Which is why I was thrilled to find out that today is the Day of the Girl. It’s timing could not have been better.
As a former girl (and girl at heart) a lot of the rhetoric from the last few days has truly crushed my soul. However, one specific sentence from a certain candidate’s defense of “it’s just words,” during Sunday night’s debate really made an impact.
When those words were uttered, all I could think of was what that would have sounded like to my 12-year-old self, or to the many, many girls watching. When I was in school, during presidential election years, the election became a part of our coursework. We were given assignments that involved watching the debates. I can only imagine that’s still the case for many students.
That a presidential candidate would write off their own abusive words as “locker room talk” and then say that those words don’t matter…well, it’s a reason why days like today are important. Because words do matter, especially when they’re used to brag about sexual assault and describe women in words the demote them from human beings to objects.
So on this Day of the Girl, lets all try to undo some of the damage. Let’s remember that girls are smart and capable of so much.
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