Doc @DocAtCDI
Her War Starts Too Early
Covered in Unicorns, Forced Into Battle
I have a daughter. She’s 8. She loves purple, laughs too loud, and makes dumb faces at me.
Bathrooms don’t scare me.
In a few years, we might be facing bulimia or some other issue because the world is teaching her to hate her body.
Somebody is going to try to get her to give them a blow job, or get drunk or high and open her legs to let someone do what they want with her...
Before she's a teenager.
Every one of these things is more likely than a trans person assaulting her in a bathroom!
Every day she’s inundated with music and videos that mold her and tell her that sex sells—and her body,
is what makes her valuable.
Yesterday, we made mud pies while I worked in the garden, and later she drowned no less than four towels taking a bath with the water splashing all over the place. I laughed till I cried.
She fell asleep in our bed snuggling with me as we watched TV, and when she fell asleep, I carried her to bed covered in rainbows and unicorns.
She thinks a monster hides in her room.
It's not her imagination. He stalks her. He’ll rape her in her own car.
It'll be her fault of course, her skirt was too short.
He’ll grab her ass when she passes his table to serve someone their meal.
She’ll ignore it... because she needs the tip.
He’ll say she’s worth less than the men she works with. Sometimes, he’ll just say she’s worthless.
He’ll tell her she'll make “cute babies” and try to hand her his room key.
Ask any woman in your life if this is true. If she’s walked to her car, keys in hand, poking through her fist...
Ask her how many times she’s walked at night and not worried about a passing car driving too slowly, or footsteps in the distance behind her.
Ask her how much harder she has to work to have anything close to the same opportunities the men she works with are given.
Statistics back all of this up.
My daughter loves horsies. She loves running, playing dress-up, and her daddy.
She runs like the wind, swims like a fish. She never wants to come in for dinner.
This world is a man’s world she will grow up in. Men are glorified, rewarded, and treated like they have a place.
Men are taught to take what they want.
Her world is run by men who say things like “just let me see one of those ‘freaks’ follow my daughter into a bathroom,”
but never mention anything about the guy at work who grabs her ass and tells her she needs to go along if she wants to “make it here.”
Your daughter is more likely to be viciously raped before the age of 35 than even noticed by a “freak” in a bathroom.
Chances are it will be by someone who looks just like you. Respectable. Safe. Normal...
Bathrooms aren't scary.
Not when compared to this world we make them live in, then blame them when they are the victim.
She’s only 8, and she's learning to cover herself and protect herself and trust no one because she's going into a war...
A war where she is the spoils and the victim unless she is prepared to fight for the rest of her life.
So I have to teach this princess...
I have to prepare her for battle to keep her safe...
Teach her to fight, with her fists and her voice…
Ensure she knows her value is hers to determine…
Teach her to protect those who didn’t know every step would be a risk…
Not from a bathroom with someone different in a dress
But from the men who claim they will defend her.
By age 35, 44% of women in the U.S. report having been sexually assaulted.
Over 50% of women experience some form of sexual violence—physical, psychological, or verbal.
Most perpetrators are not strangers. They are friends, coworkers, family members, partners.
Less than 1% of rapes lead to a felony conviction.
1 in 4 girls in the U.S. experiences some form of sexual abuse, assault, or exploitation. That’s 25%, before they even reach adulthood.
About 13% of all reported sexual assault survivors are under the age of 12.
70–90% of children who are sexually abused know their abuser. Often a family member or someone in a position of trust.
The risk spikes between ages 12 and 17, which accounts for nearly half of all cases involving minors.
Less than 30% of child sexual abuse cases are ever reported to authorities.
you keep choosin violence!
we need more of you
