Editor’s Notes: Misogyny is alive and well
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"Boys competing with the girls puts girls at a significant disadvantage and it always will."
You have to wonder whether Gov. Jim Justice understood what vile poison was spewing from his mouth when he uttered those words ... or whether he intended just that.
Yes, I understand there were other sentences around what Justice said, and that he was purportedly addressing one specific issue. But he didn't say "Boys competing with girls in athletics," (though that wouldn't necessarily have been the truth, either. Ask any number of phenomenal female athletes who proved being male didn't give anyone an automatic advantage over them).
Justice said girls are at a SIGNIFICANT disadvantage when competing against boys and always will be, according to a report I read from WTRF.
This man is a coach of a high school girls basketball team, for crying out loud. Why on earth would he want to encourage the idea that they are incapable, less-than, weak and in need of protection?
Oh, wait, never mind. Answered my own question.
It's what society tells girls and women as often as they get the opportunity. We tell them they were born disadvantaged, that they need to be controlled for their own protection, that it is THEIR responsibility -- duty, even -- to be as small, ordinary, inconspicuous and tightly fitted to a centuries-old mold as they can be, to avoid throwing the boys off their game.
We tell them it is more attractive to appear weak and helpless. (We tell them it's important to be "attractive," for goodness sake.) We teach them to behave as though they are disadvantaged for so long that they begin to believe they need a protector.
It takes every ounce of intelligence, determination, strength and ability most young women have to rise past that. And thank goodness many do.
In fact, thank goodness many MORE in the younger generations seem to understand the whole thing is utter nonsense.
All the more reason for political figures and others in positions of leadership to double down and tell them they're wrong before it all slips away, I suppose.
Any time one human tells another they are imposing something for that person's "own good," it might as well be accompanied by a giant banner that reads "I don't think you are capable, and I'm removing your ability to make your own decisions or prove me wrong."
I'm sure a few parents are muttering right now, "Well, yes. And that's necessary sometimes."
Fair enough. But we're not talking about a parent disciplining or giving rules to his or her own child here. We're talking about something much bigger and more insidious.
We're talking about the kind of constant messaging that makes girls and women believe they are at a disadvantage when competing against men in academic pursuits, for jobs or elected office.
Some take that messaging as a challenge and fight back. We need to empower many more like them.
Some take the messaging to heart and never rise -- in fact, do what they can to drag other girls and women down with them. Some allow themselves to be used to further spread the poison.
To be fair to Justice, by the way, he is one of legions of other people like him -- men and women -- who are happy to repeat the same message in West Virginia and all over the country.
It's got to stop.
Politicians, if your argument has no more meat to it than "Well, we've got to protect these poor disadvantaged women who don't know any better," think a little harder about your true agenda.
And ladies, young and old, if hearing that you are at a significant disadvantage made your blood boil like it did mine, show them -- all of them -- how very wrong they are.
Christina Myer is executive editor of The Parkersburg News and Sentinel. She can be reached via e-mail at cmyer@newsandsentinel.com