I don’t think I’ll be able to look at a woman in Squamish – or anywhere else for that matter – in quite the same way ever again. My entire worldview of the female gender was altered recently, and I guess it is fair to say my view of men has changed, as well. And it just took two little words: Me too.
You’ve likely seen those two tiny words in the past two or three weeks, as they quickly became a viral hashtag shared by women around the globe following the sexual harassment scandal of Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.
It started slowly, with one or two female Facebook friends posting “#metoo” on their timelines. I don’t remember which of my friends posted first because it was such a simple, small thing. With no explanations or context at first, it was easy to miss. Easy to ignore. But, then the little trickle of “me toos” became a veritable flood, and the meaning became painfully clear. All those women – friends, family, relatives, co-workers – all had their own stories of sexual harassment.
I’m not a naïve person by any stretch, however, to say I was shocked, flabbergasted, and totally appalled by the sheer number of women bravely coming forward is an understatement. I mean, I’ve seen the statistics, so I shouldn’t have been surprised. But, statistics are just numbers. They’re cold, factual, and easy to gloss over. However, when you give those devastatingly high numbers the faces of your loved ones and friends, things change forever.
I consider myself an average, decent guy. Yes, my eyes have lingered on a pretty girl as she’s walked by me on the street. When I was a single guy, I flirted with cute cashiers at the coffee shop. But, I’ve always been respectful. The last thing I ever wanted was to come off like a creep or make anyone feel uncomfortable. But, now I wonder if even those innocent interactions could have caused anyone to feel fearful, because quite frankly, considering the sheer number of women coming forward with “#me too” it seems there are an awful lot of really slimy and distrustful men in this world. Were I female, I’d have my guard up all the time, too. And that is what is so sad. All those women – practically every single woman I know – has had to fend off some creep who didn’t know the meaning of the word “no.”
The positive side to these tragedies is we’ve had long conversations with our young daughter about the issue, and about not keeping silent if anything should happen to her. I’ve also had long conversations with my son about respecting women (and everyone for that matter) and about being a decent man. Look, I can’t change what happened to all these women in the past, but hopefully, I can do my small part to change how things play out in the futur
