I support child safety. I support single-sex spaces — especially for young people. These issues should never have been politicized the way politician
I support child safety. I support single-sex spaces — especially for young people.
These issues should never have been politicized the way politicians and lobbyists have made them. At the core, it’s simple: children deserve safety as a basic human right.
It is likely that I do not share many of the same political opinions with the activist in this article, but we seem to both believe that girls deserve safe spaces each and every time they are in states of undress. That shouldn’t even be a “political opinion”. That is the truth.
Photo by Ayla Verschueren
With that said, I encourage you to read this attached article.
School boards, in particular, need to carefully consider what they are asking of girls — and whether they themselves would be comfortable doing the very things they expect girls to do.
The same people who demand privacy for themselves. ….
The same people who don’t want to see other people’s bodies …….unless they desire them….
…demand that little girls change in front of any little girl or boy that says some magic word.
Children deserve nice things like consent and boundaries too. They are people.
The school board is looking at “all of their options”. I like that because that is exactly what we want for girls. Options for safety to protect themselves from what they do not want to see and what they do not want seen.
Girls deserve safety and options too. Not coercion.
Power dynamics: School boards hold institutional power over children. When they demand tolerance of situations that compromise dignity, but then clutch their pearls when challenged, it shows an imbalance of who is expected to endure discomfort.
Mixed messages to children: Students are taught “respect others’ boundaries” in health or social lessons. But if boards ignore girls’ boundaries in locker rooms while being hyper-sensitive about their own reputations at public meetings, it teaches that adults’ feelings matter more than children’s safety.
This woman and I are around the same age. By now, we have accepted our lifetime residence in these bodies. Don’t like em, we don’t care.
But girls are a different story. They are just getting acquainted with their own bodies.
They deserve safe spaces at all times that protect them as they dramatically change, grow, and bloom.
The deeper issue
This isn’t only about one protest or one meeting—it’s about whether leaders apply the same principles of respect, privacy, and dignity consistently. Because all of the children deserve safety, protection, and support. Each and every single one. They are all deserving and special.
But, if adults claim offense at a bikini protest but can’t acknowledge why girls feel unsafe or exposed in locker rooms, the credibility gap is obvious. Girls are people too.