GO VOTE!

A Rant About Why You Should Vote For Women

Goodness. If I could get back the hours/days/months I have spent reading or worried about that man… Today’s the day, folks. If you haven’t voted yet, go right now. Don’t even finish reading this post. Just go. Call in sick. Call an Uber. Walk. Do whatever you have to do because we don’t want to be sleeping on the job like we did eight years ago when we thought our girl had it in the bag.

So many things this week drawing attention to how women the world over have it worse than anyone. In class, we were reading an interview with a male author who says he disappears for weeks at a time to write while his wife "mans" the house and the kids. One of my professors felt exasperated by that, as even though she has a great husband, she still doesn’t get time alone to write. I know this is a first-world problem, but it shows that no matter where you are on the socioeconomic food chain if you are a woman, you are at the bottom.

Nothing I can say on here will be anything but old news. And I don’t want to rant about being a woman, but it’s election day, so here goes. Only about a third of UN member states have ever had a female leader. I remember four years ago hearing a Black scholar talk about how Susan B. Anthony and the suffragists were racist. Regardless of what those white women did a long time ago, Black men still got the right to vote before women, and it was decades later that ALL women got the right to vote. And as racist as this country was and still is, a Black man became president before a woman. I think it would do America a world of good to put a woman in the White House today.

For one reason, we are emotionally intelligent, savvy, and smart (especially her). Plus, I think it would heal many wounds for women, particularly women of color. It’s not going to solve all our problems, but as far as women being seen in this country, it’s an excellent place to start. I have a lot of Republican friends who I respect. Regardless of politics or whether you think both sides are rotten (which they might very well be), that man running for president is only out for number one. He has never been a public servant and has no interest in helping us. He is not smart or a good person. He is greedy and vane, narcissistic, petty, racist, ableist, anti-environmental, and, above all else, sexist. Electing him president again would only set women back further. That’s not even my opinion. It’s a fact.

If you want to see learn about how women have been screwed over in this country, read We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie or Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez, read this report from the Institute for Women’s Policy on violence against Black women, scroll through Everytown for Gun Safety’s website and learn about how the majority of women killed by an intimate partner are killed with a gun, or, hell, watch the Martha documentary or the new Anna Kendrick movie on Netflix. I am in no way a feminist scholar, but you don’t have to be to understand inequality. In the state of Texas, if your daughter gets raped by a stranger or anyone else, she has to carry the baby to full term. Do you know how fucked up that is?

I do not want to rant; I just want to remind people to vote. And I’m not saying you should vote for somebody just because she’s a woman. But I guarantee you there will be plenty of people in America today who will be voting for him just because he isn’t.

If you are still on the fence, do the I Stand With quiz in full. If you fill out all the answers, you might be surprised who you align with when you dial down the issues. Mine told me I should vote for Marianne Williamson, even though she’s no longer on the ballot. I would not have voted for her anyway because there are only two votes today: for him or against him.

I’m with her.