I know this blog is a bit late but my crazy schedule means that my blog writing along with the holidays make their own date. Lol ...February 14th is what I'm referring to (Valentines day, love day, V-day, etc.). The infamous day that you are either one of three things. Your either the girl that wears some sort of red or pink to the office ecstatic that there is a holiday just to celebrate love, you might be the girl who walks around complaining that there is a day just to celebrate love, or you just don't really care. Either way, it's hard not to notice the holiday. I was working most of the day February 14th but simply logging into my Facebook and Twitter account I was clearly reminded that IT WAS VALENTINES DAY! It was hard not to notice all the girls posting pictures of their beautiful flowers, candies and presents that they all got from their special someone. Don't worry, this is not a "I hate Valentines day" post. As a matter of fact, I posted a couple of love quotes myself. That day and the days leading up to V-day I made an observation that inspired this post. The observation is that I noticed a lot of males posting quotes, opinions, statements about respecting women. At first I thought to myself "well that nice" but then I began to notice that some of these posts were becoming very popular. The FB friends that I had were getting hundreds of likes on their posts. Girls were commenting like crazy saying that they agreed and saying things like "finally someone said it!". As I began to think about it, it completely bothered me. Not the fact that these posts were becoming popular but the fact that these statements regarding respecting women have become so "precious" to our girls. These posts were SO simple. The point was simple. Respect women. Treat women as the queens they are. Never hurt a woman. Simple. I couldn't understand why everyone was going crazy?! Like if they had never heard this concept before? Then I figured it out, respecting woman is no longer a norm for this generation. There was a time when respecting a woman was the only way to treat a woman. A man would not think twice before opening the door for another woman. It was unthinkable to sit down at a table before helping her take her seat first. With society changing the rules of chivalry, for me, this goes beyond chivalry. While having the door open for you is quite nice it's much more than that. Now I know this may come out a little strong but the way I see it is a guy can posts or say something about respecting women and all of a sudden he is applauded by the entire world. He is now what we call "a great guy". It is so sad that us women have come down to this. We have accepted that not all men will have this "quality" of respecting women. I'm sorry, but it's not a quality. Respecting women should be a way of life just like respecting men should be a way of life. Women often ask themselves why are men the way they are? What are they such "dogs"-well I think the answer is quite simple. Because we have allowed it. What happened to the days when respecting woman was not an option. Today, if you respect women, your nominated for the "great guy" award. He is one in a million. Now please do not take me wrong, I am not saying "go and hate all men" -- I stand for quite the opposite. I believe that men should be respected just as much as we want to be respected as I stated earlier. Neither am I say that all men are like this, but I think it's safe to say that a good majority of men have lost their way at some point. This was just a simple observation that men have lost that sense of manhood. This word respect is nothing new so why are we treating it like it's some sort of new discovery? Why are we rewarding the act when it should just be natural. It's not something we can take lightly. My hope is that both men and women wake up and realize that we need a new "normal".
~Vanessa Katherine
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