“Me Too” — Who Are We Kidding?

I’ve been in Amsterdam, messing around with some friends I used to know. We were walking through the Red Light District as I watched men drunkenly ogle at the young girls in the windows, red light filling the 5 x 5 booths they stand in. With their boobs glaringly on display in their bra and underwear, I wondered, how did we get here? When did we stop caring about our girls? About his daughter, her sister, their best friend. When did we decide it acceptable to degrade and defile and destroy the girls of this world? There are women on the Upper West Side, screaming “Me Too” and that women can have sex like men, their tops off in protest. But do they ever think about the women in Amsterdam with their tops off in those small rooms, being paid 50 euros to fuck a hairy old man? Do they ever think about the 13 year old girls in Afghanistan, forced to marry men triple their age, told their entire lives that they’re worthless? Do they ever think about the girl whose top was ripped off at a party by a drunken boy who didn’t listen when she said stop? And in that moment, watching those women sitting on rickety wooden stools, and men wandering down the narrow red-lit halls, I decided that if no one else will say it, I will scream as loud as those women on 77th and Central Park West: there is something terribly flawed about today’s feminist movement. 

And this flaw is that women are convinced that we will achieve equality and respect by taking off our clothes, having sex with strangers, and posting videos on the internet moving our bodies in overtly-sexualized manners. Yet what they fail to understand is that in doing so, we are giving men exactly what they want: to see our naked bodies and take advantage of us, whilst we willingly perpetuate it. It is the old adage, what we permit, we promote. In order to gain respect, we have to do respectable things. And there is nothing respectable about giving ourselves to people who do not deserve it. 

In addition, women today are focused on the concept of “empowerment”. They say that having sex “empowers” them. This is an entirely misconceptualized fallacy. We feel empowered because we have sex? Sex is arguably one of the the easiest things in the world to do; it’s basic human nature. Can you imagine how ridiculous it would be to hear a man say “I’m empowered because I have a penis”? It would sound preposterous, considering he was born with one, obviously, and it has no significance to his character, abilities, work ethic, etc. So why are we as women degrading ourselves to such a disgustingly-minuscule level as our reproductive organs? What we should be saying rather is “I’m empowered because I ran a marathon.”, “I’m empowered because I am the CEO of a lucrative company.”, “I’m empowered because I was sexually assaulted and live to see and appreciate a new day and I will not let it destroy me.” When did the feminist movement become an agent of female-minimization rather than an uplifting spirit of equality and feminine progress in society? When did we start taking off our shirts in Central Park and stop fighting for girls all over the world who are not afforded the luxury of clothing, schooling, safety, freedom? 

There are women on the Upper West Side, screaming “Me Too”, but where are the signs outside the booth where the 18-year old girl is forced to sell her soul every night?