How we are raisng our teen to respect women

I am aware this might be a touchy subject for some, but it is something I feel is important to address.

The first point I want to address is the idea within society now that a woman wearing revealing, tight or short items of clothing deserves to be treated like a piece of meat. That they deserve unwanted attention, wolf whistling, to be touched and other vile things I don’t even want to think about much less write. There are religions societies, social groups and many other organisations that teach young women if they wear tight clothing or a short skirt they are asking to be treated like an object and not a person. That by wearing tight yoga pants to the gym they are inviting men to touch them or make suggestive and inappropriate comments.

Society also teaches young men that it is not their fault if they are overcome with the natural urge to treat women as an object it is not their fault but the fault of the women. While this may be an acceptable way to think to some …. It is not the way our son was or will continue to be raised.

Instead, we make sure he knows that while finding women attractive is perfectly normal, probably more so during these teenage years, when hormones are raging and even a bakewell tart can look somewhat appealing!, he is responsible for his own thoughts and actions. Not the young lady in the micro shorts. He is responsible for his own actions and if he decides to wolf-whistle at a girl in the supermarket because he likes the way she looks in a dress (please note he has NEVER done this and I hope he never would) he alone is accountable for that action and whatever consequences follow. (Those consequences are most likely to either be the young lady herself slapping him or me knocking his head off!).

To be totally honest, I don’t really have any worries about his behaviour because I know that we have raised him to respect women, regardless of their clothing, race or dress size. We have taught him that the only way you get to know someone is by talking to them (granted most of his conversations are done via the internet but you get my point) and not by staring at their posterior while they choose which flavour skittles to buy in Aldi.

I have no worries about his behaviour as I am confident in the way he has been raised, but I am shocked and somewhat disturbed by the views of many in society. We shouldn’t be teaching young girls that they need to cover their bodies up in order to not be harassed, we should be teaching the young men to respect women , regardless of natural instinct.