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letter about Oprah’s speech

In response to Mr. Cohick’s

letter about Oprah’s speech

LINDSEY HANCOCK

Philadelphia

I am a white female. I’m a woman in her late 20s. I live in the City of Philadelphia but I was raised in Avis and Lock Haven by my divorced parents.

I had a moderate hippie for a mother and a conservative retired Army serviceman for a father.

I was raised to respect my elders, hold the door open for someone, to be honest, help others, and work hard.

But most of all, I was raised to be strong, to stand up for what I believe in and speak my mind.

I try my best to stay out of the garbage being thrown out by my fellow Americans, but your garbage needs to be picked up.

Let me shine a light on some things for you because you seem to be in the dark with women’s roles in this country. You think a woman needs to wear a turtleneck and keep the home clean. To have dinner on the table at 6 p.m. with a drink ready for her husband when he gets home from a long day.

Well, I wish life was that easy! My fiance, yes fiance because I chose to start a family before getting married. My fiance and I couldn’t survive on one income. We both work 40 hour weeks and for your information I now make more money than he does. He has a college degree, I do not because I couldn’t afford to put myself through school. However, I’m the manager of a half-of-a-million dollar store in one of the biggest malls in the country. I didn’t get this job by wearing a “plunging neckline down to my waist.”

I earned it! I am smart, and I worked hard. I’ve been working hard since my first job at 15.

My fiance and I are raising two beautiful girls so we have to be a team! We both live under the same roof, use the same water, feel the same warmth from the heater, therefore we pay those bills together.

Not only do I work full time, but I then come home and continue to work. Dishes, laundry, dinner, groceries, vacuum … you know, all of the things that make the household function. Sadly, there is still this belief out there that those tasks are solely the woman’s job.

But this isn’t to flaunt how much I do, like you like to say, but just to give credit where credit is due. To quote you again.

We are living in a much different world than when you were raised. You want a world where kids aren’t on their cellphones and are playing kick the can in the street.

Well I want a world where I could actually let my daughters play outside the house and not worry for their safety, but that’s not the world we live in.

Instead, we’re going to have to make sure our girls know it’s never OK for anyone to touch them, in any way, if they don’t allow it. I must prepare my girls for an attack on our country, or our city, and make sure they know our plan for survival. I have to make sure they know what to do during an active shooter, a bomb threat, or God knows what else.

I will raise them to not see color or gender, but to see a person … to not judge others by their occupation but by their character. And they will be raised to be strong. To know their importance and their worth. To know they are valued!

You ask, “How must any father or grandfather in this country feel worthy of their efforts in life while they are being victims of mockery and being ridiculed by many of the female citizens of this country?”

Here’s your answer: Be worthy! Stop spewing the hate and ignorant words that are throughout your letter. Open your mind to the realization that I am not only your equal but I could be your superior.

You are far from a victim. You’re just angry that the magnifying glass is on top of the male species right now.

Because women who have been oppressed by men are finally speaking up! They are freeing themselves from their silence and rightfully so.

It takes one match to start a forest fire, just like it takes one racist to make a comment and have other racists come out of the woodwork and stand united.

It took one woman to have a voice for the other women to feel confident and empowered enough to come forward.

We have far worse problems in this country than women speaking up.

You should really give us more credit since you want to give credit where credit is due.

We maintain roads, build skyscrapers, serve your food, fight fires, lock up bad guys, cure the sick, and die for our country right alongside the men.

How dare you think otherwise!

Not to mention, we do more than just participate in the repopulating the world. We literally grow humans, birth them, AND produce milk for them to grow and thrive in this world. So this is a woman speaking her mind!

Right now, I do know more than a man in this country. I will not be silent, and your letter did not go unnoticed.

I just thought you would like to know as I’m sure you did not write it for your health.

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