Excuse me, Gentlemen

Women have been standing up. Standing up everywhere. Women are standing up like meerkats on high alert. It’s almost like it’s the summer of 1920 and we’re gearing up to go to a Gatsby party to celebrate the newly granted women’s right to vote. I admire the energy. I love strong women. I know strong women. I was raised by a strong woman. I am becoming a strong woman myself. It’s an honor to be strong and to be strengthened by women who are stronger. Movies and television with strong, female leads are my absolute favorite to watch and they are characters I am thrilled to write into my novels.

I admire the energy. I love strong women. I know strong women. I was raised by a strong woman. I am becoming a strong woman myself.-Genevieve Rose

As a woman of strength, I would like to make a move that some may perceive as weak, I would like to apologize. I’m sorry to the men. I’m sorry, gentlemen, that the culture has become a place where many women, eager to achieve it all, are shoving men out of their natural roles. Women can do anything, I firmly believe that but I also firmly believe that can doesn’t mean should. Pro-women does not mean anti-men. Since when did feminism defined as the doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men, get translated into: anything men can do women can do better? Personally, it is frustrating because there are many times that it seems women are doing it better than their male counterparts. Women, generally speaking, are more thoughtful, confident multi-taskers. I’ve certainly lamented on the topic of women doing it better in posts like Where Are All The Men? I see it a bit differently these days.

Pro-women does not mean anti-men.

Where I once admired the constant vocalization of women standing in their strength, it seems that the integrity has leaked out of acts such as these, with artists like Miley Cyrus giving people mixed messages and feminists a bad name. Let’s not forget about the men, that is not what being a strong woman should be about. A formidable marriage has a King and a Queen, mutual respect is paramount.

The feminazi vibe seemed like the best option with the #MeToo eruption and the fact that nothing else was countering it, but this is absolutely not the best-case scenario. Women (myself included) have preferred to push men aside because well, they haven’t been ‘acting like men’ as in, I don’t know-Braveheart. As in, taking charge, making moves, being responsible, etc. What I have been seeing are too many paper gangsters. Most men in my eyes have become weak-willed, indecisive, apathetic slugs. Why would we want men like that in charge of anything? Where did all the gladiators go? Where you at Russell Crowe? This is not to say that ultra-masculinity is the method for every man. Women also love a sensitive soul, David was a king who wrote poems and played the harp. Jesus was a mighty good God-man who was as tough as he was compassionate. He loved his parents, had a job in the trades and walked by faith. I think at the end of the day, most of us females want to feel protected and loved and most males want respect and honor. Why haven’t men been up to such respectable and honorable things? Could it be that women have brought the worst out of men? In my corner of the world, I believe that to be the root of this issue. Women have not been embracing and encouraging men but we have been blaming them and so, men don’t know how to behave anymore. That’s what I see, anyway. I used to be so frustrated that nearly every male under thirty that I encountered was a scrub. Now I realize, I put much of my own strength into scrubbing men away.

Exiling an entire gender is no way to fix the problem. In order to have better men, there has to be better women. It’s not about them, it’s about us. We are in this thing together. We need to do this in pairs, like socks. Men have been the one that got lost in the dryer. It’s time we help the lost get found. Let’s encourage the good behavior of men, it’s still there, we just haven’t been paying as much attention to that as we have the bad behavior. Lifting men up does not need to be a movement of hashtag proportions, it’s more about each woman, wherever she’s at in this world, choosing to see the good in men. Women could be critiqued just as harshly so men, please bring the good out of women, this is how we’ll recalibrate the balance. Men are leaders, pursuers and providers. Women are intelligent, strong, nurturers. The world needs both. Ladies can do anything and when we ban together it is a force, so let’s do this. Let’s ban together, force ourselves to be better, and in turn, men will improve too. Why not? We have to do life with each other. Why not make it better than it used to be? If others don’t want to because pain and blame are easier to execute than responsibility, no worries, I feel you but I also feel that is not the best way to live. I’ll be over here working on myself to attract the kind of men I wish I knew.