A 6-year-old has just started her first week at her new school. One day, she makes friends with a boy in her class who played with her at recess. The two start to become very close and play together every day. She and the boy would often chase each other around the playground at recess and when one caught the other, a small wrestling match would break out. No one was ever terribly injured, just scrapes and bruises. After all, they were just kids. That's what they did.  As the pair became closer, the boy would initiate physical contact with the girl more often. He would give her pigtails a gentle tug and would slap her thigh during circle time when they sat next to each other. The girl was never really bothered by it. I mean, that’s what kids did. Time passed, and the boy got more confident. The tugs on the girl's pigtails got rougher until he pulled out clumps of her hair every so often. The physical contact drifted from her thighs to her stomach and chest, and then, to her rear end. She wasn’t fazed by it at first, it only started with a simple stroke. That then led to harsh gropes, slaps, and pinches. The girl was often confused and embarrassed when it happened, but she never told him to stop. One day, one of the girl's other friends saw the boy pinch her. She pulled the girl aside and said “He likes you! You’re so lucky!” The girl didn’t feel lucky. Eventually, when the boy would go to touch her, she would move away. The two slowly started to become less and less close until they stopped talking to each other altogether. The girl never told anyone, for she feared she would get in trouble and she didn’t want to be dramatic. She knew there was something wrong about what the boy did to her, but all her friends said she was overreacting. After all, she was just a kid. That’s just what kids did. That little girl was me, and the little boy pinching my rear at recess was only the start of the harassment and sexism I will face. I’m not the only one. Incidents like this happen every day to many women and girls and many of them never say anything. Women can face forms of sexism in any part of their life, and it can be developed by what is shown in politics, in the media, and how it is engraved in us at a young age. My incident with a classmate groping me in 1st grade is nothing compared to what others face on a daily basis. 

A good example of a place where sexism commonly takes place and how others can develop to have sexist attitudes from it is politics. As of 2016, women hold 20% of U.S. Senate seats and 18.3% in the House of Representatives and women hold 22.6% of statewide elective executive offices (Bates 44). These small numbers of women in the political world shows to others that this area is still male-dominated. Women may not achieve their dreams of becoming a part of office because they know that they will not be treated the same as their male colleagues. For example, while Hillary Clinton was running for president in 2016, she was often asked questions about her clothes and what designers she preferred instead of her point of view during interviews (Bates 46). When Clinton asked one moderator if he would ask a male candidate the same question, he responded with “probably not.” The fact that the moderator assumes that Clinton would rather talk about clothes then her political views implies that women only care about their appearance and have nothing of value to say about anything else. Clinton has also faced ridicule about her clothes and her overall looks. News articles have been published only to talk about the female Democrats risqué rose-colored blazer over a black top that showed just a smidge of her cleavage. Although it was only noticeable if you were looking for it (and no one should have been looking there anyway), the outfit caused drama in the media. Poor Hillary Clinton also faced criticism from her running mates, who called her ugly and dumb. Donald Trump even tweeted about her husband cheating on her, saying “If Hillary Clinton can’t satisfy her husband, what makes her think she can satisfy America?” (Bates 53). Trump has also made sexist comments about many other women, including Beyoncé, Stormy Daniels, Paris Hilton, Cher, Angelina Jolie, Kim Kardashian, Lindsay Lohan, Princess Diana, and his own wife and daughters (Lange). If our president is openly making crude remarks about women, how are younger boys supposed to know any better? Furthermore, in 2013, actress Ashley Judd considered running for office, which immediately struck outrage. People wondered how she could be a political leader when she had previously done nude scenes. After harsh comments were posted about the actress in regards to her running for office, Judd never mentioned it again, inferring that she suddenly changed her mind. When Anthony Weiner ran for New York City mayor, he wasn’t even the slightest concerned that videos of his naked body had been “pinged around the Internet more times than a Grumpy Cat video” (Bates 50). In addition, an interview conducted by Laura Bates showed that even 11-year-olds, boys and girls, see politics as a ‘male job’ (Bates 57). As kids grow, especially today when everyone has access to the internet, they will start to notice things that other people do and copy them, thinking it’s normal. Because there has never been a female president, kids will think that women are not qualified enough to do so. On the contrary, sexism is slowly becoming less prevalent in politics today. More women have run for office in recent years. Currently, there are six women running for president in 2020. People are also becoming more open-minded to a female president. Studies show that people mainly care about a person's political party rather than their gender (Astor). 

