can't see

For weeks leading up to The Game the hype is on. It’s a National Event. To not watch is nearly unpatriotic. The tickets are gold, the location where it’s played kicks into high marketing gear. Every big screen at home, in bars, in restaurants is zeroed in. There is honor given to each player. It’s a goal they have spent themselves on for decades. As a society this is one of the key ways we declare the value of our men. Based on attention, focus, and flare their status surpasses that of  the inventor,  military, and educated. The boy who wins at games stands a chance to make it to the top and be a man who wins in sports. No nonsense, clear vision. No dichotomy, just a logical progression of life choices. 

But what of the little girls? We tell them verbally that they can grow up and do anything. We pride ourselves in being modern and literally measure the worth of companies in their ability to be diverse. Political leaders who include and honor women are looked up to. Universities, the military, sports, the field of medicine and religion are only viable when women are in positions of leadership. 

Yet we are proving ourselves to be blind and lying. Lying to ourselves most of all. The ads and half-times tell every daughter and wife that thel women society value the most are sluts, pole dancers, and prostitutes. We just can’t see it. Calling it out is a slap in the face. Yet it’s so prevalent that boys even crave the stage as drag queens. 

If this were isolated, and the men who paid to go to games were a certain breed that we made sure to protect our daughters from, perhaps it would be the sign of a democracy to tolerate this evil in the name of free speech. But men watch this from their homes. Women and daughters sit there comprehending something at their deepest core which they may not be able to put into words. 

800,000 American children are known to be trafficked each year. Sex trafficking is demand driven. Why do we push Epstein’s murder, Games of Thrones, and sexting to the recesses of our weary minds?

Can’t we see the connection? Our children are clicking on phone apps that are trafficking them out from under our noses. Our boys are being offered lucrative positions just to get girls phone numbers to traffickers. Children are being lured away almost willingly. Why? 

Because we have elevated the status of women to sex objects. Not sex, as it was created to be, as something beautiful and unifying in marriage, but as a necessary climax that men deserve when they are at the pinnacle of celebrating manhood. 

Our actions, going forward, will define us. What will you do about football this weekend … this year?