That is Enough!

I am so stinkin' mad right now, and since I can't confront the person who made me this way, I'm going to talk to all of you instead. It will probably do me more good anyway.

This morning I was at the grocery store with my daughter and we passed a man wearing a T-shirt that read, "I like my women like I like my coffee." That didn't make any sense, so I figured he must have more on his back. Sure enough, he did. The back read, "Ground up and in the freezer."

I quickly escorted my daughter to the next aisle before she had a chance to read his shirt. (Sometimes it makes things difficult when your children can read.) This man should thank his lucky stars my daughter was with me; that's pretty much the only thing that kept me from approaching him.

The statement on that shirt was so offensive that for several minutes, I couldn't even see straight. It's sick and wrong on so many levels.

First of all, to even suggest the grinding up of someone and placing them in your freezer depicts an absolute lack of respect for human life. Someone who wears a T-shirt like that does not hold sacred one of the most sacred things we've been given -- human life. The very cause for which mothers go to the brink of death every time they give birth, the very cause for which our veterans have fought and lost limbs, lives, and sensibilities, and for which our soldiers are fighting right this minute. Little babies clinging on by threads in isolettes in the hospital, wanting so much to have their chance on earth. Cancer victims and AIDS victims, wishing for just one more day with family and loved ones.

Additionally, that shirt completely undermines women. Now, I'm not a feminist, in the traditional sense of the word. I like staying at home to take care of the children while my husband works. I like dressing up and looking pretty; I like feeling protected. But I am rabid when it comes to the way men in society look at women. Granted, women here are treated better than they are in some other parts of the world, but it's still not good enough. A country where a man can freely talk about grinding women up to put in his freezer is a country where freedom of speech has taken a seriously wrong turn.

I don't ever, ever want my daughter to get the message that because she was born a girl, that makes her in any way inferior. I want her to know that her strength comes from within, and that nothing can ever take away that inner strength from her unless she chooses to let it go. I want her to know that she is of tremendous value and worth, that she does not ever have to be subservient to a man, but that she and her husband can walk side by side, as partners. I don't want her for one minute to feel like she has to put up with an attitude that demeans her and makes her feel less than she is.

So, Mr. Macho T-Shirt Man, you may think you are being so funny when you wear that shirt. You may say it's just for laughs, and that all your buddies love it. Big hairy deal. You're no man. You're a weak-kneed, lily-livered, woman-hating abuser, and I will do everything in my power to keep myself and my daughter far, far away from the likes of you. We both deserve better than that.