mt
gallagher

 I wanted to talk about something I realized this evening. But first, I want to clarify this: I love my father, and I admire him for everything he’s been through and even if I’ve always had a strange relationship with him, like one day we were very close, talking about everything, and another day he was scolding me for something I didn’t even do, with time I’ve come to realize that every daughter/father relation was like this. Anyway like most of us, my father was a sort of hero for me when I was a child, he was always there to protect me and to support my decision no matter what and he used to joke by saying that one day I will bring peace to world because I was always defending everyone.

And when I reached fifteen my big dream for ‘world peace and everything’ were still here. And I thought ‘hey if you want world peace, why not start with a small and easy thing like equality for everyone?’ and in my head it was a really really great idea so I made some research about feminism and about equality in general and that was like a revelation. I was, I am a feminist. I read a tone of things about it and started to be super aware about sexism around me, and I realize that even member of my family were sexist without even knowing it. But I didn’t wanted to talk about it because I thought that I was too young to open my mouth and to tell them that what they were saying was really really rude and sexist. 

But now, I’m a seventeen years old girl, and I realize three things. One, I wasn’t too young to open my mouth, if you’re well informed you can talk about it. Two, if you’re a feminist and you admit it, people with false idea will view you as some horrible girl who do not shave, hate men more than anything and wants to live in a world were men do not exist. And the last, my father, my hero, was one of those people who think the world does not need feminism. What a great realization don’t you think? Don’t get me wrong my dad treat my mom like his equal, he believe women should be respected and he still thinks that If a man disrespect us we should punch him. But no, he doesn’t think that women need feminism. He views it like everyone: a movement of hate toward men and completely useless because our country treat women “well”. Yes daddy if that’s what you want to believe, but no, we are not equal, we are not treated “well”.

And every fucking time that I tried to make him understand what feminism is, what I believed in, what I think, he doesn’t listen to me, and doesn’t even try to understand what I’m telling. He just look at me with disappointment and says something like ‘you’re too young too understand what I’m saying, with time you will see’. No daddy I’m not too young, I do understand because unlike you I listen to what you say, I hear your arguments. And unlike you, I do my best to understand your point of view. And it destroys me because every time that we discuss this, I see a part of you that I wish I never knew.