Where do we stand?

Roda Osman was bricked in the face for rejecting the advances of a man. The right side of her face was literally disfigured and swollen, and she suffered with a concussion after a man THREW a brick at her face because she wasn't interested in him.

She took to social media (TikTok) as you do, and of course it was quickly brought to Twitter. That's where men started showing themselves. Osman is very open and proud about being a feminist and an independent woman. Apparently for some men on Twitter this meant that she is no longer eligible for protection from them. Many started spewing misogynistic rhetoric and a lot of it was actually misogynoir.

Often when a Black woman is openly proud about being independent, men can find this intimidating as they feel as though they are not needed, and as a defense mechanism, they resort to disrespect and making heinous comments to protect their emasculated feelings.

Misogynoir is widely perpetuated by men all over the world, and with the rise in red pill extremists like Kevin Samuels, Sneako and Hassan AKA Mr. Overpaid, the behaviours based off this narrative are becoming a lot more normalised. Violence against women has been on the rise for the past 3 years, and I genuinely feel like we are regressing as a society. In an age where we are supposedly becoming more liberal, it often feels like the opposite. Women can't speak their mind without fear of attack, and men are still using their strength as a way to silence us - both physically and sexually.

Elianne Andam was a 15 year old girl on her way to SCHOOL when she was fatally stabbed for protecting her friend against a pining and angry ex-boyfriend. Some argue that it is a direct result of knife crime in London, but in reality it is femicide, and the fact that young boys and men think it is okay to resort to violence against women to get what they want. What kind of loser thinks the next move after being rejected is killing someone?

I shouldn't be able to confidently say that every single woman I know has been sexually harassed or assaulted by a male. Both by strangers and people we know alike. From as early as primary school; and for the longest time - and it still is in certain spaces - it was brushed off as 'boys will be boys'.

A topic like this will never die out. On 'The Receipts Podcast' most recent episode (183) they touched on this topic. Men will never have the same fear that women have every time they leave their homes, the inability to be freely themselves for fear of being hurt. We just have to sit uncomfortably until we are able to remove ourselves. This is why sisterhood is so important. Moments where your friends are around to put you at ease are so important. It's sad that as women, we have so many unspoken social cues amongst us to make us feel safer for when we are in uncomfortable situations with men who have no care for whether they are making women feel uncomfortable or not.

I long for the day where women and girls everywhere don't have to subdue themselves in order to get by on a day to day basis.

I long for a day where rape alarms and apps that create fake numbers for women to give out don't need to exist.

I long for a day where women being assaulted doesn't result in questions like "what were you wearing?" "what did you do/say?"

I long for a day where women can just be.