Not All Men!

So, recently, my #OOTD post on street harassment has been bombarded with men saying, “Hey, well, not all men!” Ah, the classic argument. Here’s something for you:

“Not all men!”

Yes but enough men that every girl is terrified of smiling to that guy on the bus or talking with the boy in the coffee shop. Every girl has been walking late at night at one point and been afraid of who might be following her. Every girl has referred to someone as a “creep” and every girl has refused a drink from someone she doesn’t know.

“Not all men!”

But enough men that all women are now afraid of most men.
It’s gotten so bad that we have to be afraid of even telling you we are afraid. We can’t ask that you please stop talking to us. Because if we do we run the risk of being labeled a “stuck up bitch” and blamed for murders and rapes in which we are the victims.

So we speak to you with body language that we hope you’ll understand. We cross our legs and look out the window and wear giant headphones that are giant signs that subtly read “DON’T TALK TO ME!” But you insist on ignoring those signs because you have it in your head that our body language doesn’t mean anything. That our bodies aren’t our bodies.

“Not all men!”

You can start saying that when all women can stop being afraid. But that’s not gonna happen if every man a women opens up to about this issue dismisses her by saying “Not all men.”

(Source is Tumblr but I am still looking for the original author)

There is also a good article from Slate which discusses why the “not all men” argument derails the issue of women.

So boys, instead of saying “Not all men!” and making this about you, how about help us with our issues. We need more men to fight by our side.