this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2024
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[–] [email protected] 32 points 9 months ago

Without revealing too much, my mother was a women's rights activist for a short while when I was younger (in the mid-90s).

She was abused by a priest within the Asian community, and was told (like many women before her) to keep quiet, since the norm was to blame the woman for being abused. My mother said fuck that, and spoke up. She was on every major TV station giving interviews, she was on Kilroy twice (was a very popular talk show here in the UK), shook hands with Princess Diana, etc.

The reason I bring that up, is due to one time when she would go on a local radio station and provide her phone number live on air, telling women to contact her, that she would go through the pranks and spam if there was the chance of victims coming through.
The amount of women experiencing every day harassment was something that I just cannot forget, as a young man knowing the extent of what women go through in regards to daily harassment really helped shape my understanding. It is a real issue that I believe a lot of men are simply unaware of as nothing of that sort happens to us. I've met countless women who have told me they are afraid to wear dresses that are shorter than down to their ankles, in fear of being groped. In 2024 this shouldn't be a thing but here we are.

These signs are, unfortunately, needed to raise some awareness. It's not an issue that faces me directly, but man it definitely is an issue for a lot of women out there. Getting MUCH better, however still something that needs to be acknowledged imho.