By Kate Manne
If we cared about girls, we would not have bombed a girls’ elementary school, murdering hundreds.
If we cared about girls, Trump would not have declared war to distract us from the Epstein files and the missing documents containing evidence that he raped another thirteen year-old girl.
If we cared about girls, there would be no Epstein files. There would be no Epstein.
If we cared about girls, nobody would collude in the abuse of girls or cover up the crimes of others. And these crimes would be vanishingly rare, instead of frighteningly normal.
If we cared about girls, nobody who looked the other way would retain their position of power over girls when this was discovered.
If we cared about girls, trans girls would be cherished and affirmed and not policed, scapegoated, and bullied.
If we cared about girls, we would not erase queer girls. We would encourage them to be who they are and celebrate them unequivocally.
If we cared about girls, Black girls’ abuse and adultification and vulnerability to the school-to-prison pipeline would be a national priority rather than a largely forgotten problem.
If we cared about girls, we would not starve them.
If we cared about girls, we would not create the conditions where starving themselves can be rational, even a survival strategy.
If we cared about girls, we would embrace every one of their precious bodies, with no exceptions for size, shape, skin color, gender expression, or disability.
If we cared about girls, we would guarantee them a good education, regardless of their family income, race, learning differences, or disabilities.
If we cared about girls, we would recognize that the real story of the twentieth and twenty-first century is extraordinarily rapid gains in education for girls, as soon as they had even a semblance of equal opportunity.
If we cared about girls, we would not contemplate holding back every boy one year to restore male dominance in education.
If we cared about girls, we would teach boys to respect them. We would teach boys not to rape, not girls how not to be raped (NB: there is no way to teach this).
If we cared about girls, we would invest in girls’ sports, and not ask the Olympic champion Eileen Gu if her two silvers really represented the loss of two golds.
If we cared about girls, the gold medal-winning figure skater Alyssa Liu would always have been as gloriously free as she has fought to become today.
If we cared about girls, we would never force them to be pregnant.
If we cared about girls, menstrual products would be free and available in every restroom.
If we cared about girls, we would guarantee them access to safe, free, and guiltless abortions, along with top-notch health care and knowledge about their bodies.
If we cared about girls, we would know about their bodies. And we would believe them when they tell us about what they experience and how they are treated. Just as importantly, we would care about what they then tell us.
If we cared about girls, the world would be unimaginably different. And immeasurably better. For girls, first and foremost, and ultimately for all of us.
