My partner and I went to play cards one night with some friends. Sometime during the night, the ladies went to the kitchen to catch up and chat about stuff. Long story short, we got into a heated debate about a story we’d seen about a young lady being sent home from school for wearing a long sleeve t-shirt that showed a hint of her collar bone. The guys (respective boyfriends and husbands) just didn’t get why we (the ladies) were so upset for this girl. They said things like, “What’s the big deal? (about her being sent home).” The big deal is the double standard women are held to in terms of dress codes in school. The onus is usually placed on us to adhere to some pretty ridiculous clothing requirements imposed by the school because the school is concerned the young men can’t control themselves or some bullshit. This girl’s garment was in no way alluring or revealing. It was a collarbone for Christ sake. At that point, none of the young men at the same school had their day interrupted with being sent home to change, whereas dozens of young ladies had. Their attire was fine, but the public school’s antiquated rules really imposed the bias on the women.

The guys just could not understand why we became increasingly frustrated in this debate. They also didn’t like how impassioned we were about the issue; mistaking our frustration for the young lady personally, and acting as though we were attacking them.

Each of my girlfriends, myself included, have had a partner try to quell our opinion, or suggest we not get so passionate about these types of things. “So you don’t want me to voice an opinion about something I’m passionate about in terms of injustice imposed on women?” Wow.