by Tess Adair
I think despite everything I feel about New Year’s resolutions, I accidentally made one. It’s not a big one--or at least, it’s not big on the surface. It’s pretty simple: I want to put less emphasis on feeling bad about how shitty the world is, less emphasis on punishing or hating people who make it worse (usually unintentionally,) and focus more on any kind of positive impact I can make. Sometimes that means something as simple as sharing a nice story.
So, in that vein, I’d like to give a shout-out to allies. Generally, I mean anyone in a position of privilege who tries to live in solidarity with people who are, in any way, more disadvantaged than they are.
To be a little more specific, I feel like I have a lot of male friends who happen to be excellent feminists. And they make me a little bit happier about the world.
The other day, my roommate and I were talking about how entrenched sexism can be even in early education. I upset myself remembering this idiot textbook, which still had somewhat wide circulation up through the 1990s, that claimed to teach kids about human reproduction. In a bizarrely sexist way.
As I related to the roommate, the textbook described the “delicate princess” egg merely waiting on “her savior prince” sperm to venture forth and find her. (Side note, this is not an accurate description of what usually happens. A high percentage of the time, the sperm take too long so the egg has to travel down.)
My roommate laughed and responded.
“Let’s be honest, it’s more like there’s a huge dragon that starts coming down, and a bunch of knights come at it, and all of them die except one.”
Touche, sir. Well done.
So, yeah. I’d just like to take a second to appreciate allies, especially the ones with sharp wits and handy jokes.
Thanks, dudes. Thanks, allies of all genders. I like you.
Now here’s some cats.
