devongottsch

A few months ago, I decided to spend an average summer evening on Twitter while enjoying a coffee made by my best friend named Keurig. I was scrolling through my Twitter newsfeed when I came across an account called “Meninist Tweets.”

Obviously, this vaguely familiar topic was enticing, and I soon found myself scrolling further and further into the great unknown…aka Meninist Tweet’s profile.

My coffee was immediately spit back into my mug when I processed what my naive, Catholic school girl eyes were reading. It felt like the whole world as I knew it was crinkled up and “Kobe’d” into a trashcan.

I couldn’t believe the repulsive, degrading remarks that were being made towards women. Negative comments about women’s bodies, appearance, and personalities were strewn throughout the entire page.

One of the most popular tweets said, “I hate when women stay in the kitchen … how are they supposed to clean the rest of the house?”

Another read, “I was at a restaurant and the waitress had a black eye … So I ordered reaaaally slow because she obviously doesn’t listen.”

WAIT, WHAT?! Who could say such nasty things? I could feel the rage boiling up inside of me as I kept scrolling.

My eyes almost popped out of their sockets when I saw selfies of teenage boys wearing meninist shirts. Like hello, you might as well wear a shirt that says, “I want to be single for the rest of my life,” because that’s the message you are sending to females.

Hold on kids, it gets worse. Not only were men repping the meninist shirts, but girls were posting pictures, too! Young women, no older than 20, posted pictures of themselves proudly displaying their degrading shirts (with heavy filters might I add). My heart literally ripped in half when I saw this.

They argued points like, “I live to make my man happy.” Honey, if the Lord wanted you to spend your life making someone else happy everyday, he would have made you a dog, not a human being.

The degrading pictures made me just want to reach through the screen and shake those girls because they have so much more potential than that.

The worst part of it all, this account has more than a million followers, and almost every tweet had thousands of retweets!

How could anyone agree with this philosophy on life? Shouldn’t we, the American society, not condone gender inequality? Sadly, that’s not the case.

Every day, females are faced with the pressure to live up to someone else’s expectations. Women are either scrutinized for the person they are or how they choose to live their own lives.

Take a look at each of your finger prints. Go on, no one will think you are weird.

Notice every little line, every curve, every design. Each finger is different, because we, as human beings are all different. Beautiful, isn’t it?

Since we are all unique and beautiful in our own individual way, why do we conform to the expectations of others? Do not ever, ever, ever let someone push you around. It doesn’t matter if you’re a male or a female; no one has the right to make you feel like less of a person.

You were made to be unique, because no one is like you. If everyone on Earth was made  to conform to the same mold, why would our fingerprints be different?

People judge each other strictly by their gender, not by their character or what type of person they are on the inside. I know you’ve been hearing this since you were 5, but don’t judge a book by its cover, people!

I, Devon Gottsch, personally believe in equality. Neither gender should be oppressed or treated differently in any way.

I just wish we could all bake a cake out of rainbows and smiles, and we could all eat it and be happy! *cries profusely*

I would like to close on a note to all my female readers out there. If I can tell you one thing, it’s to always, always be yourself. The only way to stop this meninist nonsense is if you don’t let yourself be pushed around. You are a beautiful, confident, independent thinking leader that doesn’t need a man! Live your life for you and no one else. Be whoever you want to be because there’s no one who should love and respect you more than yourself.