 Another place where sexism is typical is in school, where young girls experience it the most and grow up believing what they hear. Although many people don’t realize it, sexism has become a part of our society in more ways than one. Small forms of sexism often start when people are young and they are never taught that it is wrong so they continue to do it as they age and often escalate as well. When you were in school, did you ever play competitive games where the class was split into two teams: boys versus girls? For as long as I can remember, the teachers forced us to play these games, especially in gym class. The boys would always trash talk the girls and call out insults at us. In these games, our male gym teachers would always help out the boy teams and when they won, the boys would insult us even more and call as “stupid” and “lazy.” Because the teachers never stopped the boys, the girls grew up believing that men are the superior gender, and the men knew this too. Even before kids start school they are exposed to sexism in the form of toys. Toys targeting young boys are typically blue and sporty, whereas girls' toys are often pink and sparkly. One day, while shopping for toys with my grandmother when I was younger, I found a toy tractor on the shelf that immediately drew my attention. Before my tiny hands could even grasp it, my grandma grabbed my arm to rush me along and said “This is the boy's section. The girl's section is this way.” Although I was perfectly happy with the pink stuffed animal cat I picked out, I still wanted the tractor and I didn’t understand why I couldn’t have it. Furthermore, sexism can be developed by watching children's shows and movies (Bates 86). I grew up watching movies such as Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and The Little Mermaid. What do all these movies have in common? The princess is always rescued by the prince and they get married and live happily ever after. Young girls watching these movies will develop to believe that they need a man to come and save them and they need to marry their ‘one true love’ in order to be happy. Young boys watching these movies will grow to believe that girls need them to survive. Current day children's movies are slowly starting to get rid of this common thread through movies such as Frozen, Tangled, Brave, and Moana. Nonetheless, these princesses are still depicted as thin, which creates unrealistic body expectations for women. Speaking of this, the norms in society and bullying from school can cause girls to feel that they need to be skinny. The High School Youth Risk Behavior Survey in 2013 showed that 37% of high school girls were not trying to lose weight at the time of the survey, a lot of them using starvation to do so (Bates 78). Although boys do face fat-shaming as well, it is more commonly faced by women. They are the ones who are expected to be thin to please the men. Based on my experience with bullying, “fat” is a very common insult used on girls, even if the female being bullied isn’t in any way overweight (and even if she were, that should not be an excuse to bully them). I am currently doing an internship at Maple Street for the Performing Arts Club and we were doing an improv game with the kids. While two girls were doing their mini-scene, one of them called the other one fat. I quickly retaliated by telling the kids to be nice and school appropriate and the girls continued with their scene, but I could tell that the girl who was insulted felt bad. The fact that even girls will use this insult on each other shows that both genders believe girls should be thin and when they aren’t, they get ridiculed. Although young boys get bullied as well, it is normally different. When boys bully, the victim normally bullies back, which causes an escalation to physical contact, like punching. They get their anger out, they get punished by the school, and everyone moves on. When girls bully, there are no injuries to the outside, but there are to the inside. Calling a young girl fat one time will likely stay with her for her whole life. She could be having a great day, and for whatever reason, she remembers that insult and it immediately ruins her good mood. She will never see herself the same way again. Also, more often than not, when a girl is bullied, she will likely be picked on again by the same people. As for girls in high school, sexism is shown in the form of dress codes. Many of the dress codes you hear are directed at girls: no spaghetti straps, no showing your shoulders, dress and shorts have to be at your knees, and even no ripped jeans. A few weeks ago, I saw a student in the hallway wearing a shirt that said “size doesn't matter” with a picture of a bass on it. There are many things that message could have been referring to, but there is one in particular that comes to mind, one that is not school appropriate. No one even batted an eyelash at the boy's shirt, but if a girl were to show her scandalous shoulders, she’d be dress coded within 5 minutes. This is an example of how young girls are being taught their bodies are something they need to hide and if they don’t, they will get unwanted attention from the boys. The thing is, they say the girls should dress appropriate as to not distract from the boys learning experience, but pulling the girl aside to tell her she’s breaking dress code distracts from her learning. Not to mention, most boys don’t find shoulders distracting in any way. Nonetheless, these things can be fixed. More action can be taken against bullying and less strict dress codes can be put in place in schools. 

