I am sure every girl can recall, at least once as a child,  coming home and telling their parents, uncle, aunt or grandparent about a boy who had pulled her hair, hit her, teased her, pushed her or committed some other playground crime.  I will bet money that most of those, if not all, will tell you that they were told “Oh, that just means he likes you”.  I never really thought much about it before having a daughter of my own.  I find it appalling that this line of bullshit is still being fed to young children.  Look, if you want to tell your child that being verbally and/or physically abused is an acceptable sign of affection, i urge you to rethink your parenting strategy.  If you try and feed MY daughter that crap, you better bring protective gear because I am going to shower you with the brand of “affection” you are endorsing.

You Didn’t Thank Me For Punching You in the Face

It’s ridiculous how much of this misogynistic crap is fed to us from such a young age.

I personally knew even at a young age that “he must like you” was just a lie, but I mainly attributed it to making the girl being picked on feel less bad for being a target. Upon reflection though, I wonder whether it could’ve had affect on me later on in my life where I stuck around in abusive relationships when I should left way earlier. The idea that you should put up with what should be unacceptable behaviour because of “love”. I can even recall occasions in my teenage years where my mother basically told me that I deserved the pain from being in love with someone who quite frankly did not deserve an ounce of it. I was told it was my fault.

Thankfully, I’ve slowly managed to grow out of this viewpoint, but only after a very long string of hard lessons and sheer luck of meeting the guy that I’m with now. I think the worst part of the whole thing is that it’s not only a case of people/men disrespecting women, it’s women disrespecting themselves too.