Taking a stand

No offense, ladies, but this is a letter specifically to the rest of the members of my gender (but feel free to read on).

Gentlemen,

We need to take a stand.  It is time to stop letting a minority make the rest of us look like fools and idiots.  It is time to be heard.

I am writing about these men who are working so hard to limit the rights of women.  I am talking about these crazy politicians and religious leaders speaking out demanding that women be held to a different standard than men.  I am addressing the newsmakers who are waging a war on equality, on which we can no longer remain silent.

I believe that we men who support the equality of women are in the majority.  I think there are far more of us who believe women should not have to put out any extra effort to live the lives they would choose than us.

Gentlemen, we can no longer remain silent.  We must speak up.  We must express our support for our equal partners in this world, and we must demand that the attacks on them and their gender cease.  There should be no need for new suffragist movements – this was achieved almost a hundred years ago.  Why has this issue in the past decade or so come back up?

We must become vocal about our support.  It is time to stand up to the religious leaders and politicians and address these issues:

• A woman should have complete and total control and access to reproductive health.  Viagra and Cialis don’t require embarrassing, unnecessary tests or lectures, why on earth might birth control and other reproductive choices?  We must take a stand and demand these absolutely sexist, unfair rules and practices come to an end.

• A woman should not have to fight to earn equal pay to a male counterpart.  This is obscene, and should not be an issue.

• A woman who is a victim of rape should receive aid and assistance, not scorn and blame.  Any law passed taking away a woman’s rights when she has been raped should be stood up against and repealed, and we need to demand this.  A rape victim should not have to prove they did all they could to avoid being raped, the rapist should be the one to have their culpability disproven.  That this is even an issue should embarrass us, gentlemen.

• Women should not have to answer to a different standard than men.  It is time to get over ourselves, gentlemen, on the subject of nudity.  Men can walk around topless, a woman should be able to expose herself at will if she so desires.  The inequality in the decency standard needs to go away.  And certainly there should be no law punishing a woman for an act that a man can get away with on the basis of gender alone.

Gentlemen, we have been silent on these topics for too long.  This minority keeping these asinine positions alive in the 21^st Century must not be allowed to continue, unanswered, unchecked.  We need to stand up against them, and support our equal partners.

I am speaking up.  I will not be silent on these issues, I support the equality of our genders.  Gentlemen, please stand with me, and let’s make our voices be heard!