Hello There Sir.
I’m writing because I’m sorry.
Growing up in the 90s one of the biggest lies I have heard was that “Boys Suck”. It was plastered everywhere; on stickers, shirts and even bejewelled onto baseball caps. Ads on TV told me that men weren’t good enough and wouldn’t help with the housework. TV shows showed you as lazy, mean, abusive, disrespectful and not good enough. Society stopped building up men as leaders in the home and work and instead of equality pushed that women were better. We aren’t better, we’re just different. We complement you.
I’m sorry that many of you have had to grow up with absent fathers, lack of role models and being told from all sides that you are not good enough. You are told you suck, that you’re jerks, that you aren’t good enough and will leave your wives and children. I’m sorry that as women we were often taught to not view you as equals but as someone who we need to compete with and jump over to be accepted and succeed in life. I’m sorry that when you asked that girl out she laughed in your face because you weren’t exactly what she wanted and then complained that no one asked her out. I’m sorry that your father told you that you would never amount to anything because you didn’t want to follow the career path that he wanted you to go down. I’m sorry.
The fact is you don’t suck. All men aren’t jerks. You are worthy of respect. You can be all you can be. You can be the amazing father that your heart desires. You can be a strong leader in your household and at work. You can be the role model that children desperately need in today’s society. You can still show the world that there are honourable men out there. You can get through the freaks out when life overwhelms you, you don’t have to run because you are more than enough. You can be someone’s life-long love, someone’s first. You can be anything you want to be, because you, sir, are so worth loving.
forgive me.
just a girl.
