THE TALES OF BILLIONS
Alex, South Carolina
“As a Native American, misogyny and racism are sort of baked into our culture. When I cut and dyed my hair I was told that I needed to stop ‘trying to fit in with the white kids’ because hair dye and piercings are looked down upon in our culture, and when I started playing guitar I was told by like my whole family I needed a more ‘feminine hobby’ because only a man can play true rock n’ roll.”
Katherine, Alberta
“I've had guys tell me I don’t know politics because I'm a woman, tell me the wonderful example that is the dress code, and of course the "can I get some big strong boys to lift this". There is also the general surprise when I succeed in male dominated things like cadets.”
Eseoghene, British Columbia
“I have a friend, his name is Owen, he is a cis white male and he refuses to accept the fact that he has privilege and his only defense is "Abraham Lincoln gave you rights, why are you still upset?” I’ve asked him why we even had to ask for rights in the first place. He says he's not racist but he tolerates racism as some of his white friends constantly say the n word with the hard r and he never does anything to stop them. He says that we should get over it and that he isn’t racist, but we say that if he was really our friend he would have cut that racist friend off long before now.”
Czesia, Alberta
“I beat a teenage boy in a sparring match when I was younger and he said to another student that he lost because he ‘didn’t want to hit a girl’ which was bulls**t cause he did hit me. I just hit him more. Also, my brother's friend when we were kids kept belittling me, saying s**t like ‘but she’s a girl’ (as to why I couldn’t do something) or ‘go back to the kitchen’ ‘you belong in the kitchen’ ‘make me a sandwich’, the works. I was like 8. He also called me a d*ke but that’s more homophobia than sexism.”
note: d*ke is a slur based on both homophobia and sexism.
Anon
“One teacher only called the girls in his class ‘sweethearts’ & the boys ‘son’; I was the only girl who vocally said I didn’t want to be called that. For our sex ed in middle school when we learned about consent, it quickly devolved into ‘girls, how not to get raped.’ And not ‘boys, if you do this you are evil s**ts & will go to jail.’ A teacher scoffed at the idea of me going into film. ‘You’ll do better as an actress’. The same teacher was constantly aggressive with me and my mom, and she hated the mere idea that my mother would be willing to actually drive me to places. I once overheard her say ‘no wonder you don’t have any friends’, she thought I was weird. Guys would constantly rate girls, would call them f**kable or not, there was constant groping, to which many girls didn’t report because they didn’t feel safe or they didn’t understand what happened.”
Anon
“Growing up I was taught that women should cook, clean and provide for their husbands.”
Isabel, Minnesota
“I’ve had my job for like two years and every time my boss is in the kitchen with me he explains how to make the food I've been making for two. Years.”
Anon
“I’ve been groped by a couple adult men and people have made weird comments about me starting when I was 11 or 12. I remember last year when I was 13 I had an 18 year old boy tell me i looked like a porn star.”
Noor, Alberta
"Much like most other women I've faced many experiences of misogyny, such as name calling, stalking and harassment while just walking down the street alone, being made fun of or ignored for talking about my negative experiences as an immigrant or a woman, or even getting ignorant and exclusionary comments like ‘Weird, you're so pale for an Arab’ or ‘Do you live in tents or ride camels over there?’ or ‘Your accent is so thick! I can tell you're not from here.’
“One specific experience I remember the most clearly where I experienced both was last year during Stampede season (which is probably not the most surprising place to meet bigots haha). I was with my friends at the Stampede grounds at an outdoor music event, and was feeling tired, so I just sat down for a second at one of those big outdoor picnic table to rest and re-tie my shoes.
“As there was plenty of space on the table and it was a public space, I didn't ask the people already sitting there if it was okay, and one of them said, ‘Someone's already sitting there, he'll be back soon.’ and I just said, ‘Okay, I'll get up in a second.’ The guy (who was a white middle aged man) then started swearing at me and saying ‘You're such a c***, go back to your f***ing country!’ and so on. My friends and I were pretty furious, and we just yelled back and left quickly so we would stop getting harassed.
“Not gonna lie, this was really shocking since I was used to more passive aggressive comments as an immigrant in Canada not such direct outward racism. I actually went and told one of the security personnel at the event about the situation but they just said ‘Okay.’ and ignored me and didn't do anything or expel the man from the event, which was even more salt in the wound. I think racism or friction between different groups is inevitable, but when individuals in systems of power who have the ability to do something about these situations do nothing, it just reinforces the imbalance of the power dynamic between race/gender groups. All I got from that experience is the idea that 'You're an outsider and you don't belong here, he gets to get away with something like this because he's a white man and you're not.'
“I think Canada has this veneer of politeness and peacefulness that Canadians are so proud of, so a lot of people say things like ‘It's not as bad here as it is in the US.’ But it really is as bad, it's just hidden better in people's hearts, and it comes out in ugly ways like this, and causes the silent societal divide between indigenous/POC/immigrants and white Canadians to get even wider."