Content warning: This article discusses discrimination and sexual assault.
Support is available for anyone in the UT community affected by sexual assault, interpersonal violence (including domestic and dating violence), stalking, sexual harassment, and sex discrimination by emailing supportandresources@austin.utexas.edu.
The National Sexual Assault hotline is also available 24/7 by phone at 1-800-656-4673 or chat.
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness: the core this country is built upon. Why do we not attempt to uphold these values? Maybe because we have not upheld some of our other values like the American dream? Even if you work hard, go to college, and respect people like we’re told, you could still be stuck living paycheck to paycheck. No matter your opinion on that matter, it is proven that a college education is worth less than it used to be, it is harder to advance in the workplace, and housing prices are astronomically high. Or maybe because our morals have changed as a country? If they have, what new ones should we be following? I do not think anyone in this country could tell you what new ideals we are following.
Why do I bring up our country’s values? Because as Americans, we have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, right? Then why do women not have a right to their bodies, the sole thing keeping them alive? I am not just talking about abortion rights; I am talking about societal standards for what a woman should be. Be hairless, be skinny, but not too skinny, they said. You should have a big butt and boobs, but wear modest clothing so you are professional and so we do not sexualize you, they said. Do not wear shorts and crop tops in the summer, so we do not have to control our sexual desires, they said. Especially if you are not skinny, you can never wear a crop top because that is disgusting, they said. Do not have sex when you want and with who you want because then you are used and irresponsible, they said. But if you will not have sex or send nudes when a man asks, then you are a tease, they said. Our bodies that are keeping us alive do not belong to us. They belong to society and the men who try to control us. However, that just covers the life aspect.
Merriam-Webster defines liberty as the quality or state of being free. While freedom can be defined differently, women are not “free” in the traditional sense of the word. We can enjoy things on our private property, but how much of our private property is tainted by what men have done to us or forced us to do in our own homes? Some nights I can not sleep in my own bed because of what men, who I thought I could trust, have convinced me to do in my own bed. And yes, coercion, or convincing someone to have sex with you, can be classified as rape even though the people accused are rarely held accountable. I know for a fact that I am not alone in that experience. We can leave our house to enjoy activities outside of the house. Still, we have to make sure we are not wearing something too revealing, that we go with a friend or a few, that we have our pepper spray in case someone tries to attack us, and that we have something to cover our drink in case someone puts something in our drink. Even then, protecting our drink is not good enough anymore because women have recently been injected with date rape drugs (yes, this has mainly happened in the United Kingdom, but there is nothing stopping that from happening in the United States). Not only do we have restrictions on the activities we do on our own property and the strict societal pressures on our appearance, but we also have laws controlling what we do with our bodies. Senate Bill 8 in Texas, also known as the heartbeat bill, went into effect in September prohibiting abortions as early as six weeks into pregnancy. The law does not offer any exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest and allows private citizens to sue abortion providers and those who had an abortion instead of the state, according to reporting from The Daily Texan. I am not here to try to convince you to change your mind on abortion, but the law is taking away a woman’s choice. Whether or not you agree that having an abortion is the right choice, it is still a choice.
Lastly, the pursuit of happiness. After everything I have discussed, I think it’s fair to say that women do not have a fair pursuit of happiness. In all of this, I did not even mention the wage gap, the pink tax, the discrimination from medical professionals, the effects of birth control, and many more systemic problems. As said by the internet meme, how am I supposed to live, laugh, love in these conditions?
At the end of the day, the argument I hear from people the most regarding sexism is, “what rights do we have that they don’t?” The most basic rights people are supposed to have in this country: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. If these answers are not good enough to answer the question of where the inequality lies within this country in terms of gender, we have a much more pressing and genuine problem than I thought.