I dunno, that article seems to draw quite extreme conclusions from relatively innocuous acts like:
Quote:
Men often think they’re doing you a favor by telling a woman to “smile” in the street. But guess what? A woman can do anything she well pleases with her facial expression, whenever she wants. Women NEVER tell other women to smile in the street. They never tell men to do it either. That’s because there’s an inherent dynamic within our culture that (even subconsciously) makes men believe:
A woman’s autonomy exists only in so far as she is pleasing to male proclivities, at which point…
…as the ultimate owner of the female body, the man is within his rights to dictate to her how she should be conducting herself within it.
Because of this dynamic, being told simply to “smile” is harassment that reinforces this anachronistic power structure, leading women to feel out of control, and potentially in danger.
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Seems like over-analytical jargon. As do the conclusions from an appearance based compliment:
Quote:
Her worth is only valued at her ability to adhere to rigid, culturally imposed beauty standards.
She is an object and therefore cannot reasonably be expected to be treated with the respect of a full human.
The man “complimenting” her feels entitled to look at her, judge how she looks, force that judgment onto her, forcing her to internalize his view of herself.
And if he feels entitled to her in those ways, where does it stop? Where is the line of entitlement drawn? Maybe that’s as far as it goes with this one person. But how does the woman know? How does she know that he doesn’t feel equally entitled to have sex with her or beat her or kill her, as some men do feel entitled to do to women? The point is: She does not know. And that is why it is threatening.
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Makes out that the natural reaction to being told you're beautiful is to fear that you're going to be raped or murdered. Kinda depressing.