By Manuel A. Sigüenza ’12
The ROUNDUP
Throughout these past three years at Brophy, I have gained a sense of brotherhood with my peers and am continuing to learn what it is to be a man for others.
But as I and other students learn these concepts, sexism is a struggle that keeps us from reaching these ideals.
Since Brophy is an all male institution with a few female faculty members, women are not a common group of people around during the school day.
Yes, girls from Xavier come for some classes. But for the most part, we are surrounded by each other.
Because of this, I have found that Brophy students have become sexist towards the female gender. I too often hear comments followed by “That’s what she said” and discussions about relating women to doing household chores.
Although students play this off as jokes it happens consistently, making me believe that it is affecting the way they treat women.
It seems to me that Brophy students have lost their understanding that women, including girls from Xavier, are humans and they deserve to be treated with respect. That includes discussion about them.
Girls from Xavier do not seem to think much of it, but in the end, it will have a big impact once Brophy boys finally start believing what they say.
As boys growing to become men for others, we should always think before we speak.
We should constantly ask ourselves how women would feel if they were to hear our sexist comments and how they would react.
We have to ask ourselves how we would want to be treated.
We have to be more aware of others’ feelings and step into their shoes and see their perspective on life.
We are equal to women, and they deserve that respect and dignity from us.
If we refuse to give them this respect, they will lose respect for us as individuals as well, sparking a never ending cycle of disrespect for the opposite sex.
We must take the first step in breaking the cycle so that we can slowly progress away from sexism and into respecting our counterparts.
So the next time you think about saying something derogatory towards women, just remember if you say it about one, you might as well say it about all of them, including your mother, sisters, grandmother, aunts and all other women who you hold dear.
Because in the end, they all are women they deserve to be treated they way we want to be treated.
