Protection From Coercion

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I’ve never heard a more ridiculous notion than the one that says women need to be protected from coercion. Women need to kick some goddamned ass, that’s what – not be “protected from coercion”.

How would one even go about doing such a thing as protecting someone from coercion? Isn’t coercion everywhere? Aren’t you being coerced everytime you make a purchase? With every book and newspaper you read? With at least half the people you talk to? With every opinion you form? – Isn’t the sum total of what we become the result of some form of coercion or another?

Don’t get me wrong, I know the theory – that men, or just people, not even necessarily men – will pressure a woman into doing something she wouldn’t normally do, if not for the pressure, and nobody should ever do anything they don’t actually want to do.

But in what world is the solution one that says we should “protect from coercion” instead of one that says we should “teach how to deal with coercion”?

I’ve read in a few places the belief that women, being so desperate to please others, should in effect be considered ‘constantly coerced’ – coerced by the very fact of being alive – and it’s the task of the rest of the world to treat women in a way that always keeps this in mind, and to account for this weakness when dealing with women.

I know I’m not the only one who sees a really great way to “protect” women and girls from “coercion” would be to not allow them out without a guardian, to monitor what they learn – or heck, just maybe don’t allow them to read at all, don’t allow education, don’t allow employment.

Every thinking person has gotta see that the only way to truly “protect from coercion” is to totally control the person in question.

This idea is as old as time, and I guess I was wrong when I thought that today’s feminism wanted something more than “protection” from the difficulties of life – the same difficulties, mind you, that people who aren’t women deal with for all of their lives, and to hear them tell it – learning to deal with the difficulties is one of the most important lessons learned.

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