mercredi 15 mars 2017
A Dad Congratulated 1 Girl On Her Spelling Bee Win - In the Worst Possible Way
When Miranda Stewart Hunter's little girl won the middle school spelling bee, her mom couldn't have been more proud. However, a stranger's comment to the sixth grader after her victory showed this mom how far girls still have to go.
In a poignant post shared in the private Pantsuit Nation Facebook group, Miranda described how she was chatting with a female librarian after the competition about how great it is for young girls to be affirmed for their brains and not their bodies. A moment later, a colleague of hers whose son was competing (and had been beaten by her daughter) approached Miranda to offer his congratulations. "And what did he say? Not, 'Wow, what a great speller!' or 'She's really smart!'" Miranda wrote. "Nope. He compliments me on how pretty she is."
Miranda knows that her daughter is beautiful, but in that moment she was too overwhelmed to explain to him that her appearance isn't the only amazing thing about her. She politely thanked him and moved on, but his words had a lasting impact on this mom. "Thinking back over the night, I was struck by the subtle sexism in his words. If the situation had been reversed, and his son had won, I'd never have told him how handsome his son is," she wrote. "I'd have commented on something substantive, something relevant, like maybe his spelling ability."
When she remained upset by the encounter, her husband suggested that she might be sensitive or overreacting. "Maybe he's right, and maybe I wouldn't have noticed it before, but I'm glad I noticed it now," Miranda wrote.
Although Miranda regrets not saying more to the man during their encounter, she was presented with another opportunity to speak up the next day when they bumped into each other and he again complimented her daughter's beauty. "This time I was ready," Miranda wrote. "I said, 'She is, but that's not what makes me most proud. I'm proud of her intelligence, her poise under pressure, and hard work.'"
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