ME TOO

Many women have been touched by the awakening in the Me Too movement. I have been raped once, molested by an employer, and attacked by an overzealous teenager in the back seat of a car.  I don't know a woman that hasn't been either abused or misused by a man who allowed themselves to assume they deserve to be in charge or that they are entitled to whatever they want in regards to a "woman". Not all men are clueless. My husband constantly says "how can men be so stupid?" That being said, I do not hold it against all men that a few of them have shown themselves to be jerks. I did not report any of the instances to the police, but the attitude back in the 70s was different than it is now. Women tolerated more back then and were not as easily traumatized.

I wonder why women seemingly come out of the woodwork, jumping on the bandwagon of those who are charging various politicians and businessmen with having attacked or molested them in years past. It makes me wonder, "why now?" Why are they bringing out the attacks from so long ago for this moment in time? How does this benefit them? Why wait until others have come out and said something. Wouldn't it have been more beneficial to come out with it at the time it happened to keep it from happening to others? Are they being benefited financially by testifying to these "attacks?" Are the attacks real or are they contrived? I don't see how this benefits women, but on the other hand, I see the benefit in bringing this mistreatment to light in order to put a stop to it.

Aristotle's had a tremendous influence on how western society views women. His philosophy influenced western European and Islamic thinkers believing women were an "incomplete" male simply because they did not have a penis.  I remember taking English Literature classes where I first learned about the Aristotle philosophy of women and how it was repeated again in the middle ages by "Saint" Thomas Aquinas, an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the Catholic church. They assumed because women were "deformed" in the body then they were also mentally deficient and therefore should not be allowed to be involved in politics or leadership. Midevil cultures did not think women should be allowed to be educated because they were mentally deficient. Our world has lost many extraordinary thinkers due to this backward philosophy proported by the thinking of one or two men.

While the Europeans showed their disdain for women by expecting women to provide dowries to the husband, some cultures, such as the early Judean culture required a man to make a valuable gift to the father of a bride to compensate him for the loss. Native American tribes also required the father of a bride to be compensated. 

God did not ordain men to be in charge "over" women. He created women out of Adam's side and ordained woman to be a help-mate to man. That doesn't mean they are worth less than a man. On the contrary, women are formidable in their abilities. I am willing to say ME TOO, but not in order to make men look like they are overly corruptible, but to bring to light that our society needs to take a good look at why women are seen as "less". This needs to be changed and it has been so embedded into western society it will take time and effort to change it.