There’s a line in the trailer for Aziz Ansari’s new Netflix series Master of None that epitomizes what this week’s entry in the #DoingBetter collection is all about.
Watch the whole thing because the show – which hits the streaming platform on Friday – looks great, but if you just want to get to the bit that’s pertinent here, skip ahead to the 1:21 mark (NSFW):
It’s a great joke and if the whole show is like the trailer, it will be amazing. The overall “things guys don’t have to deal with” reality of women getting bombarded with bullshit on social media is 100 percent factually correct as well and in the name of all things good and beautiful in the world do we ever need to #DoBetter.
Pick a female celebrity, jump on their Twitter or Instagram and scroll through the comments or mentions. See how long it takes you to stumble across someone saying something gruesome – either diminishing their contributions to a subject because they’re female or letting that women know the various sexual acts they would like to commit with them, on them, to pictures of them, etc. If it’s not “get back in the kitchen” than it’s “I want you in the bedroom.” Not always, but far more often than it should be and as people, we need to be significantly better than this. This isn’t just a “making lewd comments on bikini pictures” thing either.
Back in the summer, former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling got ultra-protective and investigative (rightfully so BTW) when a bunch of douchenozzles took the opportunity to make disgusting comments about his daughter Gabby when the three-time World Series congratulated her on getting a college scholarship. Schilling put the principal offenders on blast and they felt real world repercussions for their tasteless “I was just joking around” social media decisions.
That needs to happen more frequently, but the other thing that would help? Being better people.
You shouldn’t need to fear being fired or suspended from school or put on blast on social media to prevent you from saying awful, uncalled for things about someone or two someone on social media. The fact that they’re a human being and doesn’t deserve to be faced with that kind of junk and that you wouldn’t appreciate it if the roles were reserved should be enough.
If it’s not, consider how you’d feel if those same things you’re sending out into the universe were said to your sister, daughter, wife or mother. Chances are you wouldn’t be too pleased if a bunch of random dudes told your sister or daughter or wife the various things you’ve told other females on social media in the past.
There’s no “Yeah, but…” either; there is nothing that makes those comments acceptable or justifiable – not fame, not money, nothing. If you wouldn’t like it said to the women in your life, don’t say it to anyone else; it’s as simple as that.
#DoBetter.
