Thread by @shivanihdesai13

Here is a long #storytime #thread that has nothing to do with what you think it might:

So I was looking up someone's filmography on Wikipedia (like one does) and eventually found out he was on Sesame Street!

And I was excited because that's an amazing show that made my childhood what it was. So I was going down the rabbit hole that is Wiki, looking at the different cast members, loving the fact that the show is so diverse, when I thought to myself I can't believe it's still going on!

So I searched "why is Sesame Street..." I actually meant to type in "how is Sesame Street still making episodes," but when I typed in the "why" question, I accidentally clicked "why is Sesame Street bad." Only a couple credible sources actually popped up...

...but one of the first results was called "three reasons you shouldn't let your child watch Sesame Street." I read it, it was stupid. The article claimed that Sesame Street was biased against white people, focused more on multiculturalism than education...

...which is untrue, and understanding other people's cultures and knowing how to treat them nicely and respectfully is just as important, and "forced transsexualism." This is the article, and if you read the explanations for those reasons you can see how illogical...

...the reasoning is. returnofkings.com/70516/3-reason…

So I figured this is obviously some messed up right wing website, and I started looking through it. The sections that the website is divided into include masculinity and culture, which together on the same website sounds like a mess.

I clicked masculinity and found what I expected: articles about preserving one's masculinity, not being "pussies" and other sexist things towards men and women. I read one of the articles, titled "10 things I told my teenage son about women." At first the article seemed fine.

The author talked about how when he was younger he did not have a father figure to guide him through life, and neither did his father. He mentions having a wife who is an executive at a Fortune 500 company, calling her "beautiful, educated, stable, and successful..."

I thought, maybe not all of these are so bad? Wrong. The first tip is "don't date a girl who can fit into your jeans." A picture of an overweight woman is shown, and the explanation proceeds to fat shame women who are overweight.

The author also slut shames and makes fun of mental illnesses. Only a couple of the tips aren't offensive, instead useful, but many of them seem like they'll be helpful until you read the explanation for it.

The point of this very long thread is to say that the patriarchy exists, and it's fucking up the lives of men and women alike. It's to say that racism still exists, and those who deny it are the perpetrators.

So please don't listen to those who say that feminists are feminazis, who think that black lives don't matter, who believe immigrants are stealing our jobs and terrorizing the country.

Thanks for reading 😊