One of the most common places women will see sexism, and the main reason so many people get away with it is through the media. As of 2012, only 28% of speaking parts in the 100 most successful films were female and of those 100 films, 4% of directors and 12% of writers were women (Bates 190). From my experience, I have not heard of very many female directors and most of my favorite films are directed by men. Directing is commonly male-dominated, which is likely why there are so few women in the field. They see themselves as inferior and that their movies will not be as successful as those directed by men and they want to avoid humiliation. Another reason female directors are so rare is because of the pay gap. Female directors are not trusted to deliver box-office returns and are often given a small budget when compared to men. While doing a simple Google search, I discovered that one of the most famous women directors is Kathryn Bigelow and one of the most famous male directors is Quentin Tarantino. Bigelow has a net worth of approximately $40 million, where's Taratino’s net worth is over $100 million. Bigelow's movie Detroit (2017) made $16.8 million in the United States. Tarantino's movie The Hateful Eight (2015) made $54.1 million. With these movies, Bigelow had a budget of $34 million and Tarantino was given a budget of $44 million. If you simply Google “the most famous movie directors,” 51 people will immediately come up. All of them are men. If you look up “the most successful films of all time,” the first movies that come up are Avengers: Endgame, Avatar, Titanic, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and Jurassic World. These films were all directed by men. Although female directors are becoming more common, these women will often receive fewer nominations, let alone win the award. For the Golden Globes Awards in 2019 in the category Best Motion Picture, there were 5 nominees, all directed by men. Other forms of media, such as social media and music, send sexist messages as well, but in a much different way. In Everyday Sexism by Laura Bates, she explains very simply how music can influence sexism. 

“In One Direction’s 2014 hit ‘Steal My Girl,’ we’re reminded again about male ownership of female partners. The lyrics refer to ‘my girl’ whom others want to ‘steal’, while the singer insists they will have to find a different girl because she is his property. Talk about influence - the band has millions of tween fans worldwide” (Bates 107.)

As Bates states, music can send messages to kids and adults about females and how they are property to a male and that they are basically a prize. Young people listening to this music will take this information to the real world to use. Furthermore, sexism can be developed through online models. A place where many teen girls and young women like to shop is Victoria’s Secret. From the Victoria's Secret stores that I have seen, the pictures plastered on their walls are all extremely skinny white girls with blonde hair and blue eyes. Upon doing yet another simple Google search, I discovered that Victoria’s Secret does have African American, Hispanic, and Asian models, but they are very few of them and all the models are still thin. Victoria's Secret is slowly starting to become more diverse by hiring (what they call) plus size women and even a few transgender models, but nonetheless, these models aren’t even shown in their stores. In addition, while looking on the web, I only saw one plus-size model, who was only slightly bigger than the regular models and her face was caked with twice the amount of makeup as the other girls. All of this shows to teen girls (who already have low self-esteem to begin with) that they need to be so skinny that their hands can wrap all the way around their thighs and if they aren’t, a bunch of layers of foundation and concealer can make up for it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to shame skinny girls or girls that wear a lot of makeup, I’m just saying that model agencies shouldn’t be focusing on those two things and add more diversity. This could include more plus-size girls (real plus size girls), girls of different races and ethnicities, and girls with things such as acne, stretch marks, cellulite, scars, and birthmarks. Diversifying the media will show men and women that beauty doesn't come in just one body type. 

 Sexism is an unfortunate, yet very common form of discrimination that can be experienced by anyone, regardless of their gender. It can make people feel horrible and disgusted with themselves when really, they should be disgusted with the people who demonstrate this and teach others to do so as well. People can’t express themselves online without being bombarded with hateful comments and comparing themselves to others who they think are more attractive than themselves. Girls grow up to believe they aren’t smart enough or pretty enough because of how they are treated in school and by their peers. Powerful young women feel embarrassed to say they want to start a career in politics. All of this can be changed. Society needs to work together to make our world a place where everyone is treated equally and people can speak out when they are mistreated. People need to teach their children that what they see in the media is not real and what the taunts their classmates use on them don’t define who they are. We can do better. If you see someone being yelled out or harassed in public, do something. If you see a male classmate being favored over a female classmate for no reason other than their gender, do something. If you see a young girl comparing herself to a celebrity, do something. The world can only change if we do, and we can change. 

Works Cited 

Astor, Maggie. "Woman, Just Not That Woman': How Sexism Plays Out on the Trail."

     The New York Times, The New York Times Company, 11 Feb. 2019,

     www.nytimes.com/2019/02/11/us/politics/sexism-double-standard-2020.html.

     Accessed 14 Oct. 2019. 

Bates, Laura. Everyday Sexism. New York, Thomas Dunne Books, 2016. 

Lange, Jeva. "61 things Donald Trump has said about women." The Week, The Week Publications, 16 Oct. 2018, theweek.com/articles/655770/ 61-things-donald-trump-said-about-women. Accessed 14 Oct. 2019.