Why A Female Will Never Be President

Clickbait. Clickbait. Clickbait.

The title of this article in no way coincides with my political affiliation, or, in general, beliefs at all. Yet, recent occurrences have led me to, unwillingly, begin to believe this: A Female Will Never Be President. In order for someone to be elected President of the free world, in our democracy, they must, obviously, win over the majority of voters. And, again, visibly, the majority of these voters distinguish themselves as either male or female.

Now, I don’t think that a woman will never be president, but, I do believe that it may be a very long time. Sometimes good things in this world occur that lead us to believe that we are turning a new leaf into a more progressive and accepting society. For crying out loud, we just had a female win the popular vote in the 2016 Presidential Election. But, just like people believed when Clinton lost, and a belief that is still held to this day: many men just aren’t ready to accept a female as president. As disgusting as it sounds, it’s the plain and simple truth. Men are raised in our society to be the superior beings and it is not an uncommon theory that many men feel uncomfortable allowing a female to “boss” them around. Phew, women have been allowing the opposite for thousands of years.

Me Too...

One of the things that has brought this more to my attention has to do with the ever growing ‘Me Too’ movement that has arisen over the past year. While I think it is a great thing that both actors and actresses in Hollywood are standing up in advocacy for the Times Up campaign, it’s clear that this belief is not one widely held by the male gender. Men find it hard to denounce another man for disgusting actions, as their first thought always seems to be, “Well, why didn’t you tell anyone sooner? Maybe you shouldn’t have worn such a skimpy outfit?” and more questions like these. The men in my everyday life, the ones I see in school every day, in the hallways, on the buses, certainly do not all feel the same way that most women do about these acts. It was a social media post just the other day after the ESPYS that truly set me off about this.

ESPYS

Bleacher Report, a broadcasting and social media company with over 7 million followers on Instagram (@bleacherreport), posted a picture of the scene at the 2018 ESPYS where several hundreds of women, 141 to be exact, stood on stage to receive the Arthur Ashe Courage Award. The one thing that all of these women had in common was that each was a survivor of the USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal. Specifically, all of these women, in one way or another, were abused by their doctor, Larry Nassar. As a viewer, it was an amazing sight to see all of the women come together through strength, and, clearly, the sight was moving for the audience as several star athletes were in tears. They were all deserving of this prestigious award, but, again, just as our country likes to do, many found themselves divided in the comment section, questioning the deservingness of these women. I began to read hundreds of hate comments, all by men, joking about this scene. Each comment received hundreds of likes as well. Some of the “highlights” were:

“Some of them gotta be clout chasing”

“Bruh 141 he was 9 away from a tactical nuke”

“I don’t see any stoves”

“If 141 women get abused at what point is it the woman’s fault??”

“Food network wya”

“I feel bad for Larry low key no offense to these people”

“They got together to make the world’s biggest sandwich”

Connected...

While the connection to the presidency and the incident that occurred with these gymnasts may seem far-fetched, these comments are just evidence of the beliefs that many men in our country hold dear. It is absolutely repulsive that some are even questioning Nassar after all of the court testimonials and evidence that has surfaced. Now, I’m not saying that all men talk like this, as there were plenty replying to these comments and defending these women. But, I still could not help but feel incredibly frustrated and disappointed in the way these men were speaking, to the point where I was almost in tears. In all, though, this incident sparked my belief that WE all need to be better if we want to live in a peaceful and equal society.

As a woman, I hope that I can see a female president in my lifetime. I know it can happen, that there are capable women out there, yet, our country seems to need a little more time to open their arms to the idea that a woman can be STRONG, POWERFUL, and INTELLIGENT, just like any man could be. WE need to ALL come together. This is not a female versus male argument, it is a humanity issue. Plain and simple: I believe in equality, thus, I am not trying to dispel any myth that one gender is better than the next. If a female candidate is the better option, one should vote for them, and if the male seems like a better choice, I’ll vote for him. But, the basis of who I decide to vote for will never come down to the gender. It’s time that we all utilize this outlook during political campaigns and when it comes time to vote. I have faith that our country can do better, that we can treat others better, and it all must start with something. Men accepting the fact that women can be and are powerful and have a voice is a crucial stepping stone in our country’s path to a better and fairer world. Together, we can build a brighter future.