Self-Respect

“

If you are a woman, if you’re a person of colour, if you are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, if you are a person of size, if you are a person of intelligence, if you are a person of integrity, then you are considered a minority in this world.

…And it’s going to be really hard to find messages of self-love and support anywhere. Especially women’s and gay men’s culture. It’s all about how you have to look a certain way or else you’re worthless. You know when you look in the mirror and you think ‘oh, I’m so fat, I’m so old, I’m so ugly’, don’t you know, that’s not your authentic self? But that is billions upon billions of dollars of advertising, magazines, movies, billboards, all geared to make you feel shitty about yourself so that you will take your hard earned money and spend it at the mall on some turn-around creme that doesn’t turn around shit.

When you don’t have self-esteem you will hesitate before you do anything in your life. You will hesitate to go for the job you really wanna go for, you will hesitate to ask for a raise, you will hesitate to call yourself an American, you will hesitate to report a rape, you will hesitate to defend yourself when you are discriminated against because of your race, your sexuality, your size, your gender. You will hesitate to vote, you will hesitate to dream. For us to have self-esteem is truly an act of revolution and our revolution is long overdue.

”

—	Margaret Cho

I had read this and could not agree anymore than what was stated. I originally planned to do a video rant on my youtube but felt it to be more appropriate to write in a post. This life has so much negativity, sometimes for myself personally, I wish to join the Peace Corps, go to a country that most people read about, and live in a society that is primitive yet essentially happy in all respects and simplicity. Its weird seeing people around me, especially kids with all the latest gear, tech, etc and seeing how unhappy they still are yet knowing my family back home and in countries and places where they may not have access to these things still be happy is weird to me. Its funny how my parents came to this country for a "better" life yet are we really better living in a place that will only bring us down as human beings? Is it worth working and searching for a means to be able to buy a persons acceptance?

A revolution is certainly overdue...