Over This Patriarchy

I am having yet another morning of being sick of this patriarchal society....and it's not even 9 am.

 I walked less than two blocks from my apartment this morning and had two men leer at me. One slowed his car so noticeably that he ended up being honked at by those behind him.  The other stared at me with this look that is hard to explain. Obviously people will and (I guess) can look at me.  From a safety point of view, sure, I want people in their cars to notice me as a pedestrian. But there is this look that these gross men, protected behind their cars of isolation and anonymity, give me, and one that is not based in observing their surroundings as a good driver.  It's not just of undressing me, but it's as if they are envisioning all of the wrong they would like to do to me. Imagine being a baby chick and having a butcher, covered in the blood of your friends and elders, stare at you, hot with mal intent, waiting for you to grow so he can mutilate your body.  That is what it feels like.  Does that caged chick need the butcher to explicitly say what he wants?  No, there is a feeling of fear and helplessness, of anger and entrapment, that is intuitive, evolutionary, inate.  That is how I feel when these men look at me, and how I know it's not just a "normal" look. 

And if I try to protect myself, assert my courage by using a middle finger or my spit, they simply laugh it off; as if my attempt to show that they cannot hurt me is as valid as a joke.  And that is even more insulting: that my strength is laughable in might compared to what they want. 

And that is patriarchy. 

A lot of people have suggested that I ignore these men, but to them I say this: 

It's women and men, ignoring this mistreatment for thousands of years that has lead me to face this today. As a society we have progressed communication to something that we can do with our thumbs, we can fall in love with people we've never met, we can travel anywhere in the world in less than a day.  But as for feeling safe as I walk down my street?  We have not allowed that to progress.  As a society we have prioritized technology and yet nothing of gender equality. By sitting in silence, I am essentially condoning this behavior, allowing it to continue beyond my time. 

And I refuse to do so. This needs to end. I plan to overthrow the patriarchy; and this is my beginning.