(Coach Patti) “Uttech said she didn’t see a problem.”
Awards are handed out to cheerleaders by coaches for, among other things, largest breasts or butts. In Kenosha, Wisconsin. In 2019.
THIS is why men can’t understand the things they do and say hurt other human beings; it’s because women like this one also still think so little of themselves and other women that they help to perpetuate the demeaning stereotypes and objectification. Uttech sees no problem teaching impressionable, young women this garbage in front of approving, adult men and women. I had to unfriend a teacher because she was doing this same shit, sharing proudly sexist messages, perpetuating her own misogyny with her students.
Between sexism we learn at home, from our families (two of my grandparents were the worst), in advertising, on television, in social media, to dress codes in schools and the protections we offer boys so they can get into college, etc. we are teaching our kids terrible lessons that keep the entire country living in a dark age. We’re not helping our youth, our future.
I was raised with this, too, like most people in America. I’ll probably still be working to unlearn these dangerous ideas and to stop perpetuating this shit myself until the day I die. We can do better. We must do better. Our kids deserve better. These young women aren’t at school as a distraction for the boys. They’re there to learn, and they deserve all the same rights and opportunities and respect as the other students.
Adults, everyone, but especially teachers who are put in a position where you have the implicit title of “role model,” think about what you’re doing in your interactions. Think about the message you’re sending and how others, especially your young people, are going to receive it. Don’t teach women self-loathing or men that they are more deserving or owed something or somehow entitled to other people. Don’t teach that a person’s acceptable actions or reactions are based on their gender. Women are intelligent, important, and just as valuable as all other human beings. We’re deserving of rights, opportunities, love and respect, just like everyone else. There is nothing wrong with US. If you hate yourself or your gender, fine, but don’t make it other everyone else’s problem. Choose to leave a legacy of love, respect, and equality, and the world will be a better place for all humans.
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Link: “Wisconsin high school to stop awards for largest breasts and buttocks” – CTV News/AP
Link: “Militant tenderness: how teachers are rooting out sexism in school” – by Rachel Williams at The Guardian
Link: Live Your Life; Leave Us Out of It – by E. Brooks of Gray Matters
#GMTeacherLegacy #ERANow