Last week, I went to the gym early one morning. I was dreading the workout that day because I knew it was going to be 40 minutes on the stairmaster. THE STAIRMASTER!! That thing is a beast and a tough workout. The other problem with climbing the monster machine is that it does not have its own personal television to watch what I want to watch. A girl loves a good BYU devotional at 6:30 in the morning, right? Oh wait, that is just me!
So on the stairmaster, I can stare down at my feet or choose a variety of 10 different television sets in front of me. Normally, the tv's are set on news channels, music channels, sports channels, infomercials, etc. etc. On this particular morning, I had mainly news, music and infomercials playing in front of me. Except for 1 of the television sets on my left side view.
I will not name the particular show, however, playing on the television set to my left was a commercial of a show where sick and disgusting men go to Spring Break locations and video tape young girls and women desacrating their bodies and exposing themselves while intoxicated or possibly on drugs. I have no idea how a commercial like this passes as acceptable when merely stars or other small symbols covered anatomy or inappropriate acts. It was DISGUSTING and it was playing in a public place. It just kept playing over and over again and again!
The saddest part of my story was that as I am enraged about something like that burning into my eyes, I notice 3 men staring at that particular television set. 2 of them directly in front of the television and 1 gentleman back by me on another stairmaster beast. I was enraged!
The woman next to me noticed my wincing and bothered estate and asked me if there was something wrong with my stairmaster? In which my reply was: "no there is nothing wrong with my machine, but there is something terribly wrong with that television set."
At that point of anger, I hopped off, yes literally jumped off the machine because it it that high off the ground, ran around the elipticals and the treadmills, stood in front of the horrible television set, stood up on my tippy toes, reached with my finger and pressed the channel down bottom, preparing myself to get yelled at.............................................................
Silence!
I stopped the channel on a basketball game (BYU game, what irony!) and walked back to my beastly stairmaster machine. As I was beginning my workout, I noticed that the 2 men who were in front of the bad television got up and left. The other man that was back by me, waited about 5 minutes and then he left too.
I am extremely saddened that this is deemed as acceptable. This was an outright display of demoralizing womanhood and the sanctity of womanhood. Perhaps others may have been bothered like I was, but we all need to have more courage to stand up for what is right. Every woman in that building should have been running to that television set, changing the channel and screaming that that I am worth so much more than THAT!!
This is a day and age where we cannot turn our heads and say, I will just pretend like it is not there. We need to stand up for each other, especially protecting the virtues of a woman.
For those of you that may argue with me that I do not have the right to force any of my beliefs on those 3 men. It is their choices and yes I believe in agency also.
However, what I did was not for the men in the room! I did it for their wives, their sisters, their mothers, you, me and especially the daughters of these men.
My friends, now is the day and age that we need to stand up and fight for each other. We have to have the courage to do what is right, beacuse whether we like it or not, the sanctity of womanhood is under attack. Apathy in defending our virtues is laying down and giving up. Today is the day we stand! We Fight! We Do Something for good!
Whose side are you on?
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9 comments:
Suzanne I am literally clapping for you right now!! Good Job!!
That was seriously a very courageous thing to do. You are right you should not have been the only one to have wanted to turn the channel but many women are timid so I am sure there were some who were saying "Thank You" in their heads when you turned that channel!
You go girl!
Good for you. I have seen those commercials and I just think how I would strangle those guys and possibly my daughter too if she was ever on one of those. Those girls probably have no idea what the consequence of their actions will be and will not until much later in their life when "having fun" like that is not as high a priority.
We were at Lagoon yesterday and I saw two girls behaving themselves inappropriately while in line for a ride while their guy friend took pictures. I immediately tried to keep myself between them and my 10-year-old son along with a very loud conversation about random nothingness to try to prevent him from hearing their disgusting "fun". I was sad for those girls. I have never considered myself to have a high self esteem, but it could be worse. How sad to not know who you belong to and what you can become.
I commend you Suz! Seriously. I am going to make a better effort to do the little things like that to help make this world a better place.
I am so grateful for the DVR right now... I havent seen a commercial for a good 6 months or so.. so I have no idea what you are even talking about other than I am horrified that this type of stuff is on TV..
I can totally see all of this happening.. and I commend you for your courage! Way to be!!
Oh Suzanne, I know just what you are talking about. I too have been to the gym many mornings and that channel has been on. I, unlike you, am not tall enough to reach the TV's to change the channel. I think I would draw way more attention to myself and the TV if I attempted to do so (trust me, I've tried). And those pesty little remotes are nowhere in sight when you need them.
I too have been outraged that they let these shows on in public places. They should have some kind rating block on them. If men want to watch that kind of junk, then they should have the decency to watch it in the privacy of their own homes so we don't have to watch it with them!
I have often wondered what has happened to our society and the respect that not only men have for women, but the respect that women have for themselves! We live in a scary world!
Good job Suzanne! We all need to do that more often.
Hi again! So I just got an email from AHSJ and saw your name on the Carpool List. I just started working there yesterday! Are you a teacher there? It's turning out to be a very small world as I know a couple other women there as well! How funny :) Love your blog, by the way.
Wow, that is too funny! I'm not an actual teacher there. I am doing extended care right now (basically daycare) and once the school year starts I'll be doing a mixture of being a teacher's aid and extended care. So far I REALLY love it. The Kindergarten teachers that I have met are so awesome. Your daughter will be in good hands! I"ll probably be helping out in her classroom so I'm sure I'll get to see you once in a while as well :) It really is funny how small the world is! (It's especially funny that her teacher is Mrs. White!) What are the odds??
Ugh. I hate those infomercials for "Girls Gone Wild" or whatever it is. Yeah I agree - a real thrill to take advantage of a girl while she is intoxicated. Who are these people? Kudos to you for having the courage to stand up for your beliefs!
That is so awesome you did that. I feel the same way. I hate seeing women exploded as pieces of meat and degraded.
One time when I was steel working at the airport, there was an issue of Sports Illustrated that broke my heart. There where 12 women on the cover standing on a beach with only their bikini bottoms on and only their arms across their chest to cover them. I asked if we could cover the magazine up with the blockers we used. A couple of my coworkers and these where women said I was over reacting and that there was nothing wrong with it. They actually even started to look at it and laugh at it. I was so upset that I left and I had to cool down for an hour. I cried and felt sad that those women couldn't see the value of womanhood. I thought to my self, what if that was your daughter, sister or friend on that cover. Then they would thing again.
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