I’ve been glued to it all night like we all have and now I’m heartsick. I just opened up my computer. I don’t know what I want to write, but I know I want it to kick the shit out of the patriarchy. Because that’s what’s going on here. Anyone who thinks this isn’t about misogyny is wrong. It is. Half of the American electorate would rather see a hateful, racist, misogynistic sociopath who is not just temperamentally unfit for the job but wholly without qualification have the most powerful position in the world than see a woman have it. A woman who is qualified, experienced, calm, intelligent, thoughtful. But they don’t didn’t vote for her because she’s not “likeable” enough. She’s not nice enough. She might have done something not 100% that one time, so she’s out.
Like many Canadians, I’m feeling a great deal of anxiety and a tremendous sadness about this.
But what I’m not feeling is superior.
Because let’s just be clear that we are not above it here in Canada. We aren’t above it. We have an acronym for missing and murdered indigenous women in this country. MMIW. It’s so common we don’t want to be bothered saying the whole thing all the time. Sit with that for a minute. Rampant rape culture is a daily threat to women on our university campuses and elsewhere. We have barely moved the needle on the wage gap in 20 years. In 2013, Huffington Post ran this headline: Canada’s Gender Gap In Politics, Income Equality Will Take Hundreds Of Years To Close: Report. HUNDREDS OF YEARS. There’s literally zero reason to believe that’s not still true.
Now Trump next door. This is not a drill. It is not a joke. This is extremely serious. Trump legitimizes hate and prejudice and that cannot be allowed to go on without challenge.
So, then, what?
We’re not better, but we could be. It feels both radical and trite, maybe because it is. Get up and love everyone. Make safe spaces. Take no crap. Fuck the patriarchy at every single opportunity you have. Be the reason people question what they think. Work as hard as Hillary Clinton worked these last two years.
Make hate uncomfortable again. We can do it, if we try.
Sandra Maxson 