an incel man.
If we wear a cute outfit and are mean to a man, we are called bitches or sluts. If we are wearing a cute outfit and we are being nice to a man we are going to get called easy.
There is truly no winning making it difficult to feel comfortable in our own skin.
We also see on many college campuses that women have been sexually harassed and assaulted.
Women can’t even get an education without feeling uncomfortable by the men around them.
Why do men get to seek their education, go shopping, pump gas and do normal things without feeling like their clothes are making them a target?
Even when we are covered head to toe in baggy clothing, we are treated as sexual objects.
Women should not have to feel this way ever but at the very least be able to wear what they like without being sexualized and disrespected.
In a perfect world women wouldn’t have to protect themselves from men because of how they’re dressed or how they look physically. Yet, that’s just not the reality for us and we continuously receive negative feedback for it.
The “she asked for it” rhetoric is complete bullshit and is often pushed by men who are complacent with the normalization of rape culture.
Men themselves don’t look at women as human beings but only sexual objects that they can use for their own needs and enjoyment.
This issue is common with girls and women with curvier bodies which can result in these young girls and women being sexualized early in their adolescent years going into adulthood.
This occurrence is also prominent in the media, clothing stores and even in women’s own families.
According to UVM ScholarWorks “In the United States, girls are exposed to both implicit and explicit messages from parents, role models, peers, and the media that promote an image of women limited to her sexual attractiveness.”
“The permeating messages to girls and women in mainstream media “is they should always be sexually available [to men], always have sex on their minds, be willing to be dominated and even sexually aggressed against, and they will be gazed on as sexual objects.”
The harassment and abuse that women experience can result in their self esteem plummeting which can result in other complications like mental health issues.
Women should be able to wear whatever they want and feel liberated without men having to comment or feel the urge to be off putting towards women being affected by harassment.
Our message to women reading this: wear whatever you want. What you wear does not determine your worth or your devalue your voice.
As for the men reading this, learn some self control, educate yourself and call out your shitty friends who think treating women like objects is okay.
