“Some middle-aged man, a perfect stranger, approached me in Dymocks and watched me tossing up between a book by Elon Musk and one by Prof. Brian Cox, and remarked, “are you sure you’ll be able to understand those? Hurhurhur.” It seems I must have wandered off from the Domestic Violence Disguised as Romance and Erotica for Women by Barely Literate Authors section. This is literally what it’s like to be a woman minding her own business at the shops.”

The above is a Facebook status update one of my friends posted today, and it’s just one more in a long succession I see from female friends far too often. An article was recently floating about whereby a woman complained to a clothing store about their little boys’ and girls’ t-shirts having the following sexist slogans written on them: “Little boy, big ideas!” (boys’ t-shirt) “Little girl, big smile!” (girls’ t-shirt).

Feeling foolishly adventurous and risk-seeking, I read the comments section (DISCLAIMER: NEVER READ THE COMMENTS). It was full of people insinuating that the woman was being over-the-top and that there was nothing wrong with insisting that boys be told their value lies in their brain whilst girls are told their value lies in their appearance. Moreover, it was mainly women who were defending their right to dress their daughters in sexist gear like this.

I was pretty surprised that nobody else seemed to see the harm in messages like this for kids.

Kids are sponges and they soak up the world around them – and they make connections like this at a very early age. WHICH IS WHY SEXIST MEN, LIKE THE PRICK MY FRIEND HAD TO ENDURE, EXIST. I’m sure people see it as being “too PC”, (and I’m definitely not your typical social justice warrior, yet I know something damaging when I see it) but honestly, if we don’t stop sending shitty gendered messages like this to kids, then sexism will probably never die.

Sexism hurts everyone. Men, women, transgendered, agendered, and everyone who falls under the other 67 gender categories now out there, are all harmed by sexism. So just quit it already and stop forcing this antiquated shit onto kids.