#notallhumans

I just read a review of Artemis Fowl on goodreads where the guy was complaining about how fairies hate humans... He didn't want his kids learning to respect the environment from an author who 'hates his own species'... He even ranted about how not all humans are violent... Not all humans... #notallhumans2015

OH: "he's only cranky when he's hungry which is a typical male thing." --DON'T YOU MEAN 'HUMAN' THING?! Related: there's a cute baby crawling around the waiting room and I waved to him 5 times and now I don't know what to do

I keep hearing horror stories about what women feel like through the day, how frightening life is, how frightening men are. Then I hear the men reply. They say they aren't bad, that they wouldn't hurt women.  Both sides blame eachother, they blame society, they blame culture... But here I am, standing on a grey line in the middle. I feel the pain and the fear of both sides, but I can't say I'm part of either. So what can I do? If I dress as a man, as I was born, am I a threat? Am I feared by my friends even though I am just as weak, flawed, and afraid as they are? Even if I just smile at someone passing by, is it seen as malicious? Is a man assumed to be evil because of his gender? ‎ If I dress as female, as I feel I am, do my friends have to treat me delicately, do they need to censor themselves to make sure I don't lash out at them? Even if I am honest and open, do they worry I might use my gender against them? Is a woman assumed to be weak because of their gender? I'm tired of blanket statements and broad assumptions. I'm tired of being told that saying something as simple as "Not all women are" or "Not all men are" instantly starts a debate over the statistics and rates of horrible crimes and rampant speculation of what a person I have never met must be like. I am a human. You are a human. It's fine if you feel that some day you w‎ish to be something besides human, but right now, we are all humans. That is the only blanket assumption I can make about everyone. And not all humans are rapists. Not all humans are out for sex. Not all humans are murderers. Not all humans are friendly. Not ll humans fall under one banner.  So I begin to wonder, what can I do about the fear woman feel? I can't make every man in the world become women. I can't make every woman as physically strong as a man. But I can ‎try to help by showing that I care. I don't want you to be afraid, or blamed for subjugation, or harassed, or maced for saying hello. All these things are bad. What we can do is work toward a world where ‎we are all equals.  Equal means that all humans respect eachother. When your friends wolf whistle you tell them that it's wrong. When someone is told that they can't stand up for themselves, you tell them that they can.  But that's the tragedy. #notallhumans are equal. Let's fix that.‎ ‎