If it's possible, I think that I think a lot. Maybe it's because I'm a sensitive person who likes to mull over everyday situations, maybe it was the way I was brought up, or maybe it's because I'm an air sign. I'm always thinking about various social outcomes, big possibilities, people I know, and the culture I live in. I keep myself up at night thinking about these things; sometimes I cry in my car or in my bed thinking about these things.
Something that I am frequently "thinking about" is my role as a woman, or a young woman, since I'm still 19. Usually when I start thinking about how I'm treated as a woman by my family, my friends, and people in the streets, I move on to think about how any woman is treated as a "woman," or every black man or woman treated as a "black man" or a "black woman," etc. I'm always thinking about why minorities are still underrepresented in jobs or media, why there is still a pay gap or "glass ceiling" for women when it comes to higher-up corporate jobs, why men are still raping, abusing, and assaulting women, and why these people who are always underrepresented and mistreated are always blanketed in social politics with easy-to-understand "problems" that relate to their role.
It's because, sadly, they are not being taken seriously as individuals affected by societal problems. Was that obvious? Seemingly at first, yes, that is why there are still these social issues. Because these people are not taken seriously. But when you debate with your family, friends, or watch news channels, these people are still being blanketed with these easy to understand phrases, like "feminists fight because there's a pay gap between genders, but the gap isn't even that much!" or "new programs are issued to guarantee minorities jobs or get acceptance into college, so it's harder now for the white person!" The main problem with the wording constantly seen in articles, on television, or in the comfort of a familial debate is that they always seem to fail to address why there's a pay gap, or why minorities have trouble getting jobs.
It's because they're not taken seriously as capable, sensitive, thoughtful humans! Is that ever mentioned? Why is that never mentioned? Why doesn't anybody in media who covers these pressing issues get told to address that men keep raping women because they don't take their consent seriously? That minorities can't get out of dangerous neighborhoods because no one takes them seriously for opportunities that can help them? That there's a pay gap because employers don't consider women as serious workers? That the only people who decide who they want to take seriously is the white man?
It's like everyone pretends that these issues exist just because they exist. That the only people who can ever have motives behind what they do are men (except when they abuse women, that always seems to be excused). The only people who are ever asked "why" they shot up 20 people in a school are the white men who do it-- what made them go "crazy?" But the two middle-eastern men who bombed the Boston marathon were just "terrorists." I have seen hundreds of white, male terrorists, but that's just not a "thing" in this culture.
White men are always taken seriously as individuals, because they are the only ones who are still in control. The only way for change to start happening is for media outlets to start asking their viewers, readers, and listeners "why" there is this violence, mistreatment, and underrepresentation.
