i've gotten permission to post a pm that was sent to me earlier, about first world problems for some

[dballance]

7. Wow, Just Wow. How Brave of Her to Share.

Last edited Sat Mar 30, 2013, 07:10 PM - Edit history (3)

I don't think there is any way a person can possibly understand what she went through. Unfortunately, there are many women out there with a similar story.

I read the posts about "If women have to get their tits out to make a point, so be it." and the variations. I haven't posted on any of those threads because they all seem to go to hell in a hand-basket within a few replies to the OP. Not that the OP was necessarily all that great either.

I believe that what the activist in Tunisia did could have been presented here on DU in a calm, neutral manner. It would have been a good story. The goal of her actions were to protest her government and the overt religious nature of that government which still treats women as property of their fathers' then husbands' and that still supports "honor" killings of women. Isn't it telling that in so many places those "honor" killings are the killing only of the woman. The man involved often gets lashes or the rod or can buy his way out of it.

It is sad to me that the goal of this activist woman and her message have been completely obliterated by the fact she bared her breasts. I do believe that a woman in an Islamic country baring herself from the waist up and writing protest messages on her chest as a protest is newsworthy. She basically put a target for assassination on herself.

There was absolutely no reason to ever use the word "tits" to present that story here. That is most certainly a misogynistic, sexist term used by men to refer to women as if they were milk-cows. Sure it got the post a lot of traffic. But not the kind of traffic the real story should have gotten. From a sociological standpoint it would have been very interesting to see that story presented in a way that only mentioned her bare breasts anecdotally to her message and see what response it got in comparison to blazing the word "tits" in a title. It's not at all surprising that the male who posted the thread with "tits" in the title actually thinks he's being supportive of women. After all, the text of his OP says so.

I don't know how to end this post except to acknowledge that there are a lot of us men out there who are jerks, unaware, and so ignorant we sometimes don't even realize we offend. (yes, I'm taking a huge license to speak on behalf of all men here). Of course, ignorance is not an excuse and in 2013 I'm not really sure a man can actually claim ignorance anymore. So I guess I have to ask you to continue to educate us where it is painfully apparent our upbringing and experiences have not educated us - or curbed us. Yes, continue to shame us too when we deserve it. And yes, we deserve it.