Women Will No Longer Take Responsibility for What Is Not Ours
A feminist manifesto
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*This is an essay about gender roles and institutional sexism that uses generalizations to make a point. If you find this upsetting, please protect your mental health by choosing not to read it.
I’m sorry but we can’t do it anymore. We cannot toe this line. We cannot jump through one more hoop.
We are opting out.
We can no longer take responsibility for men’s emotional health. We can no longer take responsibility for their sexual needs. We can no longer take responsibility for their laundry, dirty dishes, or meal prep.
We will not take responsibility for people’s puritanical views on our sexuality. We will not “keep our knees closed” or “keep our panties on.”
We will not take responsibility for the inevitable 1-3% of contraceptive failures. We will not take responsibility for the ripped condom. And we will damn well not take responsibility for the accidental pregnancy that occurred after our partners talked us out of using a condom and then disappeared the moment he found out an egg was fertilized.
We will not take responsibility for the (alleged) “uncontrollable urges” of man. We will not take responsibility for “triggering” a man’s bad behavior. We will not change the way we dress in order to appease a man’s determination to take what doesn’t belong to him. We will absolutely not play this game.
We will not take responsibility for having the gall to walk across a grocery store parking lot before the sun comes up or taking a jog at night. We will not take responsibility for daring to have a drink at a bar. We will not take responsibility for men’s inappropriate behavior when we wear a sports bra to the gym or a push-up bra on a date.
We will not take responsibility for people putting their hands on our bodies without permission. We will not take responsibility for another person’s show of physical aggression. We will not take responsibility for someone else’s sexual outrage.
We will not take responsibility for the nonstop string of violent messages that follow us everywhere we dare to show up online. We will not take responsibility for those who would abuse…
